In seats throughout the north of the country, in what were once Labour’s heartlands, there is a fundamental disconnect emerging between the party and areas that have traditionally voted for it.



Whatever happens when Britons go to the polls on Thursday, the 2019 election has exposed growing fault lines between the party and its once-loyal voter base, which it will want to address once the dust has settled.

On Tuesday, in a leaked recording, shadow health minister Jonathan Ashworth was heard telling a former friend that the situation for Labour is “dire” due to a combination of “Corbyn and Brexit.”

“Outside of the city seats, if you’re in small-town midlands and north it’s abysmal out there, they don’t like Johnson, but they can’t stand Corbyn and they think Labour’s blocked Brexit.”

“I’ve been going round these national places,” he added. “It’s dire for Labour… It’s dire…” Ashworth said he had been trying to help his colleagues by “banging on about the NHS in their areas for them.” He continued: “It’s awful for them, and it’s the combination of Corbyn and Brexit.”

Ashworth’s words are supported by many of the Labour candidates and voters that BuzzFeed News has spoken to in the North, and by independent research.

While Labour has done well at engaging young voters and people in cities, older people in former industrial towns, who could once have been relied on to turn out and vote, are either turning away from the party or not voting at all. As the election campaign enters its final days, Labour will be hoping for a last-minute boost to turn around its fortunes after lagging behind throughout the campaign.

Many of those we spoke to said they saw Corbyn as a bigger stumbling block than the party’s policy on the EU. There was also a general sense of distrust of politicians from all parties, and there was a feeling among some voters that Labour has shifted too far away from the one that their parents voted for, and that its bold manifesto is promising more than it can deliver.

And it is also not as simple as former Labour voters all switching to straight the Conservatives — in areas that have traditionally been sceptical of the Tories, it appears that the party has not done enough to win over the trust of floating voters.