Voters in former red wall town have their say
Delivery driver David Arnold does not know yet which party will get his vote
- Published
Grimsby - once part of Labour's "red wall" - turned Conservative for the first time in decades at the 2019 election. BBC News went to test the political waters in the North East Lincolnshire town ahead of the general election on 4 July.
Red bricks, some still in their blue wrapping, are stacked in a corner of Howarth Timber & Building Supplies.
As tradesmen scurry down aisles hunting for materials, I ask them to size up the election.
For decades, this North East Lincolnshire town was part of the seemingly impenetrable "red wall" - northern, predominantly working class, Labour strongholds.
However, with a deft swing of Boris Johnson's wrecking ball, it was reduced to rubble at the 2019 vote.
The battle in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, a newly formed constituency, will be hard fought, with Labour's Melanie Onn - who lost her seat to Conservative Lia Nici - keen to play a part in the reconstruction.
In 2019, Grimsby voted Conservative for the first time since the end of World War Two
Making a drop off, David Arnold, a 38-year-old married father-of-three, says he has not yet decided who will earn his vote.
"I'm open", he says, referencing the electioneering process while drumming his fingers on a brick.
All seven candidates standing in this constituency will have their work cut out to earn the cross on his ballot paper.
"They all promise the earth and never deliver," he says, earnestly.
Delivering the goods is his bread and butter - and so, predictably, this is high on his list of demands for whoever wins the keys to Downing Street.
"If you say you're going to do something - just do it," he says.
Delivery driver David Arnold is an undecided voter
Simon Parker, 53, a department manager at the store, is focussing on the national pictures. He plans to vote Conservative, although he is doom-laden about the party's chances of securing a majority.
His money is on a "hung" parliament, with no party gaining enough seats to secure an overall majority.
For him, the election comes down to personality.
He says Labour leader Keir Starmer "is very smarmy" and "doesn't come across very good".
He concedes "no one is glowing", however, and aims a shot at Conservative leader Rishi Sunak.
"I don't like him as a person because he pushed Boris [Johnson] out [of Downing Street].
Mr Parker adds: "Boris was a people's person. I don't think Rishi is."
Alfred Dumbrell, 78, says he has voted for both UKIP and the Conservatives in previous elections.
"I voted Tory in the 2019 election and I will again this time," says the retired shop worker.
But he has a message for Conservative HQ.
"I'd like to see them pull their finger out," he added. "Think of the public more, in places like Grimsby."
Alfred Dumbrell thinks the Conservatives "need to pull their finger out"
Tom King, a self-employed plumber and heating engineer, has called in for some wood.
He says he feels "let down" by the Conservative party.
"The key is honesty," he said. "If you say you're going to do something, do it.
"If I quoted a customer a price for a job and said it would take a week but then charged three times the amount and took six months to complete, they would rightly tell me to get stuffed.
"Yet, that's exactly what the government had been doing to people."
Tom King, a plumber and heating engineer, is concerned about rising costs of materials
Mr King says the town has not benefitted from Brexit; an issue, he says, that was key to the way the electorate chose to vote in 2019.
The cost of living crisis has also put him off voting Conservative, adding: "We're trying to keep prices the same but our costs keep going up; the price of copper has sky rocketed."
Walking past the building merchants, I find mother-of-four Baiba Lauksteine, 42. She is also an undecided voter, and tells me she will be listening, with interest, to the candidates' crime tackling pledges, both locally and nationally.
"We need more police," she says. "My family has had a lot of problems with racism in Grimsby."
Baiba Lauksteine, pictured with her children, wants more police on the streets of Grimsby
Chris Pearson, 62, was midway through chatting with a family member but breaks off to say: "I don't think the Conservatives will hang on to Grimsby.
"So many people I have spoken to have said never again. They will vote Labour or not at all, that's what they're telling me."
John Steer, 65, reckons "the Tories are doomed", adding: "I can't see how Mr Sunak is going to pull it off."
He thinks the boundary change may have an effect on the outcome.
"There is more wealth in Cleethorpes [than Grimsby]," he says. "I will vote Labour but I always have.
John Steer thinks the Conservatives have "messed up"
"The Tories have messed up the hospitals, the doctors' surgeries, the dentists etcetera. Now, they are saying there is money for everything. But it wasn't there for the past 10 years or more."
Full list of candidates for the Grimsby and Cleethorpes constituency:
Ed Fraser - Green
Oliver Freeston - Reform UK
Mark Gee - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
John Lawson - Liberal Democrats
Lia Nici - Conservative
Melanie Onn - Labour
Christopher Stephenson - SDP
You can use the BBC News lookup tool to find out which constituency you are in, who is standing as a candidate in your area and which polling station you can vote at.
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- Published4 July
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