Sedgefield, a former coal-mining area in County Durham, had faithfully voted Labour in every election since before World War II. ADADBlair is the only Labour leader to have won general elections for almost half a century. Under three successors, the party has lost its grip on its historic coalition of liberal metropolitan middle-class voters with working-class supporters — and now that coalition has been shattered. “Not Brexit.”Incredibly, it seems the biggest indicator of Tory-backing constituencies was not their stance on Brexit but if they had high proportion of working-class voters. Yet it switched to the party that has overseen big cuts in public spending since it gained power in 2010.

Source: Washington Post December 13, 2019 17:42 UTC