Karen and Douglas Connell are proud of their three daughters: they think for themselves and are active citizens. “I’m glad I brought up my girls to be politically minded,” Karen tells me from the family’s sandstone house in Shettleston, Glasgow. “They would never not vote.” But close as they are, when it comes to this general election, this once Labour-supporting family of five could not be more politically divided. In a sign of the disconnect between national leadership and local interests, come polling day family members are intending to vote Liberal Democrat, Labour and Tory.

Perched on the arm of her sofa in her pristine period home where she and Douglas live with the youngest of their daughters, Karen, 53, explains she is a “working-class girl” from Glasgow’s East End who has always been interested in politics.

But, she says, there is no chance she will vote Labour in this election. “I have voted since I was 18 and have always voted Labour, but Corbyn and his crew … nothing impresses me at all when he’s speaking.” She is not comfortable voting for the Lib Dems but feels she has no other choice. “It’s not tactical voting. I think tactical voting is very dangerous. It’s a protest vote,” she says.

Karen says she was radical when younger, but has since moved to the centre ground. She describes Tony Blair as “by far the best prime minister” of her lifetime, and explains that she and Douglas, a union activist, rejoined Labour in 2015 after a period of lapsed membership, to vote against Corbyn in the leadership elections.

He is simply unelectable, Karen argues. She is unimpressed with his manifesto: “Taxing the rich? I’m fed up listening to that. I think that’s where Labour fails, they won’t get in on that. Tony Blair courted business and I think if you alienate business, it will backfire … you’ve got to get your whole country together and I don’t think alienating the people who create jobs is good.”

Glasgow East was once one of the safest Labour seats in the UK. The party lost it, along with the city’s six other seats, at the 2015 election, in an SNP tsunami that saw Nicola Sturgeon’s party take 56 of the country’s 59 seats.

The family’s youngest member, also called Karen (mother and daughter are pictured in the main image above), offers some hope for Labour. Having voted SNP in 2015, the languages student is considering voting Labour this time. “I am not [Corbyn’s] biggest fan but I feel that when he speaks you can tell he is passionate about his beliefs and does care about the ordinary person,” she says. “In this sense I would say that he is genuine.”

Her older sister, Victoria, 29, who works as a personal assistant for a firm of solicitors, will not be giving Corbyn her vote, despite supporting Labour in 2015. Instead, Victoria is planning to vote Tory. “I really have never been so turned off politics in my life. This election is so negative and so full of hate. It’s about whether we’re in the union, out of the union, in the EU, out of the EU. It’s racist, sectarian, it’s not about policies,” she says.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Karen Connell with her daughters Victoria, left, and Karen. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

For Victoria, a switch to the right from Labour is tactical. “People don’t want a second referendum in Scotland, but the SNP have made this election all about independence and there is no opposition in Labour,” she says. “It’s a really sad day for Scottish politics that the only alternative to the SNP are the Tories.”

That said, she thinks the arguments of Conservative canvassers may appeal to many voters, who she says have “got past the Margaret Thatcher image of the Conservative party” – a point underlined two weeks ago when, as I reported in my first dispatch from the constituency, Thomas Kerr, a 20-year-old Tory activist, was elected to represent Shettleston in the council elections.

His election shocked not just voters but Kerr himself. Now he is standing to become an MP in a constituency which has flip-flopped between Labour and SNP for the past nine years. In 2010, Labour’s Margaret Curran, who had failed to win the seat in 2008, won the seat back from the SNP, with a majority of over 11,000 votes. In 2015 Curran was defeated by the SNP’s Natalie McGarry, who won with a swing of almost 31% and a majority of more than 10,000.

Karen junior and others I have spoken to in Shettleston put the Tory vote down to protests against Labour and the SNP but also hints of sectarianism stoked by supporters of Rangers football club. But she and her mother also say the media have got Shettleston wrong. It may be one of the most deprived wards in the country, but it isn’t all blighted by poverty. “My kids went to university, so did most kids on this street. There are good schools here, there are far worse areas,” says Karen senior.

Victoria says her heart remains on the left – so why doesn’t she join her mother and vote Lib Dem? “Not this time round,” she replies. “Hopefully the Lib Dems will rebuild, but they have a lot of work to do before people get over the tuition fees.”

Douglas, a roofer, is out at work, but Karen senior thinks her husband is “toying with voting for Liberal Democrats” – though she thinks he will find it tough to move from the reds.

She is proud that her children are politically engaged. She doesn’t protest that Victoria is voting Tory – if anything concerns her, it is that her middle daughter Jennifer does not have strong political views. “I’m proud of my girls. They are entitled to their opinion, I’m just glad they are thinking for themselves,” she says.

Labour believes it has a chance of winning Glasgow East back – but if what is happening in the Connell household is typical of the constituency, the result will pivot on younger voters getting out to vote. Karen junior voted SNP in 2015 and was undecided until Corbyn unveiled his vision for Britain.

As we talk in Rustico cafe, her voting intentions crystallise. “When I heard [Corbyn] speak, I was impressed. I’m not a massive fan, but I quite liked the manifesto and I could actually see leadership qualities, so after the speech I was thinking I would vote Labour,” she says. She was pleased to see manifesto pledges on the minimum wage and abolition of tuition fees. “We have that in Scotland and it works. It’s not just for people on low income. To leave university with debts of £30,000 is a big thing.”

Karen says she’s “different” from many other millennials, whom she characterises as voting uncritically for SNP without studying their policies. She voted SNP in 2015 because at that point, it seemed the only option, but, she says: “I would rather have a strong Labour government, both here and in Scotland. A lot of millennials think ‘I’m voting SNP to keep the Tories out for ever’, but that’s a false idea based on the premise that Scotland is some sort of socialist utopia.”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Streets in Shettleston, part of the Glasgow East constituency won by the SNP in the 2015 general election. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

If Scotland became independent, the Conservatives, rather than Labour, would be the second largest party after the SNP, she argues. Her point is borne out by recent polls which put Theresa May on course for big gains in Scotland. The Tories have doubled voter support in the past two years: from 15% in May 2015, to between 28% and 33% in April 2017.

Scottish politics has layers of complexity; unlike England, the country has gone to the polls every year since 2014 when the independence referendum was held. If the Connell family is split, it is united on one thing – there is no support for second referenda on independence or Brexit. Victoria says there are too many issues such as the NHS that need attention. Her sister says Scotland needs to respect the wishes of the UK on Brexit.

Their mother angily accuses Nicola Sturgeon of conflating Scotland’s majority remain vote in the Brexit referendum with a desire for independence. “Just because I voted remain doesn’t mean I support a second [EU] referendum,” Karen senior says. “I don’t. She doesn’t speak for me. I’m not really opposed to Scottish independence either, but can you imagine us trying to force ourselves back in Europe? I think it’s the wrong time, I think we need to settle. I don’t think we should have another referendum.

“I think we have overstretched on referenda, they are divisive, there’s no unity, I’m fed up seeing people pitted against each other. It’s like a demon has been unleashed. Everyone is so busy taking lumps out of each other, they are not talking about policies.”

Do you live in Glasgow East? Help shape this reporting by letting us know which issues are important this election