Our new Labour leader needs to tell hard truth ..and we have to listen
All Conditions All Ages All Destinations
Emma Reynolds
OFF BASE PRICE
Labour’s leadership hopefuls descend on Dudley, West Mids, on Sunday for the Mirror’s hustings. There they will set out their plans for recapturing the party’s heartlands. On the fifth and final day of the Mirror’s tour of “Red Wall” seats across the North and Midlands, Deputy Political Editor visits nearby Wolverhampton North East, which turned Blue in December.
When a loyal Labour voter asked Emma Reynolds about her newborn baby in one breath and confessed they would not vote for her in the next, the sitting MP knew she would lose.
Ms Reynolds won Wolverhampton North East with a 2,484 majority in 2010, doubling that five years later.
But in December, Tory Jane Stevenson seized the seat by 4,080 votes, demolishing yet more of the Red Wall.
Speaking to the Mirror,
Ms Reynolds recalled: “I had a particularly bad campaign session one Friday in an area that’s usually strong for us.
“Looking back, that’s when I realised we were probably going to lose.”
Ms Reynolds, who had given birth to her second child over the summer, found Labour loyalists deserting the party in their droves.
She said they “were either very aggressively against us – slamming the door in our face and saying, ‘No way’ – or saying, ‘Oooh, how’s your second baby? I don’t think I can vote for you.”
Her old seat sits on the edge of Wolverhampton city centre, with her abandoned constituency office at the
EMMA REYNOLDS ON LABOUR VOTERS’ FURY
Wolverhampton, which Labour lost to the Tories heart of the patch, in Oxley. Businesses include two Chinese takeaways, three bookies and four off-licences. Many shop fronts are shuttered.
Few local people thought Jeremy Corbyn would change things for the better, Ms Reynolds said.
They displayed a “dislike” and “deep distrust” of the Labour leader, she recalled.
“They didn’t trust him on the economy. We said we would throw money around and people thought that was a recipe for disaster.”
Ahead of the Mirror hustings in Dudley, the former MP urged the party not to back a “continuity Corbyn” candidate.
“That would be a disaster and could be the end of the party,” Ms Reynolds warned.
Instead, the next leader must “show they are listening on controversial issues” such as immigration, she added.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do and the next leader firstly has to change the party. “Whoever it is has got to tell some hard truths to the party
– and the party’s got to be able to listen.”
■ If you have a question for candidates at the hustings, email it to community@mirror.co.uk
SHOPPERS in Oxley explain why they did not vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour…
Retired bricklayer John O’Connor, 72, said: “The best party got in – I voted for their principles.
“Boris is OK, he’s downto-earth. Jeremy Corbyn made a few mistakes but he wasn’t the only person who spoke to the IRA, yet that went against him.”
Unemployed hairdresser Nathan Lawrence, 40, said: “I’ve never voted in any general election and now I won’t ever do so.
“I made the biggest mistake of my life – I voted for Brexit.
“They told me that my NHS was going to get £350million extra.
“I feel cheated, I feel lied to. I have lived here all my life and my backyard has become a UKIP heartland. I’m disgusted.”
Brexiteer James Dell, 60, a retired builder, said voting Conservative was “the only sensible thing”. He said: “Labour stood no chance of because of their views on Brexit, their incompetence on Brexit, their division on Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn was just ridiculous, far too left.”
His wife Evelyn Dell, 49, a retired businesswoman, who also backed the Tories, added: “I couldn’t vote Jeremy Corbyn because of the anti-Semitism thing.”
Linda Wilding, 66, a retired bookies worker, voted Tory over immigration.
She said: “I like Boris Johnson, he talks sense, I don’t think Jeremy Corbyn has a clue.”
Student Marnie Wilding, 20, missed out on voting after a long day in college, but felt Labour would have done more to help the worst off. She said: “I’m definitely going to vote next time and I will vote Labour.”
They were slamming doors and saying ‘No way’.