Tiverton and Honiton in Devon is usually the safest of Tory seats: but after partygate and Brexit, even it is now in play
On a grass verge down a long, winding country lane, where the hilltop views stretch across much of mid-Devon, there is evidence of rural disquiet in the peaceful village of Washfield.
David, who says he has voted Tory in the past, and Marion will decide which party to put their crosses by in the much bigger “people’s vote” – the Tiverton and Honiton byelection on 23 June – when they attend a hustings this coming Thursday. But it doesn’t seem likely to be the“His big Brexit deal is a mess, really,” says David. “A lot of price rises have been caused by the increased bureaucracy. The cost of fertilisers and feed have shot up.
Wescott voted Conservative “years ago” but definitely will not be doing so at the byelection. “It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas,” he says. Predictably, he vowed to press on despite the revolt. But there are plenty of senior Tories who now doubt his capacity to bounce back. Thursday’s appearance marked an extraordinary turnaround in the fortunes of a politician who once revelled in the handshakes and walkabouts. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, wasted no time in accusing Johnson of avoiding voters and “treating Devon and the country with utter contempt”.
But some were turning from the Tories to the Lib Dems – such as Chris Ward, a former printer, who said it seemed that Johnson had turned No 10 into a permanent party venue. “They have just been in power too long,” he said. “It is time to put them out to grass.” But there is no doubt the Tories are worried. Over recent days people claiming to have been working for the Conservative candidate – the largely invisible Helen Hurford, a beauty salon owner – have been circulating yellow leaflets entitled “Thinking of Voting Liberal Democrat?” which claim that the “Lib Dems want to rejoin the EU” and are “plotting to put Labour into power” by forming electoral pacts with them – neither of which is strictly true.
The personal view of this former minister is that the real danger point may not be the June byelections but the next staging post in the continuing saga of Partygate.[examining whether he misled MPs over lockdown parties]. If it finds that he’s knowingly misled the House, then quite clearly he will have to go.”
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