George Parker

So what is the core issue in these areas where they lost most soundly?

Is it immigration?

No, I think immigration is a sort of lightning rod for other problems.

Look, I mean, the real truth of the matter is that, and I spent some time in Wigan actually not very long ago, is that these are places which, you know, down on their luck, people have been voting for change, something to make things better for the best part of 20 years since the financial crash.

But as we know, the economy's barely moved in the last 20 years.

Living standards have got worse.

Public services have got worse.

Town centres have closed down.

And I think what happened there was that in 2024, at the last general election, people thought, well, last we got rid of the evil Tories, boo hiss, the Labour Party here, now surely something's going to change.

And nothing's changed.

And in fact, there's a sort of view that settled very quickly that Keir Starmer was just more of the same.

And that frustration is curdled into real anger and in some cases real hatred towards Keir Starmer, which, you know, I think looking at it from the outside, you might think it's slightly surprising.

I find it slightly surprising.

But people, you know, you talk to Labour MPs, ministers, they will say that you knock on the door and people say they actually really hate Keir Starmer.

Now, the problem, as we see it, if Nigel Farage is setting himself up to be the next British prime minister, it means there will be no reversal of Brexit because he was the totem, I suppose, for Brexit.

And yet Brexit is at the heart of many of Britain's economic ills.

Yes.

I mean, look, I mean, I think Brexit in a way was a symptom of the wider problems I was just discussing.

And reform did very well in the elections here in the last couple of days in places which voted for Brexit.

But the places that voted for Brexit were doing it also because they wanted change.