Liberal Democrat members looking for encouragement should read the piece Toby Helm wrote for today's Observer after visiting Winchester:
On the city’s streets there is not only a deep dislike of Brexit, but also a profound distrust of the prime minister, Boris Johnson, even among people who have voted Tory in the past. Kevin Hayter, who co-owns a local construction company, voted Tory in 2010 and 2015 when David Cameron was leader, but said he would never do so again because the party had changed utterly.
"They are now a tawdry, deceitful lot who kicked out all the decent one-nation Tories and I can’t vote for them. And, of course, there is Brexit. Neither will I be voting Labour. They are just pernicious and seem to spend all their time purging moderates."
A few yards along the high street, Ian McCoy, a chartered surveyor, said the Tories had headed off to the "far right". He believed they would be rejected by the people of Winchester. "Winchester is full of a lot of very reasonable, sensible people who don’t like that kind of politics," he said. Asked about Johnson, he shook his head and said he was "just a buffoon".Winchester was held by the Lib Dems between 1997 and 2010, but the Conservatives had a majority of 10,000 at the last election.
Even so, Helm suspects that will not be enough to save them.
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