Labour needn’t worry: in its northern heartlands, Brexiters are not the only voices

You can cherrypick your vox pops to suit, but Mary Creagh, the local Labour MP, and the local People’s Vote campaigners, say they’ve found a marked change in the past two months. And this isn’t just wishful thinking from remainers. YouGov this month polled 5,000 Labour heartland voters in the north-east, north-west, Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside. Did these Labour voters back “a new public vote on whether Britain should leave on the deal negotiated or stay in the EU”? Three-quarters supported the idea, and 43% said that if Labour backed a vote they would feel greater affinity for the party. Only 8% said it would make them feel less keen on Labour; only 11% backed Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Labour never was the party of Brexit and it’s become even less so now. Don’t mythologise “northern working-class Labour man” when Brexit is overwhelmingly a Tory disease