As Theresa May swept on to a factory floor on the edge of Stoke, Patricia Clewlow admonished herself for what she was about to say. “I’ve voted every year since I was 18 because it’s right that I should,” said the 79-year-old. “Particularly for the brave women that won us the vote. But I honestly feel that if this goes by the board, I shan’t ever vote again. It’s naughty to feel like that but that’s how I feel.”

Clewlow was one of the 69.4% of voters in Stoke-on-Trent who backed leave in the 2016 EU referendum. Almost everyone Clewlow knows voted to leave. Their only regret is that it has not happened already.

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“I don’t understand all the mess,” she said outside the city’s library on Monday morning. “I just can’t understand what the problem is. Why’s it taken so long to sort out? It’s what the majority of people voted for. Would there have been all this to-do if the remainers had won?”

With 74 days until Britain leaves the EU, there is little sign of sentiment changing in the city dubbed the Brexit capital of Britain. It was a label coined by Paul Nuttall, the former Ukip leader, during an ill-fated attempt to win the Stoke-on-Trent byelection in 2017.

A local newspaper poll of 326 voters on Monday found 84% opposed May’s deal, describing it as “not Brexit”, with only 16% backing her withdrawal agreement. The airwaves and letters pages were similarly febrile, with one Sentinel reader writing that “democracy was dead” and that the Queen should dissolve parliament if Brexit was not enacted.

As May spoke to a room of journalists and about 100 Portmeirion pottery workers, Tony Walley, 54, a supermarket worker, said he felt powerless to influence any of the decisions made in Westminster. He chose not to vote in the EU referendum, which he felt was pushed by “Hooray Henrys in London” who were “the first to drop it”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The edge of the Portmeirion factory in Stoke-on-Trent, where Theresa May made her speech. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

“I think it took them by surprise and if there was another vote it would fail. They seem to be making a right hash of it,” he said.

Walley reflects an apathy that has gripped Stoke for years. Stoke-on-Trent Central had the lowest turnout in the country in the 2015 general election, at 49.9%, falling to 38.2% in a byelection two years later. It may only be two hours by train to London, but the Staffordshire city feels a world away from Westminster.

Opening up his family-run carpet store near Stoke minster, Adam Norris doubted whether leaving the EU would affect places like Stoke. He voted to leave, backs May’s deal, but feels it will make little difference.

“Nothing really changes apart from shops closing down,” said the 63-year-old, whose family business, Norris Carpets, has been fixture of the cities since 1985. “In the market it’s gone terrible for them. It’s gone very quiet.”

Quick guide What are the details of Theresa May's deal? Show Hide The border Perhaps the most contentious issue. In order to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, a backstop arrangement that keeps the UK in the customs union and requires Northern Ireland to follow single market rules would prevail until a free-trade agreement is reached that avoids such a frontier. The financial settlement The UK and EU negotiators have agreed the former should honour those commitments it made while a member of the bloc – finally settling on a figure of £39bn. Transition period The deal would secure a status quo transition period to negotiate the nature of the future relationship, and during which the UK could begin to make trade deals with third countries. Citizens' rights A fraught issue at the outset, an agreement was reached relatively quickly that would see the UK respect the rights of EU citizens who arrive before the end of the transition period, which could be in 2022, and vice versa. The future The document is accompanied by a political declaration that sketches out the future relationship between the two parties – focusing primarily on trade and security.

“At last!” declared the front page of Monday’s Sentinel, above the news that 200 homes have been promised on the site where the city’s ceramics giant Royal Doulton closed its headquarters 15 years ago, with the loss of 525 jobs. “It was a hammer blow for the town and one from which it has never recovered,” the paper reported.

Unemployment in Stoke is higher than average, and the average property price is £105,000, compared with £230,000 in the rest of the UK.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adele Smith said of Theresa May: ‘She’s no bloody use.’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

“There’s no jobs about hardly,” complained Adele Smith, 42, outside a busy Stoke cafe. “I voted to stay in so there would be more jobs.” Asked what she would tell the prime minister, Smith said: “I’d tell her bugger off. She’s no bloody use.”

Waiting for a bus near Stoke’s indoor market, which opens three days a week, an 84-year-old woman, who did not wish to be named, said she had voted for remain but accepted that she was on the losing side. “To me, it’s out and get on with it,” she said.

While MPs were “bickering” about the EU, she said, high streets in places like Stoke were being decimated by closures. “Look around this place. Look at how it’s run down,” she said, gesturing to a street dotted with bookmakers, charity shops and empty shopfronts. “What’s going to happen when all these shops close down? Where’s everyone going to shop? We’re worse now than in the war.”