Batley and Spen by-election. Who can the patriotic English working class voter turn to in Labour heartlands?

“British jobs for British workers” reported the newspaper headlines during the Conservative Party Conference.  However, within days it was revealed that the Conservative Government had ordered steel from France to build Britain’s replacement Trident submarines.  Meanwhile job losses in the helicopter industry in Yeovil could be the prelude to the Italian manufacturer Leonardo – once there was Westland – moving helicopter production to Italy.  Lord Ashdown, Yeovil’s MP between 1983 and 2001, was reported in the Western Daily Press as saying:

“It is at present too early to say whether Brexit has had any part to play in these job losses which seem primarily to be the consequence of the Government’s foolish decision to buy helicopters made abroad rather than at Yeovil.”  

So much for the Conservatives supporting British manufacturing industries!  Could the patriotic English working class remain loyal to Labour?  Not if you consider the following. 

In an article of the 9^th October 2016 on politicalbetting.com, Jeff Wild considered the chances of Sir Keir Starmer being the next Labour leader, he also wrote: 

 “Emboldened by his recent convincing re-election, Corbyn – who yesterday was speaking at an event organised by the Socialist Workers Party, much to the chagrin of some of his media supporters – has put together the front bench team he believes will take the battle to the Tories and defeat them. So, alongside the IRA-apologist shadow Chancellor and the white van man-trashing shadow foreign secretary – who both kept their briefs – in came a Mao-apologist as shadow home secretary and an anti-Trident campaigner in the shadow defence role; the latter replacing Clive Lewis, who had the temerity to suggest supporting party policy at the Labour conference.”


In such circumstance who can patriotic working class Englishmen, and women, vote for?  Dan Hodges, in this article in the Daily Mail on 9^th October 2016, suggests they might indeed be heading, via Ukip, to the Conservatives:  

 “With the heirs to Nigel Farage beating each other into submission, and Corbyn announcing Labour will become the defenders of unlimited migration, the theory Ukip represent a threat to Labour heartlands has become outdated.  Ukip are now just a political gateway drug, the vehicle by which former Labour voters make the transition to the Tory fold.  In the new centre ground there is no room for Labour heartland seats.”

I doubt that patriotic English working class voters who are disenchanted with Labour will ever bring themselves to vote Conservative.  Nor will they turn to Ukip if it is led by Steven Woolfe, someone who has, reportedly, considered defecting to the Conservatives.  A Ukip led by Paul Nuttall and espousing an English Parliament might appeal to some, but is that likely to come about?  So perhaps Therese Hirst and the English Democrats can make their presence felt in Batley and Spen by seizing the chance to occupy the ground vacated by Labour as it marches off to the far-left.