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| Co-Founder of Southampton Independents Andrew Pope |
Southampton Independents was co-founded in 2017 by campaigner, organiser and activist Andrew Douglas Pope and Denise Wyatt, working with residents of Southampton who were fed up of the big political parties.
Here is a brief history of Andrew Pope's achievements as a campaigner in Southampton, in Somerset and nationally.
Persistence, experience and enthusiasm over 3 decades of achievement.
Conservation and Union Activism
Andrew Pope first got involved in campaigning in wildlife conservation when he joined and volunteered for the RSPB. He has also worked with the Wildlife Trusts and the Woodland Trust.
The Labour Years 2004 to 2015
In 2003, he became a union representative within a large multi-national company, and then a union negotiator for IT, HR and Finance workers. Working with other union reps and full-time officials, Andrew negotiated the harmonisation of over 100 terms and conditions of employment for 1,500 staff who had been recruited in mergers and acquisitions. Members accepted the changes.
Andrew joined the Labour Party in 2004, at a union event in Blackpool.
In 2005, he moved to Hampshire, and then Southampton for his work in IT in a large retail company, and became a health and safety representative and fire warden in his workplace.
Andrew became more involved with the Southampton and Romsey Labour Party, and also joined its sister party, the Co-operative Party. He also joined the Fabian Society.
Over time, Andrew served as the Chair of the local branch of the Co-operative Party and Secretary of the local Fabian Society.
Andrew co-founded Labour Friends of Football (LFoF), a campaign group of football supporters. He successfully led the campaign to make Premier League football clubs commit to pay at least the real living wage to all workers, as reported in local and national news including The Mirror. LFoF lobbied many MPs, and Andrew met at Parliament with the late anti-poverty campaigner Frank Field MP, who helped secure the Premier League living wage campaign.
Southampton City Councillor for 8 Years 2011 to 2019
Andrew first stood as a City Council candidate in May 2010, for the Freemantle ward of Southampton. He also worked on the successful 2010 General Election campaign for Alan Whitehead, the Labour MP.
On standing for a second time in May 2011, Andrew was elected to the Council for the Redbridge ward of Southampton.
He served two full four-year terms, being re-elected in 2015 and choosing not to stand again in 2019, moving to Somerset and forming Somerset Independents (see below).
Andrew led the campaign to gain compensation from Southern Electric for hundreds of households in the Millbrook and Maybush areas of Southampton, after power cuts at Christmas. He worked with Labour MP Alan Whitehead to put pressure on the company.
As shown in evidence presented to the House of Commons, Andrew led locally against blacklisting. He led the Labour Group in banning blacklisting firms from doing business with the Council.
He worked on the local campaign against payday loans companies and their extortionate interest rates, working with 2015 Southampton Itchen Labour Parliamentary Candidate Rowenna Davis.
Andrew worked with the Illegal Money Lending Team to tackle illegal loan sharks. He made sure the Council supported the local Solent Credit Union as an alternative lender and savings vehicle bank, and met with Labour MP Jonathan Reynolds at Labour Party Conference, to ask him to change the law to help people struggling with their finances.
Andrew co-ordinated the 2014 local election manifesto for Labour by working across the Labour Movement with Fabians, unions, party members, the Co-operative Party and listening very carefully to local residents' priorities.
Parliamentary Candidate Twice in 2015 and 2017
Andrew stood for Labour in the New Forest East constituency at the 2015 General Election. He successfully led the campaign to save two threatened pubs - the Anchor Inn at Eling and Fleur de Lys in Pilley.
Andrew and his team also saved a polling station at Calshot - St. George's Hall - from closure by the Conservatives on New Forest District Council. This would have meant people travelling all the way to Fawley to vote in person. Ten years later, the Hall has been refurbished, is still a polling station (Andrew made sure of no Tory back-sliding), and the two pubs are thriving.
Andrew resigned in disgust from the Labour Party in 2015, shortly after completing his Parliamentary Candidacy at the 2015 General Election. He wrote in local newspaper The Daily Echo and spoke on local BBC Radio Solent and national BBC 4 Radio "The World This Weekend" about the reasons why he had quit Labour and become an Independent councillor.
Southampton Independents Formed in 2017
In 2017, Andrew co-founded Southampton Independents. Since then, Southampton Independents had several successful campaigns, led by Andrew (click link for more details of his successes), including:
- forcing the Labour-run Southampton to install sprinklers in all Council tower blocks, after the Shirley Towers and Redbridge Towers fires.
- stopping the Labour-run Council from charging cars to use our roads, by calling for a Referendum.
- halting the disastrous Labour proposals for a failed "regeneration" of the Millbrook estates, having listened to local opposition and organised a campaign against it. Labour councillors were booed at the public meeting and the plans were cancelled.
- working across the Region with other independents and cross-party to stop the "Solent Devolution Deal" and demanding a Referendum on how democracy operates in the Solent area. Is the deal back from the dead though?
Andrew stood against the incumbent MP and his former employer Alan Whitehead, as the Southampton Independents candidate in the Southampton Test constituency at the 2017 General Election.
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| Andrew Pope with 2017 General Election board in Coxford |
Andrew was the Agent and organiser for Southampton Independents candidates at the 2018 Southampton City Council elections. The Redbridge ward candidate, Denise Wyatt, almost defeated the sitting Labour candidate, which would have meant that Labour lost its majority on the Council.
The other Southampton Independents candidate in Millbrook, took sufficient votes away from the Labour candidate who lost his seat, Mike Denness. Denness had previously been an Agent for Conservative Basingstoke MP Maria Miller.
Somerset Independents Formed in 2019
Having moved to Somerset, Andrew co-founded Somerset Independents with Denise Wyatt. During and after the global Covid-19 Pandemic, Andrew led several successful campaigns in Somerset, including exposing councillors who had failed to pay their council tax, corruption in Mendip District Council, and the failures of Somerton and Frome Conservative MP, the late David Warburton, to represent his constituents.
Independent Campaigner and Council Candidate
In 2022, Andrew moved back to Southampton.
He stood as an Independent candidate at the October 2024 Shirley ward by-election for Southampton City Council.
Andrew won his 7-year campaign for Safe Standing at St. Mary's Stadium, despite stubborn opposition from Southampton FC chairmen and directors.
Andrew won his 12-year-long campaign for a Park and Ride for Southampton. This started when he ran a Council inquiry into hospital transport, and he held successive hospital chief executives and senior managers to account and to keep their promises.
Andrew also worked with Portswood residents and businesses to kill off the "stupid" Portswood Broadway bus gate. He also successfully demanded that Labour's Cabinet Member for Transport was sacked for doing the Bus Gate anyway, after a sham consultation, despite massive local opposition and after a huge unnecessary waste of public money.
Persistence, experience and enthusiasm over 3 decades of achievement.
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| Andrew Pope speaking on BBC South Today |
