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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Ben Quinn

‘Extinction-level event’: Tories fear voters turning to Reform in Lincolnshire

Waltham and Hayes stand in the street as Brownlow stands speaking in his doorway with hands raised
Rob Waltham (centre), the Tory candidate to be mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, campaigning alongside the veteran Tory MP John Hayes (left), talk to Dominic Brownlow in West Deeping. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

On the gravel pathway of Aggie Chapman’s home in the village of West Deeping, a conversation about Lincolnshire’s upcoming elections suddenly shifted from opposition to a local quarry to worries about nuclear Armageddon.

“World politics is so frightening right now that it’s all very well worrying about what’s happening in our back garden – and yes we don’t want the quarry here – but it’s kind of insignificant if we end up going into world war three,” she told Conservative canvassers including the local MP, John Hayes. She mentioned the experience of her daughter, a nurse, during the pandemic as an example of global instability.

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