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LEO MCKINSTRY
Working class Brits are being betrayed by Conservative AND Labour – who is speaking up for people who love Britain?
Amid dismal poll ratings, the Conservatives face the biggest defeat in their history
AT the start of this decade, the Tories dominated the political landscape.
Having just won a landslide victory in the General Election under the leadership of Boris Johnson, they looked set to remain in power for years to come.
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The delivery of Brexit would just be the start of an exciting new era of change that would see society levelled up and immigration brought down.
Yet today, amid dismal poll ratings, the Conservatives face the biggest defeat in their history.
Their meltdown has been graphically symbolised by the defection this week of Lee Anderson, the outspoken MP for Ashfield, Notts, and former deputy chairman, to the insurgent Reform Party.
A former coalminer who had been a Labour member and even the agent for one-time local Labour MP Gloria del Piero, his switch to the Conservative cause and subsequent victory in the 2019 election was the embodiment of Boris Johnson’s extraordinary advance through
Labour’s heartlands in the North and the Midlands.
Paid a savage price
The mass desertion of traditional Labour voters in this territory, known as the Red Wall, was driven by anger at the lack of patriotism, the hostility to Brexit and the embrace of wokery by Jeremy Corbyn’s party.
Labour used to be the authentic voice of the working class. Now, under Corbyn, it had been turned into the plaything of left-wing poseurs and prattlers.
Labour paid a savage price for this betrayal of its roots. Anderson and millions like him could not stomach Corbyn’s brand of puerile student union-style politics, which would have left Britain defenceless, bankrupt and ruled by socialist dogma.
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That explains why Anderson won Ashfield with a majority of almost 6,000 on a swing of eight per cent, a result that was replicated throughout Labour’s turf.
Rishi Sunak should learn lesson that David Cameron did when confronted with threat of Ukip to win back wavering voters
In their worst defeat since 1935, Corbyn’s party lost 60 seats. But instead of consolidating their support with their new voters, especially in the Red Wall seats, the Tories have utterly squandered their victory by the wilful betrayal of their promises.
Immigration has spiralled out of control, putting a brutal strain on the civic infrastructure, living standards and social cohesion.
The “party of law and order” presides over deepening anarchy on the streets and an accelerating loss of authority by the police.
Once renowned for their practical common sense, the Conservatives have swallowed the green agenda and sent energy bills soaring.
Self-reliance and enterprise were supposed to be central to their outlook.
Yet their enfeebled management of the welfare system has encouraged rampant dependency.
Under a Conservative government, the tax burden is at its highest level since records began.
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But all this extra cash is not paying for high-quality services or strengthened defences.
On the contrary, it is subsidising a vast, expensive state bureaucracy, where low productivity is matched by the spread of fashionable woke dogma.
Far from building a stronger, more harmonious society, this creed promotes division and distrust. Our once-gentle civilisation is now awash with extremism, misogyny, and grievance peddled by newcomers who loathe our values.
“I want my country back,” said Anderson at his press conference to announce his defection to Reform.
Those words will resonate with much of the public, who are bewildered that a Conservative government could be so hopelessly out of touch.
In 2019, Reform — then known as the Brexit Party — reached a non-aggression pact with the Conservatives to avoid splitting the centre-right vote. But there is no chance of such a deal this year.
Squeezed by Labour throughout England and Wales, pummelled by the Liberal Democrats in the affluent south, and throttled by Reform further north, the Tories could emulate the humiliation of the Canadian Progressive Conservatives in 1993 when they lost all but two of their MPs.
Yet the biggest winner from Reform’s potential demolition of the Tories would be Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour.
Tighten its stranglehold
It is a depressing irony that the misguided, unpopular Tory policies that have led to the current surge for Reform are backed with even greater enthusiasm by Starmer’s party.
All the worst features of enfeebled, incompetent Conservative misgovernance will be intensified.
In its instinctive belief in the big state and open borders, Labour will further push up taxes and immigration.
Democratic freedoms will be curtailed in the name of social inclusion.
As the role of unelected judges, quangos and regulators is reinforced, Starmer — the arch Remoaner-in-Chief in the last Parliament — will ensure that Brexit is gradually diluted by the creeping influence of European co-operation.
It is a depressing irony that the misguided, unpopular Tory policies that have led to the current surge for Reform
Woke ideology will tighten its stranglehold on civic life, with more empire- building by the diversity commissars and more indoctrination by our public institutions.
So the betrayal of the electorate will deepen. The views of Red Wall voters will essentially count for nothing.
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Ignored by the two main parties, robust patriotism will go largely unrepresented.
The failing progressive consensus will therefore continue to prevail in Parliament — alongside worsening disillusion.