4 May 2022
"Good evening, sorry to bother you, I'm with your Labour candidate-" the canvasser would begin.
"Sorry mate, not interested. I'm voting Alvin Ashleigh and Northumbrian Nationalist," the voter would respond, slamming the door.
Such was the scene that, on the eve of polling day, had been playing out in variations across Northumbria. Since the surprise victory of Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 snap election five years prior, his popularity had been sinking like a stone: working-class Northern voters, in a recent poll, gave him an approval rating of 0%. "He loves the IRA and Hamas but hates this country, doesn't he?" was a common refrain on the doorstep.
Leave voters had been betrayed after years of anti-Brexit parliamentary politicking had culminated in a second referendum, which Remain won 50.2-49.8. "The voters have spoken, and the will of the people must be heard," Emily Thornberry had gleefully declared the morning after.
In contrast to Jeremy Corbyn's so-called "loony left" cabinet stood the boldly Northern, proud working-class Alvin Ashleigh. He went to Greggs, not Pret. He ate mushy peas, not guacamole. He had never even heard of an 'allotment'. He came from Walker, a place so Red Wall the name literally meant 'Wall marsh', not metropolitan Wiltshropshire. He even loved his country, a concept utterly alien to Jeremy Corbyn - the only country Corbyn loved was Palestine, maybe Cuba and Venezuela too.
Tomorrow, the people of Northumbria would vote: Jeremy Corbyn, or Alvin Ashleigh?
"Sorry mate, not interested. I'm voting Alvin Ashleigh and Northumbrian Nationalist," the voter would respond, slamming the door.
Such was the scene that, on the eve of polling day, had been playing out in variations across Northumbria. Since the surprise victory of Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 snap election five years prior, his popularity had been sinking like a stone: working-class Northern voters, in a recent poll, gave him an approval rating of 0%. "He loves the IRA and Hamas but hates this country, doesn't he?" was a common refrain on the doorstep.
Leave voters had been betrayed after years of anti-Brexit parliamentary politicking had culminated in a second referendum, which Remain won 50.2-49.8. "The voters have spoken, and the will of the people must be heard," Emily Thornberry had gleefully declared the morning after.
In contrast to Jeremy Corbyn's so-called "loony left" cabinet stood the boldly Northern, proud working-class Alvin Ashleigh. He went to Greggs, not Pret. He ate mushy peas, not guacamole. He had never even heard of an 'allotment'. He came from Walker, a place so Red Wall the name literally meant 'Wall marsh', not metropolitan Wiltshropshire. He even loved his country, a concept utterly alien to Jeremy Corbyn - the only country Corbyn loved was Palestine, maybe Cuba and Venezuela too.
Tomorrow, the people of Northumbria would vote: Jeremy Corbyn, or Alvin Ashleigh?
