Daily Times

A lot of politicians have promised change to voters in Hartlepool, a wind-whipped port town in northeast England. For decades, Labour Party representatives said they would fight for working people, even as well-paid industrial jobs disappeared. Later, Conservatives under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed to bring new money and opportunities on the back of Brexit.

But as British voters prepare to elect a new government Thursday, Hartlepool´s many problems persist. It has higher unemployment, lower pay, shorter life expectancy, more drug deaths and higher crime rates than the country as a whole. Opinion polls put center-left Labour well ahead of the governing Conservatives nationwide, but many voters remain undecided – and even more are jaded. To regain power after 14 years, Labour must win back disillusioned voters in Hartlepool and other northern towns where decades of economic decline have spawned health and social problems, and a deep sense of disillusionment. “At the last election, I voted Conservative because Johnson promised our waters back – and lied through his teeth,” said Stan Rennie, a fisherman who has caught lobster off Hartlepool for five decades but says he can scarcely scrape a living anymore.

“Because we´re the northeast, I don´t think the government even knows we exist,” he said. “We´re the forgotten land.” A proud, rugged town jutting into the North Sea 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of London, Hartlepool is scarred by industrial decline. The shipyards and steelworks that once employed thousands are long gone. The fishing fleet has been shrinking for years. In a 2016 referendum, Hartlepool voted heavily to leave the European Union, persuaded by Johnson and other Brexit-backers that quitting the bloc would let the U.K. control immigration and free up billions in cash for struggling post-industrial areas. Three years later, many postindustrial areas in England’s Labour-supporting “Red Wall” switched allegiance and backed Johnson’s Conservatives in an election. Labour hung on in Hartlepool until 2021, when the Conservatives won the seat in a special election. In the past few years, Hartlepool has received government money to spiff up its train station, restore old buildings and revive the waterfront, but well-paid jobs have been slow in coming. In a town center pocked with empty shopfronts, retiree Sheila Wainwright had to stop and think when asked what politicians had delivered for Hartlepool. “Improved the promenade?” she suggested. “But then you´ve seen all the shops shutting, like every other town. “I don´t think you can believe anybody. They all come out with this stuff, but it never happens, as far as I can see.”