Brexit: In the former mill town of Oldham, Leave voters are dismayed by the Government’s muddle over leaving Europe Outside a pub in Oldham, a group of smokers are contemplating the never-ending muddle over Brexit. Like many in the […]

Outside a pub in Oldham, a group of smokers are contemplating the never-ending muddle over Brexit.

Like many in the Leave-voting former mill town, they have been left wondering whether they will get what they voted for when the UK quits Europe.

More than 60 percent of the population of Oldham – a former constituency of Winston Churchill – voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.

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But Tory infighting over the Government’s exit strategy has left the smokers uncertain about what leaving Europe will actually mean in practice.

I don’t really understand Brexit, but all I see if the Conservatives always arguing. Theresa May is probably a strong woman, but she doesn’t seem to have the confidence. Helen Farrelly, Oldham

“I just don’t think the Government is being tough enough,” says 68-year-old Leave voter Phil Beer, one of those outside the Up Steps Inn on the High Street.

“It feels like we’re bowing down to Europe and we should be telling them what we want and stop pussyfooting around.”

Sitting on a bench nearby, Helen Farrelly, 69, says she has been left confused by the machinations of Brexit, but has some strong views on the issue.

“Donald Trump was right when he told Theresa May she should sue the EU. He also said we need to protect the borders and he was right about that as well.

”I don’t really understand Brexit, but all I see if the Conservatives always arguing. Theresa May is probably a strong woman, but she doesn’t seem to have the confidence.“

Around the corner near the post office, Frank Quigley, 74, has recently returned from his holiday home in Spain.

”I voted to Leave, but I think the Government needs to make up its mind. We’re either in or we’re out. There can be no inbetween. We need to get on with it.

“I think it’s a shambles. I do think people were misled, but I was always going to vote Leave anyway. Unfortunately, it’s going to be the young people who will have to live with it, but it’s costing us too much money to be in Europe.

”Theresa May is running with the hare and the hounds. If Boris Johnson was in charge, we’d be going straight out. It wouldn’t be a problem.“

John Parkin, 71, who is outside Oldham’s Tommyfield Market, is also critical of Theresa May.

”I voted Conservative and I voted Leave,“ he says. ”But we have a very weak Government. I thought May would be a strong Prime Minister, but she isn’t. I wish Ukip had got in. They would have sorted it out.“

‘We’re half in and half out at the moment’

But Brian Brunt, 82, who voted Remain in the referendum, says most voters ”didn’t know what they were voting for“.

”I voted against Brexit,“ he says. ”I still don’t think we should come out. I remember the 1940s and the 1950s. We were poor then, but we’re better off in Europe.

“I asked a neighbour why he voted Leave and he said it was because his mate had done the same.

”Boris Johnson and a whole load of others misled people. It shouldn’t have been left to ordinary people because they don’t know enough about Europe.

“A big decision should have been left to the politicians.

”We’re half in and half out at the moment, but I think people need to let Theresa May get on with it.

“But the likes of Boris Johnson don’t want to let her do that – they want her job.”