‘Labour Have Completely Misunderstood’ | Scunthorpe: Reform UK’s Next Political Battleground

Andrea Jenkyns, the former Conservative MP, is wearing woollen protective equipment so thick that if she’s splashed by the liquid iron running at 1,500 degrees Celsius in the blast furnace, it will glance off her jacket as glass droplets.

Now running as Reform UK’s candidate for Greater Lincolnshire Mayor, Jenkyns is at the British Steel mills on the edge of Scunthorpe to add her voice to concerns about its future. With only two working furnaces it nowadays employs 3,000 people Although still the biggest local employer, it once supported around thirty times as many workers.

Read the rest of Kitty Donaldson’s piece here: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/inside-divided-town-reform-channelling-thatcher-to-win-big-3516072

Produced by Robbie Hawken
Filmed by Robbie Hawken & Max Tobin

📖 Chapters 📖
0:00 – 1:08 – Welcome To Scunthorpe
1:08 – 3:30 -‘It Feels Like A Ghost Town’
3:30 – 4:05 – ‘I Wouldn’t Know One Politician From Another’
4:05 – 4:42 – The Upcoming Election
4:42 – 7:22 – Andrea Jenkyns
7:22 – 9:15 – Her Biggest Opponent
9:15 – 12:00 – ‘Labour Have Completely Misunderstood’
12:00 – 12:28 – Conclusion

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feels more like a ghost town than what it was the shop shutting every week youve wanted to look around you’ll see it’s a divided Community I’d like a Lincolnshire equivalent of an industrial revolution the labor government for which I voted have completely misunderstood it’s my home town but sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed by it if I’m being honest you know it’s a bit of a let down now welcome to scunthorp this industrial town is home to just over 80,000 people but it might be the scene of the UK’s next political battle in May the residents of Greater lincolshire will elect their first ever mayor and reform UK are eyeing up as another potential gain so our chief political commentator Kitty Donaldson traveled to scunthorp to find out how residents feel about the town and why reform are quite so optimistic scunthorp rose from a population of around 1,000 in the 1840s to 50,000 in the 1950s most of this boid by the emergence of the steel industry in the area the steel factory still dominates the skyline in the southeast of the town it once employed nearly 100,000 people now it employs 3,000 and that is part of a process which leaves many of the people living here feeling like their town is empty I was born here um I’m nearly 57 and really now it’s feels more like a ghost town than what it was there’s not a lot going on the shops closing down left right in center um and to be honest with you it’s my home toown but sometimes I feel a bit embarrassed by it if I’m being honest you know it’s a bit of a let down now and how long have you lived in the area oh since 1962 yeah and have you seen many changes in that time oh yes yeah yeah all of the wor really well the all the shops are shut in so it’s even worse since Co it seems to be you know cuz everybody hard is online don’t they are you know what I mean so there’s shops shutting every week you’ve wanted to look around you’ll see um I’ve just recently become the manager of a h which is for the homeless the addicted and do you think it’s a particularly big problem in this area it is a lot worse than I thought it was yeah um I’m originally from RAM and it’s not that bad but in in skun you get at least 15 20 homeless people coming in during the day just to see if they’ve got spare pants things like that cuz that it’s absolutely freezing at the minute and do you find the local community supportive or or is it more of a divided Community it’s a divided uh Community I said shops closing their FR in Center rents have gone up people can’t afford it and then they’re just getting replaced by uh charity shops things like that but there is also another tension within the area it was described by one resident as being a barcode town where whes and British Asian communities do not integrate with each other I think the town’s lost its identity in a lot of ways um there a lot of foreigners here which doesn’t really bother me but it it seems to have lost a bit of its gumption a bit of its zest there’s a there’s a lot of foreigners in the town yeah and is that a problem not to me but no might be to somebody but it’s not to me they all live in one place put it that way okay and I won’t go down there at night why is that because it’s it’s rough yeah and does that worry people in the town do you think I would think so yeah the other thing we’re looking at is the uh election in May for the mayor of grer Lincolnshire right and just wondering whether You’ had any thoughts about that yet on how you might vote can I be totally honest with you I cannot understand politics and I’ve got no interest in it and I wouldn’t know one politician from another as far the only thing I do know is is that generally it’s one side conning the other side to get in and when they get in they make a mess and that’s my the only thing I can say about I’ve got no interest honestly I it means nothing to me I don’t think many people I’m going to be honest I don’t think many people in scunthorp do actually vote I think it’s a a case of once the new politicians come into act we then find out if anything’s actually going to change in the in the community and so will you be voting in May uh probably and and have you thought about who you might vote for I’ve thought about it and I still don’t know given this tension over immigration and the clear dissatisfaction with politics it is possible that reform’s rhetoric could give them an edge over other candidates at the last general election Linker remained largely in Tory hands indeed a Tor Council has run scunthorp for over a decade but in July reform UK made their breakthrough in the area with Richard Ty winning the nearby Boston and sknas for reform for the hopeful candidate is Dame Andrea Jenkins the former Tor MP and Minister she defected from the Tory party after losing her seat in July we met her at scun thorp’s British steel factory to question her approach on this campaign it’s an important election not only for reform but it’s important I think for Lincolnshire as well because I want to bring a common sense approach to politics I think people are so disengaged so frustrated with politicians I don’t believe what they say anymore and I want to restore Trust but I also want to think outside the box so reform are doing very well in the polls nationally but largely on issues of national importance such as migration yes is that a point you’ll be making the local campaign or are you going to stick to local issues no I mean look it is very important um and and they see it in the heart of linker don’t they we’ve seen it in Boston as well when I used to be a counselor in Boston we saw um the negative effects of um you know legal migration Etc now so I’ll touch on it but no a key Focus for me is actually I I’d like a Lincolnshire equivalent of an industrial revolution I want to see hope and really invoke that Spirit of linol share and make sure that I want us to be a Beacon of Hope in times which are quite difficult for people in this country do you think the conservatives and reform risk splitting each other’s vote in the elections I mean look I’m a product of that in the general election I lost my seat didn’t I um as a conserv ative however what I’ve found since is quite remarkable actually since I’ve been in reform and campaigning across linkan and in Grimsby for example and in skob ETC labor voters coming over to reform so I think it’s different this time I think what’s different is there’s actually a party out there a bit like thater did really she pulled from both sides didn’t she um and um I think we’ve got that ability as reform to bring Common Sense policies which attract from labor and conservatives using thater as a quoting her is is fascinating because I think I think or every modory leader rather would would rather hold on that themselves I mean even the Prime Minister k d was using that during the election do you think she’s sort of symbolic of something that’s been lost perhaps I I think you you’ve hit the nail on the head actually because I think thater was a kind of leader that we need in Britain at the moment and I feel we are get in that in the US with Trump I think what was we’ll see with Trump in the west is a move from this globalist agenda like we’ve seen you know the Paris climate change agreement in pulling out so I think we’ll see a move away from that and more of a focus on the nation state and putting your your interests of your people at the heart of your decisions and I think that the British people will see what’s going on in America under Trump as time goes on and I think they’ll start wanting that in Britain as well but it’s not expected to be an easy ride for the reformed candidate although candidates from other parties including labor are running her biggest opponent in the area is expected to be Tory Rob wolam who has run North Lincolnshire Council since 2011 he argues that reform could struggle to fit a national agenda into a local election we we’re running a local election campaign really and you know with a local candidate that’s me and so we’ll be fighting the election not on National issues because it’s not a national election you know we’re talking about how do you improve buses you know locally how do you make sure the roads are are better how do you make sure we access better skills how do we make sure we’ve got good flood defenses you know all of those things you know how do we stop the pylons cuz we’ve got pylons that are going to be blighting a historic landscape do you think that however much you’re talking about pylons and local Services reform will try and skew the argument towards their key policy areas such as migration well I I’m I mean I have to say other than National issues I’m not sure what they stand for you know fighting on a a local platform is always you know it’s more responsive to what residents want to happen you know we’re not going to rewrite a general election so by splitting the vote you’ve effectively ended up with a big seat Labor uh majority that means that they can dominate areas like Lincoln share without having really many members of parliament there but most importantly you know that split vote does that it rewards labor with a with a message that they can continue to do what they’re doing now wouldn’t be just as effective for reform to say that you would be splitting their vote well I think you know what we do know is in areas where we ended up with a new labor Member of Parliament the vote was split between reform and conservative invariably conservative came second so I would argue that the reform was split in the conservative vote leading to a labor MP but of course greater Lincolnshire is more than just scunthorp much of it is populated with farmers who could ultimately play a pivotal role in deciding the election the farmers are up in arms at the moment is do you share the stim about the inheritance tax changes I do share I think that the labor government for which I voted um have completely misunderstood the um small farm situation and how a farm is set up um the the limit that they can understand inheritance tax in a funny sort of way but um the inheritance tax being based on just1 million although it sounds a huge amount of money to to everyone else it is not so there are an awful lot of farms not just in lincol ch but in the whole country who are really going to suffer if the farmer like my husband drop dead tomorrow and they’re going to be unreasonably penalized and have to sell some of their Farm which might have been in the farm like in our case for nearly 100 years and our morale is so low now we just feel like we’ve been bashed over the head with NI and the increase in the minimum wage um we just feel like we’ve been bashed over the head and oh and rates rates are going back up again as well so we just feel it’s um so yes we are not in love with labor at the moment and they’ve got to change their ways or we be voting for something else next time talking voting uh elections in May for the greater Lincolnshire area for the maril T have you thought yet about who you might vote for no so this is the first time that we’ve obviously had a mayor in greater lincolshire greater Lincolnshire is quite a hard area to look after for one mayor because it is a 100 uh miles from top to bottom so that’s a big big area and as you say you’ve got the rural you’ve got the lovely Lincoln which is beautiful um you’ve got scumthorp which is very industrial and you’ve got everything in between you’ve got the co you know a huge Coastal area as well so it is going to be very tricky for them I think we’ve just got to see what policies they’re going to come out with you’ll be voting on local issues it’s a short version I will be voting on local issues defin so when reform come to the area and they talk about immigration and so forth is that a message do you think that’s going to hit home it’ll be really tricky it’ll be really interesting to see um speaking for myself I don’t agree with what they talk about but I can see that it does appeal to some people and especially if the message is Twisted to to be they’ve taken your jobs I mean yeah it just makes my blood boil um that kind of sentiment um but I can see that people will definitely be as much as they are falling out of love with labor then it is a chance for the other part well reform in particular to pick up some of those photos although there are still months before we will know who wins the race for greater lincolshire mayor what is already becoming clear is the growing ambition of Reform UK with genuine anger at the labor government continuing to rise could this be a statement victory for Nigel farage’s party or will it be the first sign of a Tory resurgence [Music]