M worry is that even with Brexit ‘done’ we won’t get voters back
Ex-MP says party credibility was hit
yDewsbury was a mill town
Asian British/Indian. Mainly they get along – but not always. In 1987, 26 white families protested after their children were allocated a school where nearly 90% of kids were Asian. Two years later BNP followers rioted with local Asians.
In 2005, Mohammad Sidique Khan plotted the July 7 attacks, which killed 52 people, from his Dewsbury home.
The UK’s youngest suicide bomber – Talha Asma, 17, who blew himself up in Syria in 2015 – came from the town.
But civic leaders in this smart, proud constituency with its Victorian town hall made of local Ashlar stone have worked hard to integrate communities.
Kirklees had an unemployment rate of 4.1% last year, similar to the national average. The town seems quiet for a midweek afternoon as shoppers walk past boarded-up and shuttered stores. Dewsbury Market opens four days a week and, like many towns, it has plenty of bookies, nail bars and charity shops.
While MPs’ majorities here are never big – even in Labour’s 1997 landslide it won the seat by 8,323 votes – the party must win here to be in government.
Ms Sherriff feared she would lose last year, and was sure of it as the 10pm exit poll dropped: “I remember a freezing Saturday knocking on three houses and meeting three ex-miners consecutively who were voting for Boris Johnson. The Tory message was effective. Like ‘Take Back Control’ they were saying ‘Get Brexit Done’. People were parroting it to me. It was a real low.”
One woman told her: “I voted Labour all my life but I am voting Conservative for Brexit – everybody round here is.”
Ms Sherriff said voters were “tired of what they saw as the prevarication and procrastination” over Brexit. She tore into Labour’s manifesto – “it seemed all
Paula hit ‘a real low’ on campaign trail over the place” – and said organisation was “a mess” with activists sent to seats the party had little hope of winning.
Optimists look at Britain’s EU departure and Mr Corbyn’s looming exit as reasons to be confident of a revival.
But Ms Sherriff warned: “It will get easier but it’s not a panacea. Some people voted Tory with a heavy heart. My worry is how we get them back.
“We can’t assume that with Brexit ‘done’ and Jeremy Corbyn gone that all these people are going to flock back.
“To win elections we need to convince people who didn’t vote for us last time to vote for us this time. We also need to look at why we are perceived to be unpatriotic and soft on crime. We need to be credible.”
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62, a retired British Telecom secretary, said it would be 10 years before she thinks of voting again as “they have just gone to pot”.
She added: “I voted Conservative the last two times because I couldn’t stand Jeremy Corbyn, he’s too anti-Semitic and too pro-immigration.
“I just don’t think he would have got Brexit done. Boris is daft but he’s OK.”
Pet shop volunteer Chaz Ward turned 18 after the election so could not vote.
She said: “Jeremy Corbyn was a better option. Boris is a bit too immature.
“If Labour continues to aim more at the younger generation I would probably vote Labour.”