After he dramatically resigned the Conservative whip, Lincolnshire locals have little generosity for their MP

Strolling past the green where the market town of Grantham is soon to erect a statue of its most famous daughter, William Hemstell admitted to having mixed feelings about the news that the local MP Nick Boles was quitting the party which Margaret Thatcher once led.

“I was very disappointed about his actions on Brexit to be honest but, whatever you think of him, he beat cancer so he’s no slouch,” said the 76-year-old, who believed Boles should have got fully behind the prime minister.

But on the day after Boles dramatically resigned the Conservative whip when his motion designed to keep Britain in the single market failed to gain a majority in parliament, not everyone in Grantham was quite so generous.

“I had faith in him one time but he’s been part of a great betrayal of voters by some MPs at Westminster,” said Anthony Peres, 33, a photographer, satanist (“We’re a diverse bunch”) and Ukip voter in the Lincolnshire constituency that recorded one of the country’s largest votes for Brexit with 60% of voters backing leave.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anthony Peres: ‘He’s been part of a great betrayal of voters’ Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Among local Tory ranks, the knives have long been out for their MP who, on Monday night, told fellow parliamentarians that the party had “shown itself to be incapable of compromise” and announced that he would continue to sit in the Commons as an independent progressive conservative.

At another level however, the increasingly bitter relations between Boles and his local party might be seen as a reflection of simmering tensions that threaten to split Conservatives across the country.

Phil Sagar, the outgoing chairman of the Grantham and Stamford Conservative Association, painted a picture of Boles as an MP embedded in the “Westminster bubble” who had grown detached from the constituency. Boles had left local members unsure if he would be standing again for the Tories, not least after he resigned from the local association last month.

“It could have been Nick but with his attacks on the association over the last three months or so and the victim narrative which he wanted to portray of a party lurching to the right – which is completely untrue – it became clear that would not happen,” said Sagar. He added that of the 345 emails he had received from party members and supporters before the association’s local AGM last month, just 22 had expressed support for Boles, while more than 300 wanted him gone. Members had also been left smarting by suggestions of homophobia towards Boles.

Sagar accused Boles of arrogance and self-importance: “Rather than Nick and politicians like Anna Soubry, who are far too London-centric, the real victims are the local electorates and associations which largely voted for leave.”

Sagar rejected suggestions from supporters of Boles that the local association had been the subject of a “Ukip takeover”. While it now has 600 members, he said the 100 or so who had joined in the past 12 months were genuine Conservatives who had “come back” to be active or because they wanted a say in who should be the leader.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Phil Sagar accused Boles of arrogance and self-importance. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Nevertheless, one of those who have called for an effective no-confidence vote in Boles was councillor Robert Foulkes, who had defected from Ukip.

“What should happen next is entirely up to Nick. Whether he resigns and triggers a byelection or not is his decision. We are ready to put forward a candidate that would reflect popularly the view of the constituency. Locally the view is that we should leave under WTO terms and then start renegotiating our relationship with the EU from there,” Sagar said.

On Tuesday, some councillors were reluctant to offer their views on Boles’s actions and how he had been treated. A number declined to comment.

But one councillor, Bob Adams, said he was “very disappointed” that the MP felt he had to resign from the party.

“I felt he was a very good constituency MP and that he did a lot of very good things in the constituency very quietly. So from that point of view it’s sad that this has happened,” said the self-proclaimed supporter of a no-deal Brexit.

Play Video 0:57 Nick Boles: Tory MP resigns due to party’s unwillingness to compromise – video

“I can’t see the association asking him to continue though as our MP when a general election is called and I don’t think he would wish to,” added Adams.

Boles himself struck a defiant tone on Tuesday, telling the BBC that his former party was gripped by a combination of “cowardice and dogma”.

“There are fine people in cabinet but this is the worst cabinet in recorded history,” he said. “None has earned the right to lead the country after Brexit.”

Conservative MP Nick Boles quits party after his soft Brexit plan fails Read more

The MP may have a mountain to climb should he seek re-election on a non-Tory ticket. His resignation – which prompted siren calls from other former Tory colleagues in the Independent Group of MPs, now known as Change UK – means that a rural Lincolnshire constituency is being represented by a non-Tory for the first time since 2010.

Others point out that no one has won an election in a rural Lincolnshire seat against a Conservative candidate since 1948. On that occasion, it happened to be an independent, in Grantham.