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‘We should get out of Europe. As simple as that’ – Britain’s ‘Brexit capital’ Stoke-on-Trent on EU delays and Boris Johnson

Ukip’s failure to capitalise on Stoke-on-Trent’s Euroscepticism in 2017 raised questions about the ability of the party and its leader

In the second part of his Brexit Britain tour, Dean Kirby visits Stoke-on-Trent, which voted 69.4 per cent Leave.

On the streets of Bentilee in Stoke-on-Trent, the city dubbed Britain’s Brexit capital, they suffer no fools.

Since 2016, this working-class neighbourhood that once laid claim to the title of Europe’s biggest council estate has been prodded and poked by a stream of outsiders wanting to know why the Potteries voted by 69.4 per cent to leave the EU.

So today, in the spitting rain, anyone asking the residents how they feel about the three-year Brexit delay is likely to get a sharp response.

“It’s a pain in the arse, kid,” says one man without stopping. “I’m not giving you my name. I don’t want to get milkshaked,” says another.

‘Majority voted for Brexit’

Theresa May with Emma Bridgewater
Theresa May with Emma Bridgewater at a pottery factory in Hanley in Stoke-On-Trent (Photo: Getty)

A shopkeeper finally talks to i on condition of anonymity: “On TV, you see people saying the North doesn’t know what we voted for. We are carrying the country on our backs and they have the cheek to call us thick.

“The truth is that the majority voted for Brexit and, if we respect democracy, we should get out of Europe. It’s as simple as that.

“It won’t affect us anyway. The bankers won’t let London collapse. Just don’t put my shop’s name in the paper. People have become so polarised. I don’t want a brick thrown through my windows.”

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Bentilee was built on farmland in 1930s and welcomed 7,000 people from nearby Hanley during a wave of slum clearances.

They called their new homes “sunshine houses” because the living rooms had windows at both ends. In recent years, the estate has been subjected to a series of renewal schemes with new shops, a library and a walk-in health centre.

On a frosty morning in January 2017, Ukip’s then leader, Paul Nuttall, strode boldly on to the estate in his bid to win the Stoke Central by-election.

He was buoyed by research that suggested the Bentilee ward was 87 per cent in favour of Brexit.

Wearing a tweed cap and overcoat, he was photographed kissing the hand of one elector and appeared every inch a man who believed the Brexit referendum result would help him steal a seat that had been held by Labour for 67 years.

Fast forward a few weeks later and Mr Nuttall was leaving the city amid chaotic scenes after being defeated by Labour’s Gareth Snell. “I told those Ukip people a load of crap when they came,” says Irene Nicholson, who this morning is making oat cakes in the same shop visited by Mr Nuttall in 2017.

“I voted to stay in the EU. I’m a Conservative voter, but I’m not impressed with Boris Johnson. Theresa May was trying her best. The country is dying and we need a big shake-up,” she adds as she pours the crêpe-like circles of oat cake on to a hot plate and fills them with bacon, mushrooms and cheese.

“But I wouldn’t vote for Labour. They don’t want you to succeed. They want to keep the working classes down. But it’s just my opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.”

Change in fortunes

Ukip leader Paul Nuttall canvasses for votes in Bentilee, a housing estate in the Stoke-On-Trent Central constituency. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Ukip leader Paul Nuttall canvasses for votes in Bentilee, a housing estate in the Stoke-On-Trent Central constituency (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Just over two miles away in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent’s main shopping district, Mr Nuttall’s former campaign office in a street named Piccadilly has also had a change of fortunes.

Shortly after the by-election, a Hungarian national named Gabor Helfenbein turned the shop, which had been emblazoned with purple and white Ukip signs, into an ice cream parlour selling 20 different favours of gelato. But today the shop is empty again.

Just opposite stands a van, where customers are queueing early for lunchtime baps filled with spit-roasted chicken and stuffing for £1.80 each. A sign on the side of the van says it offers “the taste of Europe”.

“I voted to stay in the EU, but I can understand why people wanted to leave,” says the van’s owner, Ian Powell, after serving a woman who has ordered a chicken breast and a tub of stuffing.

“We’re at death’s door now and it’s all doom and gloom, but something needs to be done. I don’t think it will be good for Stoke, but we all need to stick together and then bingo, we’re out.”

No-deal Brexit

Boris Johnson gets to grips with one of the chickens in the village of St Bride's Wentlooge, near Newport
Boris Johnson gets to grips with one of the chickens in the village of St Bride’s Wentlooge, near Newport (Photo: Adrian Dennis/PA Wire)

Shoppers in the streets nearby are less sure about where the UK should go from here with Boris Johnson promising a no-deal Brexit by 31 October.

“I voted for Leave, but I wasn’t 100 per cent sure,” says Wendy Wright, who is on her way to the post office. “If we had another referendum, I don’t know how I’d vote this time. Look around you. Stoke has its problems.”

Ukip’s failure to capitalise on Stoke-on-Trent’s Euroscepticism in 2017 raised questions about the ability of the party – and it’s then leader – to build its profile in Parliament.

The by-election was also a worrying time for Labour and goes some way to explaining Jeremy Corbyn’s reticence to back a second referendum. In Stoke Central, Labour’s Gareth Snell, who once tweeted that Brexit was a “massive pile of shit”, won his second poll in months and increased his majority as the Ukip candidate Mick Harold lost his deposit.

Time to leave?

Back on the Bentilee estate, Dave Bailey is walking to the shops to get his lunch. He was a farmer for 27 years and is now a builder after giving up his old career due to lack of government support and pressure from supermarket prices.

In the 2016 referendum, he had a pro-Brexit sign on his house.

“I voted for Ukip in the last election,” he says. “They seemed to know what they wanted. But Boris Johnson is the best thing we’ve ever had.”

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