• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
  • Guest Content
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Batley and Spen: The circus has arrived

"Nobody’s been interested in this area, and all of a sudden all these politicians are saying ‘we care, we care!’. And we’re all just like, ‘yeah, of course you do’."

Henry Goodwin by Henry Goodwin
2021-06-30 11:38
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

“He’s everywhere.” 

Mustafa, a cab driver, knows there’s an election coming up. He’s not sure why, or when. But he does know one thing: George Galloway is standing. 

“This guy, he’s dominated everything,” Mustafa tells me. “He’s the only candidate I’ve seen. This is the man I’d choose.”

With Yorkshire’s rolling hills its backdrop and cobbled streets its stage, the circus has come to Batley and Spen. 

The centre of Britain’s political universe

In the last few weeks this small town, some fifteen minutes from Leeds by train, has seen itself transformed into the centre of Britain’s political universe, as voters decide who will replace Labour’s Tracy Brabin as their new MP.

Galloway, arguably Britain’s most incendiary political character, is a big reason why. The Workers Party of Britain candidate and pro-Palestine campaigner, who handed Labour a shock defeat in nearby Bradford West in 2012, has had a seismic impact on this race.

From his campaign headquarters, an old high street pub made available to him free of charge, Galloway – more often seen on Russian state TV these days – seems to have bent this election to his will. He has a large team of volunteers, many of them from Batley’s large south Asian population, knocking on doors and canvassing. Posters and banners of Galloway – trademark fedora still in place, eyes still piercingly blue – outnumber those of his opponents.

His presence in the race has thrust foreign policy issues like Gaza and Kashmir – which one senses Labour would rather have ignored – thrust front-and-centre. Polling commissioned by the Labour Muslim Network shows Muslim support for Labour crumbling. Galloway – determined to attack Starmer from the left – has capitalised.

Tension

But his candidacy has also unleashed significant tension in a constituency with a tragic history of political violence. By-elections near-always bring brouhaha, but it’s tough to remember a more toxic race than this one.

RelatedPosts

‘Scotland is a European nation’: Humza Yousaf calls for return to the EU

Afghan refugees ‘to be evicted from hotels’

Lee Anderson says he will never give money to homeless again after chip and pin incident

Sunak called out for misleading Parliament

At the weekend, Labour activists were punched, kicked and pelted with eggs. Police are investigating. Kim Leadbeater, Labour’s candidate and the sister of Jo Cox, the murdered Batley MP, has been abused in the street. 

From the outside, Batley has become a by-word for something quite existential: a battle of civil, honourable politics against bigotry and dirty tricks. It’s taken on new meaning for Starmer too, with his party’s performance on Thursday an acid test on his embattled leadership.

But beyond the turmoil, there’s a much more universal story to be told in Batley: of communities which have seen their services gutted, their places neglected and their plight overlooked.

In a number of conversations with voters across the constituency, the overwhelming impression was of a people disillusioned with politics, contemptuous of politicians, and doubtful of the notion that electing a new MP might change anything at all.

“We feel abandoned”

“We feel abandoned,” says Anita Atkins, the 58-year-old owner of an antiques store in Birstall. Her constituency is one of many battered by austerity across the last decade. Batley and Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court was shuttered in 2012, the local A&E was downgraded in 2017 and, a year later, Batley police station was closed.

“They’ve just cut back on everything,” Atkins, who intends to spoil her ballot on Thursday, laments. “When I first lived here, we had a Citizens’ Advice Bureau in Batley – that’s gone. The police have moved out. Everything that we used to have, bit-by-bit, is going. It’s like living in the Wild West.”

Her disenchantment is shared across the constituency. In Heckmondwike, where Leadbeater and Cox grew up, banners of a fedora-clad Galloway proclaiming that he will “fight” for the town’s “fair share” overlook the main road. He has his work cut out.

“If you don’t work you’re shafted, if you do work you’re shafted,” one bartender at a local pub, who declined to give her name but said she won’t be voting on Thursday, told me. “At the end of the day, you’re still poor.”

Scepticism

Life expectancy in Batley is below the national average, and research published by the End Child Poverty coalition in 2019 found that 11,000 children are living in poverty in the area. The situation has been exacerbated by the pandemic; benefits claimants skyrocketed by 71 per cent between March 2020 and 2021.

There is understandable scepticism about the ability of politicians to do anything about it. Brabin, a former star Coronation Street, was re-elected twice after succeeding Cox in 2016 – but doesn’t seem to have endeared herself much to constituents.

“Most people haven’t been happy at all with Tracy Brabin, because she doesn’t answer messages,” Atkins says. “She just doesn’t seem to care at all. I’m quite happy she’s moved on.”

As for the cast of politicians seeking to replace Brabin, she is unimpressed. “It’s just like a circus. Nobody’s been interested in this area, and all of a sudden all these politicians are saying ‘we care, we care!’. And we’re all just like, ‘yeah, of course you do’. When they move on, what happens?”

It’s an interesting quirk of this particular race that even Leadbeater – a local candidate with a deeply compelling story – isn’t viewed as anything other than more of the same. 

Some voters even expressed their anger with her selection for the seat, with one man describing it as “patronising” and suggesting Labour is chasing the “sympathy vote” by choosing Cox’s sister. He plans to vote for Galloway, because “he’s the only one I haven’t been able to see through yet.”

Austerity

But perhaps a bigger issue for Labour is that the party is bearing the brunt of voters’ outrage for the impacts of austerity in the constituency, despite more than a decade of Conservative government. Rather than Boris Johnson, local ire seems to be directed at Labour-controlled Kirklees council.

“The streets are absolutely littered. Batley Park used to be beautiful, now there’s disgusting litter everywhere,” Atkins says. “If a council can’t even keep its streets clean, what chance have they got of resolving any other important issues? We pay taxes to the Kirklees council; I don’t think it’s Boris Johnson’s fault that the council isn’t looking after its streets.”

That Labour, out of power for over a decade, is still seen as the source of a local community’s struggle should concern Starmer. It’s not Leadbeater’s fault. As likeable and charismatic as she is, she has been unable to articulate a message or vision in this race beyond decrying the division or Galloway and calling on voters to unite and elect someone local. There’s a simple reason for that: there doesn’t seem to be one. 

That is a significant factor in why Batley’s next MP is, for the first time since 1997, unlikely to sit on the opposition benches. The Conservative candidate, Ryan Stephenson, has been almost entirely absent from the guts of this election, sitting on the sidelines, poised to stroll to victory.

This is not, as some have suggested it should be, a cue to lambast Galloway for splitting the Labour vote. Nor is it setting the stage to frame all those who cast their ballot for Galloway over Leadbeater as misguided bigots. Far from it. 

While Galloway has been, in many ways, the story of this by-election, the real political issue for Labour is why he’s become the story – and that is as much to do with the uncertain direction of the party as it is the rabble-rousing extremist exploiting that indecision.

Ultimately, when the circus moves on, the residents of Batley and Spen will remain. And none of them I spoke to seriously believed that any MP – red, blue or bizarre – will change things for the better.

“A lot of us just think that it doesn’t matter who gets in,” Atkins tells me, shaking her head. “None of them are going to look after us.”

Related: No extension for settled status applications – but war on chilled meats postponed

Content Protection by DMCA.com
Tags: Batley and Spenheadline

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending

Elevenses: Exposing the Tories’ Deepfake Illegal Immigration Bill

Elevenses: Rishi’s Finest Hour

Elevenses: Fear and Loathing in the New Conservatives

More from TLE

Government’s next fleet of ministerial cars to be made in Germany because of Brexit

Three experts predict the future of bitcoin, but which one will prove right?

Camilla & Charles ‘still have a snap in our celery’ leaving people saying the same thing

Welfare Laws do not Protect Farmed Animals from Cruelty

Tory minister *almost* achieves self-awareness – with ‘useful idiot’ remark

Man investigated after alleged assault at Cambridge’s most expensive private school

Record Review: Marika Hackman – We Slept At Last

World-first global alliance launches to build trust in homesharing & accelerate the professionalisation of the short-term rental industry

Assange offered pardon by Trump ‘associates’ over Democrats’ emails source

Johnson sitting on Russian interference report until after election is ‘inexplicable and shameful’ warns Clinton

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Commercial enquiries, please contact: [email protected]

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.