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In the crunch days of Melanie Onn's general election campaign, it wasn't a shadow cabinet minister or a big party hitter that came to Grimsby to shore up Labour support. Instead, Ms Onn was joined by a British man who had flown over from Cuba. He was well versed on international issues - Israel and Palestine, for instance - but knew little about Grimsby or what was facing this town.

"No-one knew who he was and he didn't have anywhere to stay," a source close to Ms Onn said. "He was talking about international issues, asking whether people were in the Labour friends of Palestine when we were out canvassing down West Marsh, where houses are boarded up and rubbish is strewn around the street.

"Internationalism is a luxury we can't afford here," the source continued, exasperated. "You look around - these people have it so hard. They have got no hope. And they haven't even got anyone fighting for them. They don’t care about Venezuela. Israel and Palestine, yeah absolutely important. But these people are living in a house that's damp and has slugs in it and the Universal Credit has been stopped."

Perhaps nothing so starkly illustrates the disconnect that had grown between the Labour party, its members and the wider public than a party enthusiast, who came to Grimsby of his own accord, waxing lyrical about issues that, while undeniably important, are a million miles away from Grimsby. One in three children live in poverty here, and 500 food parcels are handed out every week.

(Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)

By 10pm on election night, the writing was on the wall for Labour. An exit poll put them on course to win just 191 seats, and as the night went on, bad result after bad result in traditional strongholds confirmed that the party was heading for a historically bad night. The party of the north and the working class had lost Blyth Valley. It had lost Darlington. It had lost Workington, Leigh in Greater Manchester and Burnley. And it was about to lose Great Grimsby.

Ms Onn knew the result would be bad. She did not appear in the Town Hall until past 2am, and was only seen in the Assembly room minutes before the count. "Melanie Onn is putting on a brave face," one observer could be overheard saying while Tory activists anticipated the positive outcome that lay ahead.

Ms Onn stood stoically as the result came in. "Nici, Lia, 18,150," the returning officer read out, prompting cheers from her crowd. "Onn, Melanie, 10,819." The hall erupted as it dawned on the Conservatives what they had pulled off in this old, Labour fishing town that wants out of the EU and like so many northern seats, shown contempt for Jeremy Corbyn and his international socialism.

The man from Cuba was nowhere to be seen.

(Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)

In a disastrous election night for Labour, the party ended up taking just 202 seats, with 59 of its MPs losing their jobs in one fell swoop. The result was the worst suffered by Labour since 1935. By 5am, the Conservatives had passed the threshold for a majority, and will now take 365 seats in the House of Commons - a result not seen since Margaret Thatcher's heyday.

Following her defeat, Ms Onn explained soberly why she thought voters had rejected her party.

She held back on outright criticism of Corbyn as other defeated MPs had but there was clear frustration at how the party had pivoted to the left and been happy to abandon its traditional northern support for other general election priorities in the south.

People in Grimsby are an "incredibly pragmatic group of people", said Ms Onn. "And they don't take any kind of nonsense, they really don't.

"They want to see strong leadership and they want to see someone who has a credible vision for the future of the country and something that resonates with them, and that's not something Labour has done for them so far."

The Labour party had become “incredibly London-centric,” she went on. And just as it had abandoned its traditional working class voters in favour of its membership, so it had abandoned the MPs that represented them.

Like many MPs representing Labour Leave heartlands, Grimsby's first female MP was left to fight it out on her own.

Strategically, it seemed as though the party had focused on the south: in Canterbury - which Labour held on to - Kensington and Chelsea and Warwick and Leamington . Of course, this turned out to be misplaced, as Labour’s Leave heartlands delivered the blow of defeat, one after the other.

Ms Onn, a Jeremy Corbyn critic, was always stuck between a rock and a hard place as to how she would fight here.

A visit from the frontbench in the shape of Corbyn and John McDonnell would have made matters worse, antagonising an electorate that did not like Mr Corbyn and viewed his past associations with the IRA with suspicion.

(Image: PA)

Ms Onn would have wanted visits from less controversial figures, such as Keir Starmer or Angela Rayner, but they were not forthcoming, The visits she did get were not arranged at the behest of the central party machinery. It is understood like others in the north, she had to ask for them herself.

As the campaign approached its final moments, there was little else Ms Onn could do than sit and watch while Conservative candidate Lia Nici, who ran a low-key local campaign, basked in the reflective glory of various Cabinet ministers pitching up in Grimsby. It culminated on the Monday of the final week of the election campaign, with a visit from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Perhaps the party had written off Grimsby defeat as it focused in the south, or perhaps it fashioned that a town with 74 years of Labour history simply could not turn blue. If so, that demonstrates an even deeper lack of knowledge about this town.

Grimsby has often been put in the same category as Labour strongholds such as Durham or Newcastle, but really operates in a league of its own.

Unlike mining towns, the industry that made Grimsby famous - fishing - was not unionised. It was made up of lots of small, nifty businesses, entrepreneurs and self-starters. As such, there has been no loyalty to Labour on a collective scale; when the industry declined in the 1970s there was no unified voice of outrage. The loyalty to Labour was not part of any class action, and Grimsby's entrepreneurialism made it pragmatic and less dogmatic to any one party.

(Image: Jon Corken/Grimsby Live)

Take, for instance, in the local elections this year. Residents had become so disgruntled with the Labour council over issues like Tollbar roundabout and bin collections that they overhauled the council and turned red to blue.

In the end, despite the valiant efforts of Ms Onn, the red wall came crashing down and it was always going to be incredibly difficult to keep it up brick by brick.

Try as though she did, Ms Onn failed to convince voters in Grimsby to put Corbyn aside and keep their faith in her for another five years.

The Conservatives, however, will recognise that their vote here, however emphatic on Thursday, is far from guaranteed in the future. For the moment, it is on loan.

Back at the Town Hall Ms Onn is explaining to television cameras where it all went wrong for Labour. Just a few metres away, the Tories are enjoying photo ops and erupting into cheers in the process.

"Now this is just cruel," Melanie says, managing a wry smile.