MP Giles Watling faces uphill task selling Theresa May’s Brexit deal to his constituents – and he hasn’t made up his own mind yet

As a remain-voting Conservative MP in one of only two places to ever send a Ukip representative to Westminster, Giles Watling faced an arguably uphill task anyway in selling Theresa May’s Brexit deal to his constituents in Clacton-on-Sea.

But on this weekday afternoon walkabout there are more complications. First, the woman to whom Watling has begun his pitch inside a local hair salon is adamant she no longer listens to talk about Brexit. Then there is the small issue that the MP himself has not yet decided if he backs the prime minister’s plan.

“I’m totally sick of it,” says Carol Kincaid, politely but firmly, her part-coloured hair in foils as she waits in a chair, the newly arrived Watling perched next to her. “When I hear the B-word, if it comes up on the radio, I go for the button so I can listen to music.”

Tough audiences are nothing new to Watling, who was an actor and stage director before entering parliament in 2017, and is still probably the only politician to have pulled out of a touring production of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to fight a byelection.

He persists gently with Kincaid, but she is adamant: “I haven’t listened to the deal. I’m guilty of switching off. I don’t feel that people have any power with politicians. The banks and civil service run the country. Money runs the country.”

Watling’s Essex constituency, which takes in prosperous districts as well as areas such as Jaywick, officially England’s most deprived neighbourhood, may not be typical of the fight to sell May’s Brexit plan to the masses, being disproportionately older and more pro-leave.

But as Watling treks around the businesses and postwar bungalows of Burrsville, a mile or so north of the seafront, themes emerge that seem common nationally: people are bored of Brexit and want the process completed; they admire May’s tenacity, but worry about her proposals.

Watling, still known to some locals for playing an amiable vicar in the 1980s sitcom Bread, concurs: “There’s an enormous amount of people who just want it done, want some certainty, to get it over with. There is also a fear that we might inadvertently hand the keys of Downing Street to Jeremy Corbyn, just by not sorting it out.

Watling’s mini-tour begins in the Robert Burre pub, a rare historic building in an area that was mainly countryside before the second world war. There, a representative from Heineken, the host brewery, quietly presses the MP on the need for business certainty.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Susan and Kelvin Davies, managers of the Robert Burre pub. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

At the next table, the pub managers, Kelvin and Susan Davies, explain that talk of Brexit is rare among customers, the great majority of whom are – like the couple themselves – of retirement age. “They’re the only people around here with any money to spend,” says Kelvin, 72.

He continues: “The vast majority of people, like myself, just wish it was over and done with, and we just get out. Ninety percent of our customers want to be out.

“At the end of the day the consensus is: they’re scaremongering, they say we can never manage on our own. But we’re Great Britain, we managed for centuries on our own. We led the world. Why should we be afraid of going it alone now?”

For all the gung-ho talk, Davies says he is reconciled to May’s plan, one that alarms most Brexiters in parliament: “I think Theresa May is doing a good job under the circumstances. There’s a lot of people against her at the moment, but she’s steering a good path. It seems the best deal we can get.”

If this might sound reassuring for the prime minister, there is worse news when Watling starts knocking on doors in the surrounding houses, many occupied by people who left London and its suburbs for a quieter retirement – and cheaper property – by the coast.

A woman who answers the door in a leopardskin onesie says she is still a supporter of Ukip, the party that represented Clacton after Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservatives in 2014, defeating Watling in the byelection, and then again in the 2015 election, before standing down.

The woman, who gives her name only as Deborah, is scathing about the prospects for May’s departure plan: “The French will go on about fishing rights, the Spanish about Gibraltar, and all the nations in Europe have got to agree before they sign this off.”

Watling tries to reassure her, but Deborah argues a no-deal Brexit is the only option: “I just want out. I voted to come out, simple as that. I don’t want to be tied to Europe at all. I’m not European. I’m English and I want our sovereignty back.”

For all the vehemence, when asked about how May has performed, even Deborah concedes her respect – certainly when compared with the previous prime minister.

“She seems strong. I don’t like the deal but I think she’s done pretty well. That Cameron – like what’s-his-name out of EastEnders said, he’s got on his trotters and run, and left us. Simple as that.”

Watling says respect for May is a sentiment he hears from those holding more or less every shade of Brexit opinion: “Theresa May on a personal level has massive support. I think any vote of no confidence would fall immediately. And that’s why it hasn’t happened. Nobody wants the job, either. Who would want a job like that? You might agree or disagree with her position, but you can’t fault her for stamina or resilience.”

It has already been an eventful few weeks for Watling. Last month the MP was driving home from London on a Thursday evening when an emergency call from the BBC saw him diverted to the filming of that week’s Question Time in Clacton, after the Treasury secretary, Liz Truss, was stuck on a train. He jokes it is not the first time he has been an emergency understudy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Giles Watling is a remainer at heart and has submitted his own amendment to the motion being voted on next week. Photograph: David Levene/Guardian

Watling, 65, now faces the most taxing decision of his slightly unexpected late second career in national politics, when MPs vote on Tuesday on May’s deal.

He has submitted his own amendment to the motion, seeking to reduce the potential scope of the European court of justice if the Northern Irish backstop plan comes into force.

He says: “I speak as a remainer, who wouldn’t have done this in the first place, but if we’re going to go through all this pain and uncertainty, and at the end of it we don’t have sovereignty and the European court of justice has dominion over the backstop, then what’s been the point?”

In the coming days Watling will face yet more competing demands from sceptical constituents and Conservative whips.

He says: “I do get it in the neck from everybody, from all sides. That goes with the territory. But there is an enormous amount of pressure building to just sign the thing, get it sorted. I have my issues with it, but I’m really sympathetic.”

Amid all this, Watling confirms, he has yet to decide whether to back the prime minister: “A week really is a long time in politics, and I think it’s foolish to declare your position this long before the event.”