On the high street in Stafford, which has become firmly Conservative “blue wall” territory in recent years, there was very little consensus among voters about who they were backing in Thursday’s local elections.
All 40 seats on Stafford borough council are up for grabs, and Labour is hoping a combination of anger over national political scandals and frustration over local issues could give it the advantage it needs to wrest overall control from its rivals.
But the view among voters on Tuesday was decidedly mixed. “This will be the first time I’ve not voted Tory in my life,” said Phil Howard, 75, a retired driver for GEC, once a major employer in the town. “This year is a totally different ballgame. Since the Boris Johnson affair it seems like the party have gone to pieces. Just look at immigration, cost of living, and even locally, the town feels dead. But I don’t know who I will vote for. All I know is it won’t be Tory.”
The leader of the Conservative-run council, Patrick Farrington, said the party was expecting to potentially lose some votes. “But if that happens, to whom will that swing go? I don’t see the Labour party making much of a dent from what I’ve heard on the ground,” he said, adding that the Green party and local independents could also gain.
The Tory party has had overall control of the council almost continuously since 2003, but Farrington said there was concern now about a potentially low turnout and how that could lead to close calls in some seats.
“This is my sixth election, and it’s a very strange environment that we’re in,” he said. “My door-knocking and canvassing and talking to people has revealed potentially some apathy from Conservative voters, but not necessarily support for other parties. I think generally people have what I would call political fatigue. They’re a bit fed up with politics.”
One voter from the village of Yarnfield outside Stafford, who asked not to be named, said she would not be voting Conservative this year as she had done in the past. “To be honest, where I live, they never do anything for us, we’re right out in the country. They push their posters through the door saying they’re doing this, they’re doing that, but it never gets done in our village. So this year I’m just not going to bother with it.”
A number of local issues are dominating the conversation in Stafford, including some resistance to proposals by Serco, on behalf of the Home Office, to turn a former university halls of residence on the outskirts of town into accommodation for 500 asylum seekers. The planning application was rejected by the borough council, but after an appeal by Serco is being considered at a planning inquiry later this month.
“There is a lot of opposition to that primarily because of its location. It’s near to two schools, the police headquarters. It’s just completely wrong for the area that it’s in,” said Farrington. “It’s been a hot topic on the doorstep in some areas.”
But according to Labour, issues such as the cost of living crisis, declining bus services and the need for more high street investment were much closer to the forefront of people’s minds.
“People are sad that we live in a country where we have to have warm spaces and food banks,” said Aidan Godfrey, the leader of the Labour group on the council. “Over the past few weeks of campaigning door to door we’ve picked up on lots of things we should have known about. I do get upset that people put up with things when they shouldn’t do – people who live in bedrooms covered in mould for example.”
He added: “Staffordshire at the moment is completely Conservative. That will change on Thursday, I’m absolutely convinced of that. I’m not saying it will suddenly turn red but there will be more of a Labour input in governance hopefully.”
Once defined by its shoemaking industry, Stafford now has an ageing population and pockets of deprivation and unemployment, and frustration about shuttered shops is widespread.
“Stafford is basically the centre of the local area. You can get to Birmingham, Stoke, Uttoxeter, everywhere through Stafford. The M6 goes directly through us. So why aren’t we thriving? We’ve got all the traffic, so what’s happening?” said Tom, 34, as he walked through the town centre with Dominika, 27.
Both said they would probably vote Labour on Thursday because of dissatisfaction with the Conservatives nationally and locally. “We need some new ideas, a new perspective. It feels like it’s become stagnant having the same people in power for so many years,” said Dominika.
