“Unfortunately,” the former Labour cabinet minister observed, Sir Keir Starmer “turns out to be a transitional figure — a nice man and a good human rights lawyer, but without political skills or antennae at the highest level.”
So wrote Andrew Adonis in The Times after his party was humiliated in the Hartlepool by-election, where in May 2021 the Conservatives captured the seat from Labour by the astounding margin of 15,529 votes to 8,584, the biggest swing to a governing party since the Second World War.
The then Conservative Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, went off to Hartlepool, on the coast of County Durham, to celebrate the amazing victory. Meanwhile Sir Keir went to the Leader of the Opposition’s office at Westminster, told aides that after such a devastating result he felt he would have to step down, and had to be persuaded by them to carry on.
On Tuesday of this week, ConHome went to Hartlepool to assess present opinion in the town, and set up a research station in the Ward Jackson pub, a large, friendly Wetherspoons where draught beer costs £1.99 a pint.
Outside the pub, a statue (pictured above) commemorates Ralph Ward Jackson (1806-1880), “Founder of this town and first MP”, as “a tribute of admiration for the enterprise and perseverance” with which he built the docks and railways on which Hartlepool’s modern prosperity was established.
Inside the pub, a middle-aged woman said when asked about the general election: “I’d rather not talk about it. It’s too depressing.”
But a moment or two later she added: “When it was Boris we changed over to Conservative and now we’re back to Labour.
“I worry about America having two dopey candidates, but I’m not sure we’re doing much better.
“I think if Boris was still in I’d vote for Boris, obviously. He was dopey but he was our dopey.
“I don’t want Keir Starmer starting to put flat caps on and pretend he’s something he isn’t.”
“We’re completely Labour now,” her companion, an older, frailer woman, insisted. “The Conservative girl’s been kicked out.”
Labour triumphed in the recent local elections in Hartlepool, defeating the Conservative-Independent coalition which had run the council since 2019, but the older woman appeared to be predicting defeat for Jill Mortimer, the by-election victor of 2021, who is standing again this time.
A man at the next table, a former Labour councillor, said: “I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as all that. He’s not that popular, Keir Starmer.
“He doesn’t come across as well as all that. I campaigned for Tony Blair [Sedgefield, Blair’s constituency, is a short distance inland]. He hasn’t got the charisma of Tony Blair.
“We all voted for Brexit [69.5 per cent of Hartlepudlians supported Leave in 2016], but Paul Williams [Labour candidate in the 2019 by-election] was not in favour of it.
“And why in the world did we elect someone like Jeremy Corbyn as our leader? That’s what did the damage to Labour. People could never vote for him.”
What about Rishi Sunak? “You can’t dislike him,” the former councillor replied. “He’s a personable sort of fellow. But we live in a different world to one of the wealthiest couples in the world.
“He’s certainly better than Boris Johnson. At least you can believe him.”
Paul Screeton, 78, formerly a journalist on The Hartlepool Mail and author of 13 books about folklore and other subjects, said: “Boris came here and was very, very popular.
“This is a staunch Labour seat but Boris I think to do with his boozing and womanising he chimed with the Hartlepool people. I thought he was one of the lads.
“Not that he chimed with my wife, I might add. She thinks he’s disgusting.
“The woman who got in, I can’t even remember her name, that’s how much impact she’s made in the constituency.
“I’m sick of getting stuff on the internet about this chap Jonathan Brash [the Labour candidate]. He’s doing things with his hands all the time like he’s at a séance. He’s just f—ing irritating.
“My wife, who also votes Conservative, says she’s heard he’s very good.
“I’ve voted all over the political spectrum but I’ve never voted for the Labour Party. I can’t bring myself to do it. The Labour Party is a party of envy. At the bottom of it it’s envy, envy, envy. People want something for nothing, basically.
“I come from the background if you want rewards, you’ve got to earn them.
“If you’re voting Conservative here you’re not going to have the cars and the wealth. I can only afford a week abroad a year.”
He pointed to a canvas bag he brought back from Monte Gordo in the Algarve.
“But I’m afraid I think Hartlepool will definitely become a Labour seat with a very, very big majority.”
A 28-year-old primary school teacher who is on half term, and was having a drink with a woman aged 38 who used to teach at the same school, said of Starmer: “He’s not great, but he’s better than the other option.
“It’s either him or the billionaire who’s going to go to California. He [Sunak] doesn’t have a clue what it’s like for the working class.
“He doesn’t have a clue what it’s like for the disadvantaged children we deal with every day.
“From a school perspective what the Tories have done to us, we’ve got a lot of budget cuts, the mental health facilities, you can tell we’ve been under the Tories for 14 years.”
Her friend said: “You can tell he’s really going after the grey vote. The National Service idea, if you don’t want to do it they will just fine you, so for the posh people it’s optional.”
The teacher said: “I used to work for the National Citizenship Service brought in by David Cameron for 16 to 18-year-olds. We raised money for charities, we went on outdoor residential courses, we were working in communities and people were learning things like how to budget. It already exists.”
The older woman said: “I did vote Tory, in those days it was a kind of protest vote. Now I’m voting Labour. I think they’ve changed. Labour have got some very impressive young candidates, young women politicians, they just know their constituencies.
“The biggest thing that’s turned me off is the Tories have imploded. They’ve killed themselves.
“They used to be ‘work hard and you will achieve, you will play a part in society, we’ll support people who work’. They’ve completely lost that.
“It used to be a middle middle-class party and now it’s upper middle-class, they’re so out of touch. Their curriculum for primary schools is honestly ridiculous, it’s barmy, they’re killing the love of learning, they’re massacring the love of learning.
“You’ll have seen the reports of mental health issues, it’s younger and younger children, it’s because of the pressure on children, they’re emotional sponges.
“However much you try to spare them, it’s not fun any more. That’s one reason why I left [the teaching profession]. Primary school should be fun. It shouldn’t be a doddle, but you shouldn’t have to work 72 hours a week.”
The younger teacher said: “We’ve got children waiting 24 months for an autism diagnosis. We’ve got children with special needs – we’re told there are no special needs schools for them.
“You’re just letting them down. You can’t look after them in a class of 31.”
The former teacher, who now works for a charity, said: “As a profession, our judgement is not trusted. You might as well not do a professional qualification as a teacher because nobody trusts you. It’s bizarre. In the charity sector my opinion matters.”
Her younger friend said in a sorrowful tone: “My Dad’s voting Reform because he doesn’t like the boats. That’s all he’s interested in.” Her father works as a security guard at one of the local ports.
A retired ship’s captain said: “There’s a deep underswell of racism which is only verbalised in the company of fellow Hartlepudlians, because there has been an influx of obvious migrants.
“This is a Labour stronghold, but some people will tell the pollsters one thing and then do something else. They clam up if there is a stranger in the vicinity.
“The people here are very polite. Everybody says sorry.
“Boris is very well-liked up here. They occasionally throw a brick at him, but they love the fact he was a character. Characters are very much appreciated up here. This area is full of characters.
“I believe that the advent of Trumpism, and what is also going on here, is about 30 per cent of the general population don’t have a clue, but we’re not allowed to remove them from the electoral register and we have to live with whatever foolish decisions they make.”
A pensioner who worked as a supermarket cleaner, and whose father worked in the shipyards Hartlepool used to have, said: “All these young ones today, they don’t give a shit, most of them are on tablets, they don’t drink.
“A good drinker, they used to fight all the time, but then you used to shake hands and the winner would buy the loser a pint.
“All these young ones carry knives. It’s too Americanised, carrying a knife, carrying a gun. If I had my way I’d fetch hanging back. It might teach some of them.
“The last time I’ve voted was Conservative. Normally I used to be Labour. It could be 50:50 this time, but I’ll probably still vote Conservative.”
Johnson, though Prime Minister since 2019, in May 2021 offered Hartlepudlians a chance to express their rebelliousness by voting Conservative, for they recognised in him a kindred spirit.
This time there is no well-known rebel candidate. Richard Tice, who stood in Hartlepool at the last general election and came a strong third with 10,603 votes, announced he would be standing there again this time, but recently decided he would rather stand in Boston and Skegness, and Reform has not yet replaced him.
So the likelihood is that Hartlepool will revert to its traditional Labour allegiance, but will do so in a provisional spirit. The fondness which many drinkers in the Ward Jackson expressed for Johnson suggests he has left a gap in British politics no one else has yet filled.
