The well-heeled shoppers strolling through the grand promenade and pleasure gardens of Cheltenham’s prosperous centre might be expected to offer Boris Johnson’s bruised government some desperately needed respite. But the mere mention of the prime minister’s name provokes a reception as frosty as the chill air sweeping the Cotswolds spa town.
Outside the House of Fraser department store, Chris Carter, 74, is fed up with the man he helped put into No 10. “I don’t like the bloke – I’m not happy,” says Carter, clutching some bags. “He is hiding lots of things. He’s only saying sorry when he’s caught out [over the parties in Downing Street], but there is more to come out. It’s not just parties – what else is he lying about?”
Carter, who has voted Conservative all his life, also worries about the other more devastating crisis that threatens the Tories’ electoral fortunes: the rising cost of living. The potential for the average household gas and electric bill to jump by £700 a year when the price cap changes in April is on his mind.
“It won’t affect rich people. Poorer people will be desperate. And people [like us] in the middle won’t get any help at all,” he says. “I couldn’t vote Labour; I would probably vote Liberal [if there was an election tomorrow].”
This will worry local and national Conservatives. Cheltenham is finely balanced between the Tories and the Lib Dems. The town was staunchly Liberal Democrat for 23 years until the Tories captured it in 2015. The current Conservative MP, Alex Chalk, whom Johnson appointed solicitor general, has a small majority of 981 votes. It would take a swing of less than 1% to turn it from blue to yellow.
Rising prices are not only eating away at people’s stagnating wages – they are eroding Tory support in the south, just as much as in former “red wall” seats in the Midlands and north. In an upmarket salon on the corner of two Regency terraces, one of the hairdressers, James Wellings, 41, is feeling the squeeze and tiring of the party he voted for in 2019.
“I’m a single dad. You really feel the pinch,” he explains as a customer waits patiently. “On the weeks I don’t have my son I go through the dregs of what’s in the freezer so at least I can get him some nice stuff when he stays with me. [My son] doesn’t ask to have things any more – he asks if we can afford things. He’s learned from me.”
Wellings is not sure who he would vote for now, but is leaning towards Labour. “I voted Conservative [in 2019] because I thought they were the best of a bad bunch. But am I impressed with the government? No. Am I happy with how they have dealt with things? No,” he says. “It’s frustrating when you have a prime minister who describes his salary [for writing a newspaper column when he was mayor of London] as ‘chicken feed’. They are out of touch.”
Even those planning to vote Conservative again struggle to find anything positive to say about the PM. William Mortimer Moore, an author and landlord, remarks: “I never liked Boris. He’s a bit seat of the pants, he wouldn’t necessarily tell the truth, takes liberties, messy personal life.”
Away from the tourists and moneyed shoppers, there is another, poorer side of Cheltenham. Here low wages, inadequate benefits and rising costs are pushing many into debt and drastic cutbacks to make ends meet.
Anne Crockard, 62, who earns the minimum wage as a healthcare assistant, fears she will not be able to retire. “They need to put wages up. I’m working more hours than I have ever worked. I do 48-50 hours a week,” she says. “It’s hard work. It’s not good for me any more – hoisting up old people. I’ve got a bad back. But I have to do the hours to pay the rent and the bills. It’s horrendous.”
Crockard, who voted for Johnson’s Conservatives in the last election, is not convinced by any of the leaders yet. “[Johnson’s] let the side down. But who are we going to choose next?”
Jade Brock, 25, who cares for her two children and works part-time as a shop assistant, has ended up in rent arrears. “My food shop used to be £60 – now it’s £100. My weekly energy costs have gone from £20 to £40,” she adds, after listening to Crockard. “I’m in arrears. I want to get out of it but I can’t do more hours because I’ve got two kids.”
Gregory Orchard, 29, cannot move out of home even though he is working full time in a DIY store. “It’s depressing – I just try to struggle on through,” he says. His family often can’t afford to turn the heating on and fear the coming increase in energy bills. “We’ve never got the heating on. We can’t afford to. We sit there with three of four layers on,” he says.
His friend, Jemma Ward, 29, who gets a carer’s allowance, puts her four children first, which increasingly means she goes without. “The first priority is them,” she says. “It does get you down because you are hungry and you’ve got no energy to look after them, but you have to keep going.”
