Over the past two months, the Labour candidate, Adrian Hughes, has knocked on more than 1,000 doors in Upper Gornal and Woodsetton in north Dudley before May’s local elections.
The most marginal ward in a historically marginal council, it was won by the Conservatives last year by 82 votes when there were five candidates on the ballot paper. This year there are only two options: red or blue.
Like many in his party, Hughes is optimistic that a combination of local grievances and growing anger over Partygate and the cost of living crisis could help turn the tide of Labour’s fortunes in the West Midlands town, after it lost 12 seats last May, giving the Conservatives a majority following a period of no overall control.
“We’re all starting to feel a bit of a momentum now. We’ve spoken to a lot of people so we’ve got a good idea of how voters are feeling and they’re angry,” said Hughes. “People are bringing up the Downing Street parties everywhere we go.
“I don’t know if we’ll claw everything back in one year, but I think we should see a significant improvement.”
Out campaigning the evening after news broke that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak had been issued with fixed-penalty notices, there was palpable anger among voters.
Ron Malkin, 87, said he was “very disappointed” that the prime minister had not been honest and owned up to his mistakes.
He has previously voted Conservative, but said he wasn’t sure how he would vote next month. “He could have come clean and told the truth but he didn’t,” he said of Johnson. “I would be surprised if they get in next time there’s a general election after all this.”
Susan Webb, a longtime Labour voter and retired civil servant, said she thought Labour had a better chance of winning in the area this time than it had had in a long time.
“I feel like the Conservatives have had their chance and failed miserably,” she said, adding that the Partygate scandal had “opened the door” for Labour votes.
Further down the street, a nurse returning from her shift said she had been listening to Johnson “denying he had ever lied” on the radio on her way home, something that particularly angered her after the sacrifices NHS workers had made throughout Covid.
Leaning out of a back door, her nextdoor neighbour said: “I think it is disgusting that they were having a party when we were all doing the right thing.”
Despite the apparent fury over the party scandal, Labour is under no illusions about the uphill battle to win back ground after the Tories took overall control of the council last year with 46 seats to Labour’s 24.
“There are some defending Labour councillors in other wards which we lost by 700 votes last year – that’s a lot of votes to win back,” said Hughes.
The local Conservatives are adamant they are on track to win more seats despite national turmoil within the party.
Partygate “might have an impact on a very small margin. But I think most people are sick to death of this particular story,” said the council leader, Patrick Harley. “Will we have the spectacular results that we had last May? It’s hard to predict. But I certainly think we’ll end up as being a larger group than what we are now.”
Dudley is often seen as a bellwether council, having swung between Labour and Conservative (often minority) control over the years. But Labour hasn’t had overall control since 2016, and all four MPs in Dudley are now Conservative.
According to Hughes, times are changing, particularly since the party’s change of leadership – Jeremy Corbyn was very unpopular in the area, he said. “There’s no anger on the doorstep towards us any more. Before, a lot of people in Dudley would tell you, if you went and knocked on doors it would get slammed in your face or people would be angry.”
Labour is also pushing hard on local issues, such as anger at the council spending £100,000 on sending nine employees to a conference in Cannes during a cost of living crisis – which Harley defended by insisting it would lead to millions of pounds of investment for the region.
Qadar Zada, the leader of Dudley Labour group, said Conservative party scandals were welcome news for Labour, but did not diminish the need for the party to present an appealing alternative.
“I came into politics to improve the lives of local people, not to capitalise on their sadness, their loss, their grief,” he said. “But having a failing Conservative government is good for Labour, in the sense that we can then put forward our agenda which is good for people.”
The deputy leader, Judy Foster, said: “We learned the lessons from last May. We immediately undertook a listening exercise and our manifesto is based on what people were telling us on the doorstep.”
In the neighbouring borough of Sandwell, hopes are not quite so high, and there is speculation that the Conservatives could make substantial gains off the back of recent council turmoil.
The Labour-run administration has been mired in scandal and misconduct allegations in recent years, and commissioners have been drafted in to run the authority.
The council has had six leaders in as many years and an audit last year found there had been a “breakdown in trust, respect and confidence” among governance.
And there are fears that an overall disillusionment with politicians could lead to a low turnout across the board in May. “People are annoyed about politics, and we can’t be complacent about that,” said Zada. “We need to make sure people come out to vote. And ultimately rebuild trust.”
