Theresa May's Katrina

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/5039
Date Written:  2017-07-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21609

The unlikely reality of a bearded, unashamedly socialist (of sorts) MP winning the affection of working class voters countrywide calls out for further investigation.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The UKIP vote, which had previously attracted significant white working-class support, collapsed from nearly four million in the 2015 election to just under 600,000. It is also clear that Labour's relatively radical manifesto/policy statement callingfor nationalizing the railways and utilities, building more council or social housing, an end to austerity and a halt to the creeping privatization of the National Health Service, attracted working-class voters.

In many working-class areas this meant an increased Labour majority. In Hartlepool in the northeast, a largely working-class town that voted 70% for Brexit, where UKIP came in second with over 11,000 votes in 2015 and thousands of steel jobs were lost just two years ago, Labour more than doubled its majority from about 3,000 in 2015 to 7,600 this year.

Corbyn drew 10,000 to a rally in the rain. UKIP's vote fell to 4801. Similarly enlarged Labour majorities occurred across the country.