Westminster is champing at the bit to see if Reform UK wins a crucial by-election against Labour next week. Locals are indifferent.
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“Nothing is going to change,” says one resident in the Local Federation of the Blind charity shop. A fellow attendee dismisses politicians as “thieving liars” who only care about their “own pockets.” A third describes politics as a “game of chess.” Like some of the other members of the public quoted in this piece, they were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the contest.
Against that backdrop of political mistrust, Reform think they stand a chance. Their candidate Sarah Pochin, a former magistrate and councilor, built her campaign around change — the word Labour used last year to great effect after years of Conservative rule.
“People are really fed up with Labour. They feel totally let down by Labour,” she said at Reform’s campaign HQ, which sits among charity shops and a Cash Converters pawn shop in Runcorn Shopping City.
The walls are full of teal branding and posters of Pochin and Farage. Piles of bundled leaflets on the floor and the tables await delivery.
“People are very, very disillusioned,” Pochin declared. “They feel like they’re not being listened to. They feel like Runcorn is a dumping ground because they haven’t got a voice to say ‘enough is enough.’”
But the disconnect goes wider than Runcorn. One Age UK worker, in between sorting stock and serving customers, said the “north, east and west as a whole are left out” of politics.
Questioned about whether a Reform MP could improve accountability by challenging the government from outside rather than follow the Labour whip, Shore was unrepentant.
“It’s really straightforward for me because if I’m a Labour MP, I’m going to be part of the party that’s in government and can get things done.”
She added: “That’s what MPs are there for: to deliver for their communities, as opposed to sitting on the outside throwing stones … and maybe not necessarily achieving anything.”
Frodsham is a pleasant market town surrounded by wind turbines and birdsong. Streets are well maintained with flower beds in boxes on the pavement, old-fashioned lamp posts and a freshly painted red phone box.
A signpost by the railway bridge highlighted its heritage, with pictures of earlier settlements as well as plaques from Cheshire Community Council naming Frodsham winner of the best-kept village competition in 2001.
But despite its beauty, residents felt the same political despair.
Lewis plans to go further by creating Heath Park, an environmentally friendly development with more than 500 homes, a vertical farm and leisure spaces.
Yet despite council approval, the proposal has been called in by the government because of its proximity to chemical facilities and potential ground contamination.
“It is what it is,” Lewis said. “We have to go through the process.” He claims the concerns were “a nonsense” but “you’ve just got to take it on the chin.”
Labour promised to build 1.5 million homes during this parliament. The delays make that target harder.
“There will always be people who are against it, and they tend to shout louder,” Lewis said. The inquiry into the plans was meant to start in February, but was pushed back to September.
Regardless of his high profile, Lewis said he felt frustrated with democracy’s sluggishness: “If you look at the way we operate our politics and then compare it to the advancements of the way we live, it’s poles apart.”
Both Shore and Pochin said more homes were needed — but building is easier said than done as objections and regulations throw a spanner into their plans.
“We’re seen as the poorer cousins,” said Steven Chester, owner of the park’s Premier Aquatics shop, on London’s view of the northwest. “New people coming in are going to deal with the same problems.”