If they were cars, the Labour party would be a clapped-out old banger on bricks, the Tories would be a Rolls-Royce “mowing down the poor”, and Ukip would be a St George’s Cross-adorned tank “fighting for the people”. The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, were likened to a bicycle.
This is according to a group of 10 Stoke Central residents who voted Labour in the 2015 general election and gathered in a hotel in the constituency to take part in a focus group organised by BritainThinks for the Guardian.
The participants were aged between 35 and 55, white and, broadly speaking, from what pollsters refer to as social grades C1 and C2, meaning lower middle class and skilled working class. They are exactly the type of traditional Labour voters Ukip is trying to woo.
Of the 10 people invited to share their thoughts, three were clear that they would vote Ukip in Thursday’s byelection. Two said they would vote for Labour reluctantly (“because I always have done”), and only one said they would do so with enthusiasm. The remaining four were undecided, with one saying they were probably more likely to vote Labour than Ukip.
As the byelection in Stoke was reaching its final days, the group seemed unsure of what to make of questions surrounding Ukip candidate Paul Nuttall’s disputed claim to have been at Hillsborough on the day of the 1989 disaster and admission that claims on his website that he had lost close friends there were untrue.
“There’s no need to say something like that [about Hillsborough] around here,” said John, 48, a bus driver. “This isn’t Liverpool.”
They all seemed generally mistrustful of negative reports surrounding the Ukip leader. “I just don’t know what to believe,” said Pete, 35, a team leader. Janet, 50, a factory worker, said the Ukip leader had been treated unfairly by the media and all agreed that he was the candidate they would be most likely to have a pint with.
The group was less ambiguous about comments made by the Labour candidate Gareth Snell, who described the panelists on ITV’s Loose Women as “squabbling sour-faced ladies” and a woman on The Apprentice as a “speccy blonde girl”.
“He’s the one who says negative comments about women on TV and doesn’t like Janet Street-Porter,” said garage-owner Jamie, 48, when the group was shown a photo of Snell. (Snell described Porter as a “polished turd”.) “You can’t make flippant sexist comments and not have some sort of backlash from it,” said Lisa, a 38-year-old student.
Although they agreed that the outcome of the byelection was unlikely to stall what they saw as the decline of the local area (“The Taliban could get in and nothing would change around here,” said Janet), they all agreed that a Ukip win would have an impact on a national level as it would force people to listen to the area’s concerns.
Stoke was nicknamed Britain’s Brexit capital last year, when 70% voted to leave the EU. Physiotherapist Jason, 45, who is a fan of Jeremy Corbyn, said the high leave vote came in part because of the high levels of immigration to Stoke, and described the area as “a post-industrial wasteland”.
Although, none of the group said they disliked Corbyn, only two people had anything positive to say about him.
Lisa was impressed when the Labour leader resisted calls on him to resign last summer. “I thought that showed real strength of character,” she said.
Feelings towards Theresa May were generally positive, with some describing her as “British” and “strong”. “She didn’t want us to come out [of the EU], but the country voted for it and she’s doing what she’s got to do,” said Janet.
Asked to draw a car that summed up the Labour party, the group produced sketches of clapped-out old bangers, variously on bricks, or in one case with a steering wheel at each end “because they don’t know which way they’re going”.
The Tory party was likened to a Rolls-Royce or limousine, with the passengers drinking champagne and “mowing down the poor”.
The drawings of vehicles that represented Ukip all included either the St George’s Cross or the union flag – and in one case a union flag on top of a swastika “because I’m not sure what to think of them”.
One group drew a tank. “It’s a loud and brash killing machine,” said one man. “Hopefully it gets some results by being a bit more aggressive and doing what the people want and fighting for the people.”
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