A working class zero
PM’s hollow plea for Labour heartland votes Campaign launch in hall Tories tried to axe She drops party name from battle bus
THERESA May was red-faced as she launched a bid to win Northern voters – at a community centre the Tories had tried to close down.
The Prime Minister swooped into Linskill Centre, in Tynemouth, Tyne and Wear, in an effort to appeal to “patriotic” working class voters who have backed Labour for decades.
But the blundering Tory picked a venue which the local Conservative mayor had tried to shut down 13 years earlier in a bid to cut costs.
Mrs May also attempted to distance herself from her own party by largely avoiding using the word “Conservative” during her speech and emblazoning her name on the side of her bus, rather than that of her party.
Labour’s Alan Campbell, who is defending a 8,240 majority, said: “Just over a decade ago, the Tory mayor tried her best to close the centre, throwing out vulnerable community groups and taking away a valuable community asset.
“The centre was only saved by a massive community campaign, supported by the Labour Party.
“What this does is remind people how destructive Tory policies have been in our area and shows why people need to vote Labour on June 8.”
Mrs May’s Northern speech revealed her desperation to overturn decades of Labour loyalty in the North East.
Speaking to 150 mainly-elderly Tory supporters, many of whom were invited by the party to attend, she said: “I have been reaching out to those who have been abandoned by Jeremy Corbyn and let down by government for too long.”
And she claimed Labour candidates were “disowning” their party leader who has “deserted proud and patriotic working class people” and “abandoned” lifelong Labour voters.
A 20-strong group of protesters waving EU flags and holding placards saying “Frack off May” and “She’s lying to you” greeted the PM yesterday.
The Mirror Chicken hounded flapping Mrs May again, clucking in protest against her ongoing refusal to face Mr Corbyn in head-to-head TV debates.
And the cunning Mirror Fox was also on hand to highlight the PM’s bloody plot to bring back hunting with dogs.
The party’s election battle bus – which aides have been ordered to call a “campaign coach” – has been stripped of almost all Conservative branding, with the word and logo banished to the back end of the vehicle.
The slogan on the side reads: “Theresa May for Britain: Strong Stable Leadership in the National Interest”,followed by the PM’s signature.
However, last night, the bus was revealed to be a repainted version of the EU Remain bus. The rebranded vehicle, given away by its registration number, was last year used by the official, David Cameron-backed “In” campaign.
It has now undergone the transformation to carry Mrs May, who quietly supported Remain before the EU vote, but is now a committed Brexiteer.
Realising the poisonous Tory brand still alienates millions of working class voters, Mrs May, who in 2002 warned activists the Conservatives were seen as