Have region’s Tory ‘Red Wall’ winners now got the blues?

THE results of the 2019 general election sent shockwaves through the region.

The foundations of the so-called ‘Red Wall’ were rocked when Conservatives clinched narrow victories in constituencies dominated by Labour for decades. The Tories took both seats in Bury and gained one more seat in Bolton by the tightest of margins, while winning comfortably in Leigh for the first time ever.

But 12 months into the job, some surveys have suggested support is declining.

The new MPs, many of whom were surprised themselves to be elected one year ago, have had to adapt to working in Westminster in the strangest of circumstances since the coronavirus crisis took hold early on in their career.

Bolton North East MP Mark Logan said: “No elected politician should take the goodwill of the people for granted. The people’s will is what put me here, and it can easily be ‘taketh away.’ 2020 has been a year unlike any other most of us have been through. And my constituents have been through more than most other parts of the country.

“I’ll never take the people’s backing for granted, and what Bolton needs now is a turbocharged economic recovery, whether that be though government support or private investment.

“The real work now begins.” Responding to recent research in ‘Red Wall’ seats for Channel 4 News which found Labour would win 36 of 45 seats the Tories gained in 2019, Leigh MP James Grundy described polls during a pandemic as ‘reasonably meaningless.’ But his Conservative colleagues concede Covid has caused some criticism.

Bury South MP Christian Wakeford says the Dominic Cummings ‘fiasco,’ in which the prime minister’s aide was accused of breaching government guidance with a trip to Barnard Castle, was a ‘deciding’ and ‘telling’ moment.

“The perception about it was one rule for the ‘political elite’ and one rule for everyone else,” he said. “The

MPs Mark Logan, Christian Wakeford and James Daly entire Barnard Castle thing became a massive joke.”

He added: “I think the general thought is with Covid, yes, we’ve got some things wrong. But most people get that with a global pandemic that’s constantly evolving, you’re going to make mistakes.

“There is a lot of sympathy out there, but we were already in a very polarised atmosphere previously and unfortunately, it’s become even more polarised. Every mistake is now a political choice as opposed to something you’ve realised in hindsight just wasn’t right.”

After three recounts on an ‘exhilarating’ election night, Bury North MP James Daly won by just 105 votes, the tightest margin of victory in the land. He said: “If I succeed in bringing more jobs, more businesses, more investment into Bury and get voted out in five years’ time, or whenever the next general election is, I will consider that a success. What happens to me is neither here nor there in the bigger scheme of things. What I hope people will judge me on is the nature of the person I am, the effort I put in and whether I can actually bring some positive outcomes to people locally.

“What happens to me on a personal level – I genuinely don’t think about that. What bothers me is unemployment. What bothers me is the hospitality industry on its knees. What bothers me is getting more money into public services in Bury.”