Is wind of change blowing through hardy Hartlepool?
EVEN on the sunniest days a fresh breeze sweeping in from the North Sea dominates the Hartlepool climate.
As the north east town went to the polls yesterday to vote in a new MP, it felt as if a political wind of change was sending chills though its remaining Labour supporters.
After decades of “being taken for granted” as a safe Labour seat the people appeared to have decided en masse to welcome Boris Johnson’s bright blue wrecking ball as it smashes through what was one of the foundation blocks of the red wall.
Hartlepool has been fiercely Labour for six decades. But yesterday even former miners carrying the battle scars of their run-ins with Margaret Thatcher, say they have turned Tory.
Dramatic
And so this morning it is expected that Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer, a farmer and North Yorkshire councillor, will be heading to Westminster.
She would join MPs from fellow North East constituencies – Bishop Auckland, Blyth Valley, Darlington, Sedgefield and North West Durham – on the Government side of the House
Yesterday the only danger to a romping Tory victory appeared to be voter apathy – with just a tiny handful of people entering the town’s central polling station during a two-hour lunchtime window.
In contrast, the queue to collect benefits snaked round the street. It is the promise of northern powerhouse revolution bringing a bounty of new jobs
that has supercharged the dramatic switch from red to blue.
Derek Wilson, 79, worked at Blackhall Colliery and voted Labour all his life – until 2019.
He said: “All the time I voted Labour nothing changed.
“It was Mr Corbyn who finally helped turn my head. To my mind he was a communist.
“Boris has got my trust, he has delivered Brexit and is doing a really good job.”
Wife Anne, 79, a life-long Labour supporter pointed to the run-down high street as evidence of the party’s failings, but brushed aside the scandal over the PM’s financing of his luxury Downing Street decor.
She said: “It’s nothing to do with us how he does up his house.”
However, student Annabelle Jollands, 22, says she will vote Labour while her parents, who both work for the NHS, are voting Conservative.
She said: “People here are being hoodwinked by Boris Johnson.
“They are voting for him because they think he is funny and a bit of a laugh.”
Fruit and veg market trader Tom Fitzpatrick, 61, takes a different view.
He said: “I look at the fantastic job Boris has done during the pandemic and don’t care about what he does to his flat.
“If we get a Tory MP he needs to bring highly paid jobs to the area – not just to Manchester and Leeds but to places like Hartlepool.”
Joanne Cope, 42, said: “Boris is great but he needs to sort out his hair – give it a brush.
“But he needs to do more – I’d love him to be more like Trump and make Britain great again.”