In Brexit Britain, even the moderates are angry. "We need to get back to fighting," says Bess Mayhew. "We have to be militant in our moderation." Mayhew, 30, is founder and acting CEO of "tech-driven political startup" More United, which is backing 49 candidates in today's election. Just don't call it a political party.
More United works by channeling crowdfunded contributions directly to candidates from any party who support its "progressive values" of diversity and tolerance. Mayhew launched the first campaign in November 2016 – less than a month later, More United had raised £274,164, almost three times its £100,000 target, with 8761 supporters pitching in average donations of around £35. Mayhew calls it "the largest political crowdfund in history". But before she had a chance to catch her breath, Theresa May called a snap general election.
For Mayhew, that meant not only starting another crowdfunding campaign – as of the start of this week, More United had raised over £220,000, putting it just short of half a million overall – but also, more crucially, picking candidates to support. Although political parties receive donations in the millions, individual MPs have a campaign spending limit of £15,000. "Five or ten thousand pounds can make the difference, especially in a tight race," Mayhew says. So who would get the benefit? Rewarding impeccable moderate credentials was one thing, but Mayhew was searching for something else. Post-Brexit, she wanted candidates who would win.
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More United began in the wake of the 2016 EU referendum, as a group of political liberals gathered to bemoan the turn events had taken. "Most people have I think open tolerant forward thinking views. And that's just getting drowned out by the kind of extreme thought on either side," says Mayhew. "We all felt that we needed to provide a central ballast in Parliament and the country," Mayhew recalls. "So a group of us got together and thought about how we could give people a large scale way of trying to influence that."
Former Liberal Democrat campaign and membership head Austin Rathe came up with the idea of crowdfunding - and Mayhew, who had been the party's head of digital communications, agreed to lead the campaign. The founding team also included former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown. So is More United a branch of the party? No, says Mayhew emphatically, citing the group's name, a reference to a line in the maiden parliamentary speech of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox: "We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us."
More United is on a winning streak. The four-person group's volunteers helped Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney win the Richmond Park by-election, before campaigning against UKIP leader Paul Nuttall in Stoke-on-Trent. "On the day we visited, we accounted for about a quarter of the total volunteers of the entire campaign," Mayhew says. But the general election is the first time More United has handed out funds directly. That meant evaluating candidates values – and, just as importantly, deciding if they could win.
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Using a range of national and local data, More United assesses where its money will make the biggest difference, before presenting its shortlist to a member vote. (Members comprise anyone who has given money.) The final list of candiates include Labour's Clive Lewis, the Green Party's Caroline Lucas and Liberal Democrat Vince Cable. But although Mayhew insists she's backing "people not parties," the list of 49 only includes one Conservative, Tory Remainer Anna Soubry, who's described in defensive terms on More United's website as a representative of "forward-looking and outspoken Conservatives, who are taking a stand against extreme views in their own party."
What happened to the other Conservatives? "None applied in our first round," says Mayhew, admitting some "were worried we're a secret anti-Tory movement." And UKIP, which has received no backing from More United? "I highly doubt they'd pass our selection process. Unfortunately, it appears most UKIP candidates values aren't in conjunction with More United."
People, not parties – but only people in the right parties. Sometimes, the political structure is less malleable than it seems.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
