North is key to victory in polls battle
THE GENERAL Election secured by Boris Johnson last week will see party leaders travel the length and breadth of the country – politicians will don hi-vis jacket in miscellaneous factories, pose with confused schoolchildren, and be photographed at hospitals they had never previously heard of.
But the real battle will be held in the North, and could paint the picture of what the impact will be in the rest of the country.
Already the Tories have drawn up a list of 40 key seats they want to pour resources into, and they are mainly those in the North and Midlands which have large working class populations and small Labour majorities.
And West Yorkshire will be one of the key battlegrounds, with eyes firmly fixed during the all-important count.
Halifax has been seen as a key seat in recent elections, with David Cameron and Theresa May both choosing to launch their campaigns in the town.
Labour candidate Holly
Lynch currently has a small majority, having taken 36.7 per cent of the vote in 2017, as does Conservative candidate Craig Whittaker in the neighbouring Calder Valley seat, who won with 36.4 per cent of the vote two years ago.
Labour candidates Yvette Cooper and Mary Creagh have both been strong critics of Brexit, so will be hoping there is no backlash when voters go to the polls in their constituencies of Pontefract and Castleford and Wakefield respectively.
Tracy Brabin has a majority of around 9,000 in her Batley and Spen constituency for Labour, while Paula Sherriff holds a majority of just over 3,000 in neighbouring Dewsbury, also for Labour.
Meanwhile, Morley and Outwood candidate Andrea Jenkyns will be aiming to defend her 2,104 majority.
But this election won’t just be about party politics, but about Brexit, and it is no surprise that many of the towns on Johnson’s target list are Leave voting. It also won’t escape the eagle-eyed that many of those places have benefitted from the Government’s £3.6bn towns fund earlier this year. The PM previously dismissed this was an electioneering tactic.
This election won’t just be about party politics, but about Brexit, and it’s no surprise that many towns on Johnson’s target list are Leave voting.
Think tank Onward also recognised rugby-league towns in the North would be where this battle is fought. But I’m not convinced by the reductionist assumption these towns are filled to the brim with a typically older, white, nongraduate male voter.
If pollsters and politicians took the time to visit Northern towns which haven’t just been left behind, but held back, they would find that there is also pride, innovation, and cosmopolitanism that would surprise them.
But if you do look at that voter they’ve described, you’re more likely to find someone who voted Labour all their life, but could never vote Tory, so if anything their vote would go to the Brexit Party.
Also at play, however, are the young Tories in Yorkshire, who are making their names and campaigns known loudly.
Onward are right that those areas are where the election will be decided though, as the two major parties come so close, with the smaller parties splitting the difference. And Onward is also right that it will take more than appealing to Brexit voters, it will not be enough to flatter those in the North to vote for the Tories.