In the middle of the afternoon rush, the main street in Scunthorpe appears too quiet. Several stores have closed for the day. Many are closed for good. Between the mortgage lane and the baker sits 27 -year -old Chris Mawson. He has just escaped from prison for the fourth time. He has no other place to do. Another homeless man carries quilts and pillows and tries to find a place for the night. A third is sleeping on a bench. A homeless man takes a nap on a bench in Scunthorpe. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Only the laughter of two girls playing on a bike breaks with the otherwise fairly bleak mood. The forgotten industrial towns go to Scunthorpe if you want to understand the political mood, one of the UK’s foremost political understanders told me. So I did. And even though I’ve never been there before, I immediately recognized myself. The worn, degraded, hopeless mood is the one together as in Grimsby, Rotherham or Bishop Auckland. It is the same as in forgotten industrial cities in large parts of mid and northern England. The clock has just passed 16, and it is dead in Scunthorpes shopping. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news Traditionally, people in such cities have voted on the British Labor Party Labor. In 2019, Boris Johnson broke the “Red Wall” here, when several voted conservatively for the first time. But in 2024 Keir Starmer won them back. In places like this, many voted for the UK to opt out of the EU back in 2016. Brexit came into being here. And the man who pushed through the referendum on the EU at the time was named Nigel Farage. Then he was the leader of UKIP, the British Independence Party. His latest party is called Reform UK. The end for the British top party system on May 1st there is local elections in many places in England. Scunthorpe is part of The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority where direct elections will be held for the first time. Elsewhere, representatives are elected to county councils. A supplementary choice to parliament will also be held. And on this day of workers, the relatively new, right -wing populist party Reform UK is set to make a braking choice. The party did not do badly during the parliamentary elections last summer. It won 14.3 percent of the vote and went from zero to five seats in the lower house. Had there been parliamentary elections today, they would have received 254 seats, show a forecast based on YouGov’s poll made between 21 and April 22. Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage is in the wind during the day. Photo: Ben Stansall / AFP / NTB where 25 percent of those surveyed responded to vote for reform UK at the next parliamentary elections. 23 per cent will vote for the Labor government and 20 per cent on the Conservative Party. In addition, the Greens and Liberal Democrats also appear on the measurements, at the expense of Labor and Tory. “It looks like the top party system is over in British politics,” Tony Travers told news. He is a professor of political science at the London School of Economics, LSE. In the last 150 years, two dominant parties have switched to having government power. The electoral system with one -man circles gives disproportionately large count in parliament for these two. The discussion of introducing a proportional system, such as Norway has been going on for a long time. But the reigning parties have put an end to change because the system benefits them. Tony Travers is a professor of political science at the London School of Economics, LSE. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news Travers already states before today’s local elections that reform will win hundreds of seats. The first test for Labor in government The local election is a test for how Labor is doing in government. This is the first election since the British Labor Party came to power last summer, after 14 years in opposition. – I don’t vote Labor! In Scunthorpe, Gail Brooks is unsure who gets her vote in the local elections today. She used to cook for schoolchildren in Scunthorpe and wash the school buildings there. Now she is a pensioner and has taken the grandson on a walk in the city’s main street. Gail Brooks is a pensioner and thinks Scunthorpe was much better before. She used to vote Labor, but she shouldn’t do that today. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news She is disappointed that what was once the working class party has cut support for pensioners and workers after it came into government. Now she is considering voting Reform UK. The leader Nigel Farage can be a better prime minister than Keir Starmer, she believes. Maybe he can save the city from the total decay. The last steel plant and perhaps reform can save British Steel’s steel plant in Scunthorpe. It is the last remaining steel plant in the UK that makes steel from the ground up. Reform UK will nationalize British Steel in Scunthorpe; The last remaining virgin steel plant in the UK. Photo: Gry Blekastad Almås / news recently took the government over the control of the steel plant, when the Chinese owners threatened to shut down operations. 2700 workers would lose their jobs. But the government is looking for a new private owner. Reform UK will nationalize the steel plant. – I’m going to vote reform. Most people I work with are going to switch from Labor to reform, says Adam Davies. Adam Davies works at British Steel in Scunthorpe, and will vote Reform UK to save his workplace. Photo: Håvard Blekastad Almås / news The 26-year-old works at the steel plant in the sixth year, and is convinced that a nationalized steel plant will be the best for him. He also likes that reform UK defends British culture. Test for conservative local elections is also a test for the new opposition leader in British politics. Kemi Badenoch took over as leader of the Conservative Party after Rishi Sunak last fall. She has had to endure a lot of criticism for being invisible, and not to be clear on where she wants to take the party further. Of the over 1,600 representatives who are elected for Reform UK in this local elections, 60 are quirks of the Conservative Party. It shows a count Labor has done, writes The Guardian. Kemi Badenoch took over as party leader in the Conservative Party after Rishi Sunak. Photo: – / AFP / NTB “It is clear to everyone that the Tory are planning to make a snuffy agreement with Nigel Farage”. Such is the reaction from Labor on speculation in the British press that the two parties on the right side of British politics are considering merging towards the next parliamentary elections. “A vote for reform is a risk of getting the Tory back,” continues the spokesman for the government party. So Reform UK is now leading the national polls. Labor is number two and the Torys in third place. – It is reasonably shocking that the official opposition party is number three, says Tony Travers. So the voters seem to try something new. The state scientist describes the typical reform voter as a man, often older and with low income. They belong to the group of people who are often called “left-they”, the forgotten. They were forgotten when the global economy changed. When the British industry was built down and areas in northern England stopped being important. Published 01.05.2025, at. 08.34
ttn-69
