Remain politicians ‘misread how hard-working people in North are feeling’ A brief encounter between Gordon Brown and a Labour voter in Rochdale changed the course of the 2010 general election […]

A brief encounter between Gordon Brown and a Labour voter in Rochdale changed the course of the 2010 general election and appeared to highlight a gulf between the party and its working-class voters in the North.

The then Prime Minister was challenged on the street about immigration from Eastern Europe by 65-year-old grandmother Gillian Duffy and was overheard calling her a “bigoted woman”.

“She said she used to be Labour,” he was heard telling an aide on a TV crew’s misplaced microphone. “I mean, it’s just ridiculous.”

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I just think the politicians have misread how ordinary, hard-working people are feeling. Labour have shot themselves in the foot by not recognising their own people’s views. They dropped a big clanger. John Alexander, 72.

Labour went on to lose 91 seats and Brown had to quit Downing Street as the Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a coalition government.

Claims have now resurfaced that Labour has become disconnected from voters in its northern heartlands after millions of them backed Leave despite Jeremy Corbyn’s call for them to vote Remain.

Among them were party supporters in the former mill town of Rochdale, where 60 per cent of people elected to quit Europe.

The town’s MP Simon Danczuk, who is currently suspended from the Labour Party, said on Friday morning that there had been a disconnection by voters from all of the mainstream political parties.

“If you were to remain in Europe, then Labour had to deliver some of the Remain votes from their core Labour voters and they just didn’t do that,” he said.

Yesterday, some explained why they rejected the Remain campaign in Rochdale, where an EU flag carved into the pavement is a reminder of how the main shopping street was repaved with funding from Europe.

Immigration

“I was one of the first babies born in the NHS in 1948,” Geraldine Mundy, 67, told i. “Back then, the NHS was the envy of the world. Labour didn’t speak out to me before the referendum.

”I just want the country to go back to how it was. We were a different country then. Now there is too much immigration.“

Immigration is a big issues for many in Rochdale, as is the housing of asylum seekers. Home Office statistics show that the town has more asylum-seekers than the whole of the South East.

The birthplace of the Co-operative movement also ranked among the worst places in the country for jobs pay and skills.

John Alexander, 72, who runs a jewellery shop and is known as ”the singing jeweller“ because he sings to raise funds for charity, said: ”I just think the politicians have misread how ordinary, hard-working people are feeling.

“Labour have shot themselves in the foot by not recognising their own people’s views. They dropped a big clanger.

”You wouldn’t want people from Hull ruling Rochdale, so why would you want someone from Europe making decisions for us. That was it for me.“

While disaffected voters in Rochdale like other areas in the North have turned to Ukip, they have largely been from Conservatives and the Lib Dems rather than Labour.

But voters of across the spectrum in Rochdale say they feel disaffected.

Lib Dem voter Eric Cawley, 65, who backed Leave, said: ”We have been dumped on for the last 30 years. People are fighting for a job and the Polish workers keep coming in, but we’re out now and there’s nothing the politicians can do about it.“

Austerity

Labour councillor Lynne Brosnan said: ”Labour have to take a long, hard look at ourselves after the referendum, but the other parties do as well.

“Labour have invested millions in Rochdale over the years, but when people are facing the levels of austerity and deprivation that they are currently facing, this is how they react.“

Meanwhile, one person who wasn’t speaking yesterday was Gillian Duffy, now 71, who said before the referendum that she was planning to vote Leave because of immigration.

At home in Rochdale, she said: ”I don’t want to say anything at the moment. I’m not saying anything at all.“