Tories scent blood in Blair and Mandelson heartlands
Conservative candidates are bullish about their chances in what was New Labour’s launchpad
THEY call it the chance to “bury New Labour”.
Sedgefield and Hartlepool, the former seats of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, lie about a dozen miles apart in County Durham. It was from here, the epicentre of the party’s North East stronghold, that the pair plotted the modernisation that swept Labour to power in 1997.
Other power-brokers around their cabinet table had seats nearby – Alan Milburn in Darlington; David Miliband in South Shields.
For the Tories, the constituencies have been effectively off the political map for generations. So certain were they to stay red that it was barely worth putting in a challenge. Until now.
“I was dubious when I saw the first few media reports,” says Dehenna Davison, the 23-year-old fighting Mr Blair’s old seat for the Conservatives. “But it’s so frequent. You talk to someone who says their parents voted Labour, they voted Labour, but they can’t bring themselves to do it today.”
Something remarkable is happening in the North East. Two years ago at the election Labour picked up 26 of 29 seats on offer and the party romped home with a 22-point lead over the Conservatives.
Look at the polls now and that lead has all but evaporated. A YouGov survey this week had Tory support jumping from 25 to 40 per cent in the region. Labour is now ahead by just two points. The sea change has not gone unnoticed in Tory HQ. Cabinet ministers are despatched to the area almost daily to push “Team Theresa”, while the Prime Minister herself picked Tynemouth, near Newcastle, for a speech savaging Labour for “deserting” the working classes.
For Ms Davison, a computer game
‘You often talk to someone who says their parents voted Labour, they voted Labour, but they can’t bring themselves to do it today’
in the North East. It has become a lot more acceptable for people to be openly voting Tory,” he says.
It is Brexit above all else which is driving voters towards Mrs May. Every area in the North East barring Newcastle voted to leave the EU, some by a margin of almost 2:1. However Labour – and many of its MPs seeking re-election – formally backed Remain. “Brexit cannot be underestimated as a massive issue in these strong Labour areas,” says Mr Houchen.
“With Brexit what we’re actually seeing is people realising that those representing them for decades are now just not in line with their views.” To make his point, Mr Houchen describes door knocks in Darlington, deep in traditional Labour heartlands. “We were going to what we thought were Labour supporting areas and... two things were happening. One is they were saying ‘I’m just not bothering [to vote]’. The second is they say ‘I quite like that Theresa, I’m voting for her’.
“It sounds like something I’m meant to say to the press. But I tell you, it is genuinely true.”
The story will be music to the ears of Mrs May and, if it is to be believed, June 8 couldco be the day that seals the lid on the New Labour coffin for good.