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Brexit

10th Dec 2019

How the Tories took over a northern Labour safe seat

Oli Dugmore

Seats like Chesterfield will be crucial this election

Chesterfield in North East Derbyshire. Since 1935 this constituency has been Labour red, until 2017, when it turned blue.

Mining, like the Labour Party used to be in the blood of this community, but the pits are long since closed and there’s a new political movement in town. Brexit.

It has one of the highest Leave votes in the country. And its incumbent MP, Conservative Lee Rowley who co-chairs a Thatcherite think tank, well, his aunt used to be Arthur Scargill’s secretary.

And that’s not even the tenth strangest thing about this election. We’re at the Grassmoor Working Men’s club for karaoke night, to find out why these voters left Labour, if they’re coming back in 2019 and maybe to sing a bit of Neil Diamond.