‘I voted for Boris but now I think he’s a clown’ – Voters vent as they go to the polls to replace Owen Paterson
CHRISTENED the “greased piglet” by fellow Tories, Boris Johnson has long wriggled past those keen to politically skewer him.
Now, amid the rolling farms of the West Midlands’ North Shropshire constituency, he is once again desperately trying to save his bacon as plotters sharpen their knives.
Today voters go to the polls in this true-blue seat — Tory since its formation 189 years ago in 1832 — for a crucial by-election that is being seen as a referendum on Johnson’s beleaguered premiership.
After a string of cock-ups — even loyal MPs are calling his Downing Street operation a “s**tshow” — and a mass revolt by his backbenchers on Tuesday night, the Lib Dems are hopeful of an upset.
So has once-Teflon Boris really lost his electoral mojo?
Working behind the counter at the Timpson shoe repair and key-cutting shop in the pretty market town of Whit-church, Kenny Bould, 44, told me: “I voted for Boris at the General Election. I thought he was great, doing what he said he was going to do. Now I think he’s a clown.”
Yet no other party convinces Kenny. The Navy veteran said: “I wouldn’t vote Lib Dem — what have they got to offer? If Boris gets kicked out, who have we? Keir Starmer? He’s a plank. I think the Tories are the best of a bad bunch.”
But what of the infamous Partygate which saw Downing Street aides laughing over allegations of a Christmas bash last year at No10? Dad-of-two Kenny said: “They had a party last year. Hey, ho. So did a lot of people including people I know around here.”
Defeat in North Shrops, a foundation stone of the Tories’ Blue Wall, would shake the party to its core.
The by-election was called after Owen Paterson — who romped to a stonking 22,949 majority in 2019 — resigned after breaking lobbying rules.
Sleaze, Partygate, the Flatgate storm over No10’s revamp, and Johnson’s bizarre Peppa Pig speech will be on many voters’ minds today.
This week’s 100-strong rebellion by Tory MPs over Covid passes is a further blow to the PM. Losing North Shrops would turbocharge calls for a Tory leadership challenge, with backbenchers wary of the next election.
Sue Wallis, a Labour supporter but tactical Lib Dem voter this time, said while walking her dog: “Boris is bumbling. I don’t trust him, he’s frivolous. I’ll vote with my head rather than heart this time because the Lib Dems might have a chance.” Yet she believes political Houdini Johnson may yet prevail in this constituency of beef and sheep farms, and market towns also including Oswestry, Wem, Ellesmere and Market Drayton.
Boris is bumbling. I don’t trust him, he’s frivolous. I’ll vote with my head rather than heart this time because the Lib Dems might have a chance.
Sue Wallis
It has poor transport links and some of the country’s longest ambulance wait times. But Sue, 60, a carer, said: “He could win because of the history of the Tory party here. I don’t know if enough people will be fed up enough.”
Mike, 71, a retired engineer who declined to give his sur-name, is supporting the Lib Dems after previously backing Boris for “getting Brexit done”. He said Partygate had cost the PM his “credibility”.
Lib Dem candidate Helen Morgan — who at the 2019 election placed third with ten per cent of the vote — is a local parish councillor but her press team said she was too busy to talk to me.
Labour rival Ben Wood, 26, a Westminster advisor, believes her team are shielding her after she had to apologise to Home Secretary Priti Patel. Morgan, 46, a history graduate, had compared Ms Patel’s tactics in returning migrants to something from the manual of Adolf Hitler propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
But Oswestry-born Mr Wood insists Johnson is no longer a vote winner. He said: “He’s not squirming his way out of it round here. People in 2019 told us they were voting for Boris, this time they say they are voting for Labour because of Boris.”
Labour — who bookies think will finish third in the by-election — sent in Deputy Leader Angela Rayner on Tuesday to liven things up. She did not disappoint, pulling pints in the Bull’s Head before flashing garish floral socks bearing the words: “I’m a delicate f***ing flower.”
Sporting flower-print vegan-leather sneakers, she said: “It’s been a Conservative seat for ever. But people are so angry, anything can happen.”
Meanwhile, Tory hopeful Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, 38, has been parachuted in to the seat from Birmingham. The Barbour-wearing GP’s son is a Brexit supporter — and Shropshire as a whole voted nearly 57 per cent Leave in the 2016 poll.
His back-ground, as an Army surgeon who volunteered as a medic during the pandemic, is likely to please the Tory faithful. But what about the Downing Street omnishambles?
He is “angry” about Party-gate but believes voters are more worried about local issues such as ambulances and broadband speeds. When the PM came here to support the would-be MP he managed to mangle his name, calling him Shastri-Hughes.
But Mr Shastri-Hurst, who now works as a barrister, said: “I’ve had much worse.” Yesterday afternoon bookies had the Tories as wafer-thin favourites over the Lib Dems. But Tories are unafraid to dethrone one of their own if they become a liability.
They dumped three-time PM Margaret Thatcher six weeks after a 1990 by-election defeat to the Lib Dems in Tory stronghold Eastbourne. Johnson will take comfort, though, from Roy Hughes, who runs a fishery and lets log cabins near Oswestry. In flat cap and quilted jacket, Roy, 75, is not worried by Partygate or other Downing Street debacles.
If I manage to get out, the Tories have got my vote. Boris will win here, without a problem.
Roy Hughes
He said: “None of it will stick, people have got short memories. What does annoy me is that we’ve had two years of Covid and the Opposition aren’t working with the Government, they are slagging them off.”
The dad-of-two added: “If I manage to get out, the Tories have got my vote. Boris will win here, without a problem.”
They enjoy a hog roast in these parts. And greased piglet Johnson looks like he’s about to be eaten alive.
