On the eve of Labour’s 1997 landslide, Tony Blair told voters in his Sedgefield constituency the country had “24 hours to save the NHS”.
It was a devastatingly effective campaign and that year, Blair recorded a majority in excess of 25,000.
Labour has held the County Durham seat, comprised of former coal communities, leafy rural villages and industrial estates, since 1935. But in 2019, the pro-Leave area is a brick in the so-called “red wall” of
Labour strongholds in Tory leader Boris Johnson’s sights and Blair’s successor, Phil Wilson, is struggling to cling on.
Some 60% of voters here backed
Brexit and as a leading light of the campaign for a second EU referendum, the incumbent is now a Marmite figure locally.
But with both
Jeremy Corbyn and
Boris Johnson widely disliked by the public, the fight for the symbolic seat is expected to go down to the wire.
Wilson and his Tory challenger, retired accountant Paul Howell, will spend the final day of the campaign focusing on the area’s largest settlement, Newton Aycliffe, where most voters told HuffPost
UK they still had not made up their mind. Sharon Orchard, a 63-year-old carer, was with her daughter in the high street.
Usually a Conservative voter, she backed Remain in 2016 and is now undecided on who to back. She will cast her ballot on Thursday but her mind may not be made up until she closes the curtain of the voting booth.
“I really do not trust anybody and do not know what to believe,” she said. “This is such a huge and important
election and I’m so scared that I won’t get it right.
“I want to be able to use my vote. I’m so scared that the Conservatives are lying about the NHS but I don’t know what to believe about the Labour manifesto.
“It is the first time in my life that I am totally confused about who to vote for.” Although she voted Tory when Blair was in power, she remembers his tenure relatively fondly.
“I know he told lies when it came to the war but I didn’t feel insecure when he was in power,” she said. “Today, I feel scared about the future.”
Foster mother and ex-Labour voter Michelle Muir was more certain about where to place her cross.
The 49-year-old said: “I’m voting for Boris Johnson because I want Brexit and for us to be out of the EU. I want it sorted.” Thank you @InstituteGC, three times Election winner and @UKLabour‘s longest serving Prime Minister, for such a warm endorsement during this critical election. #GE2019pic.twitter.com/BnegFvyEjY— Vote Phil Wilson for Sedgefield Dec 2019 (@VotePhilWilson) November 29, 2019She is disappointed in the last Labour government and claims it did little for the area.
“I thought Blair would have done better for us than he did,” the grandmother said. “But when it comes to Jeremy Corbyn, I just don’t think he is the man to lead us through this time.
“He can’t give us a straight answer on Brexit.”
Young mother Danielle Cairns, 25, meanwhile, said she would back Labour, despite Corbyn holding little appeal for her.
“Labour are for working-class people and I don’t trust Boris Johnson,” she said.
John Pepper, a 74-year-old former steelworker, was also undecided, but was leaning towards Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party or Johnson.
“But it all depends on what happens today,” he added. “I’ll listen to what they say and I think it will go right down to the wire.”
Howell, from the local ex-pit village of Ferryhill, has made several appeals for the Brexit Party to stand aside in recent weeks, but is nonetheless “optimistic” he will emerge victorious. He said Wilson – whose majority at the 2017 election was little more than 6,000 – being a “prime mover” in the push for a second
referendum had damaged Labour.
“People tell me that he isn’t listening to them,” he said. “From my point of view, you have substantially more people now who are willing to cross the rubicon and support the Conservatives.”
Farage has held rallies in the constituency but polls suggests the seat is out of reach for the Brexit Party, despite its chair Richard Tice standing in neighbouring seat Hartlepool.
“He is misleading people saying it is a three-horse race – it is between Labour and Tory,” said Howell. “I am extraordinarily optimistic we can win but I don’t think the Brexit Party are helping me.”
The seat will be a key indicator of whether Farage takes votes from Labour or Tories in the north. Despite standing down candidates in 317 seats, he refused to step aside in Labour Leave areas.
Wilson, meanwhile, has kept Corbyn off campaign literature and has concentrated his push for re-election on the NHS.
He also points to supportive tweets from his rival Lib Dem candidate, which appear to back him, which came as calls intensify for Remainers to vote tactically. I have campaigned along side @VotePhilWilson to #StopBrexit and I have the deepest respect for the courage he's shown in speaking out for what he genuinely believes to be the best for #Sedgefield & the #NorthEast#moreincommon#GE19https://t.co/cacj1cqlZT— Dawn Welsh🕷🔶️🌿Green Lib Dem🌿🔶️#FBPE (@DawnWelsh5) December 1, 2019“Jeremy Corbyn may be a problem here but there is no love for Boris Johnson either,” he said. “This is the fifth election I have fought in Sedgefield and I don’t take any votes for granted, but we are optimistic as well.
“We are focusing on the issues that matter to the constituency. People have not forgotten about austerity and the fact that the Tories have been in power for nine years.”
With just hours to go before polling stations open and a furious digital campaign fought online between the parties drawing to a close, it won’t be long before the people’s verdict is delivered.
One thing is certain: no candidate is getting a majority anything close to Tony Blair’s. Related... Jeremy Corbyn's
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