Ukip take on Labour with conference in Doncaster, home to Ed Miliband’s seat

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/sep/25/ukip-fight-labour-conference-doncaster-ed-miliband-seat

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On the face of it, Yorkshire mining and market towns don’t come more Labour than Doncaster, home to the safe seat of Ed Miliband.

Nigel Farage, however, is no fool when it comes to sniffing out a neglected electorate, making Friday’s Ukip conference at Doncaster racecourse more than a symbolic challenge on Miliband’s turf. After years of dysfunctional governance, some Doncaster voters are casting around for alternatives to Labour, with almost as many voting for Ukip in May’s local elections.

Suspicion of politicians runs deep, after councillors were imprisoned for taking bribes in the 1990s and the failure to stop child abuse left the local authority in special measures. They would never pick a Tory, but residents did opt for a gaffe-prone, un-PC English Democrat mayor in 2009, before booting his failing administration out last year.

Despite having only two councillors, Ukip believes it has a chance of dismantling what it describes as a Labour fiefdom that has run the council with a huge majority for too long.

“Doncaster is one of the lowest-waged towns in the UK,” said Guy Aston, the Ukip candidate who stood against the shadow cabinet minister Caroline Flint in Don Valley. “It has suffered the dead hand of a Labour administration that takes it for granted that it will ever be in power.”

Aston identifies three major grievances where Ukip aims to challenge: tensions over eastern European immigration, £20m of taxpayer cash spent on stylish new civic offices and the council’s decision to privatise its elderly care system. His diagnosis may be correct, but Ukip’s gains appear more the result of unhappiness with the incumbents than enthusiasm for Farage, who has promised a “full-frontal assault” on Labour, claiming it has failed to represent blue collar voters.

George Lemasurier, a butcher in the town’s historic covered market, describes himself as “completely apolitical”, but he is outraged that Miliband can appear on television promising to protect public services against privatisation.

He joined a grassroots campaign for the first time after it became clear that his 84-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia, would have to move out of her state-run home. Her care may now be put into the hands of a private provider, where the staff have been striking over low pay and worse conditions, unless a last-minute bid by a charity is accepted.

One in three Doncaster residents has signed a petition against the closures and the campaign has already caused disruption at a council byelection this summer.

“What we did was deliver leaflets about the closures through everyone’s door and Ukip got in,” Lemasurier said. “We’ve told every member of the council of whatever party, we will come into their constituency and campaign against them if they support this.”

The mood is similar in nearby Hexthorpe, where Labour is facing a revolt over eastern European immigration, but Ukip - and the English Defence League (EDL) - are still regarded with scepticism.

Like the care home campaigners, the Hexthorpe Matters group is not politically aligned, but it passed a motion of no confidence in the Doncaster Central MP Rosie Winterton, who is also Miliband’s chief whip, accusing her of failing to listen to their concerns about antisocial behaviour and dumped rubbish. Over the summer, an EDL rally stirred up feelings on both sides and a fight, apparently between groups of Poles and Slovakians, led to a stabbing.

“The Roma don’t yet understand the social interaction of living in the UK,” said Stuart Boardman, a villager running the group. “We realise we have to work with them, but we need help. People are fed up definitely. We’re not for or against party politics, but there’s hell of a lot of people in Hexthorpe who feel they are being ignored.”

Another local businessman, who did not want his name to be printed for fear of repercussions, takes a different view - frustration with those exploiting divisions for political purposes.

“The [new immigrants] are noisy and quite messy, but also very respectful and family orientated ,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people from the other end of the village, the English, they’re nice people but they are not any better. There needs to be talks with the immigrants, not just a few people going on Facebook and spread the word around Ukip, the EDL.”

The Labour mayor, Ros Jones, argues that unrest over immigration is a problem in one small area of Doncaster that is still firmly Labour-voting. By her own admission a bean counter, she has helped turn the council around, allowing it to leave special measures in October, and has pitched for a new HS2 skills college for the town that built the Flying Scotsman.

Doncaster has been in the doldrums, she admits, but came out of the recession in much better shape than many other northern towns. As for the Caregate protest, Jones points out that Doncaster has had to deal with a 50% budget reduction because of the chancellor George Osborne’s cuts.

She is also relaxed about Ukip, which she argues is on the rise everywhere. “What they fail to put over is their most prominent politician, Nigel Farage, is a supporter of Margaret Thatcher.”

Jones is right that Farage is viewed as rightwing among some of the few shoppers who have heard of him in Mexborough, part of Miliband’s constituency, and there is still a strong strand of Labour loyalty when it comes to national politics. Barbara Street, 65, knows nothing about a Ukip conference but rails against the council’s failure to do “simple things” . She does not blame Miliband, though, as he seems “more down-to-earth, more our type”.

Another resident, 48-year-old James McGregor, was also excited about the prospect of Miliband becoming the next prime minister.

“He’s from Mexborough, or from this area. It’s amazing he’s going to be our future leader. I took a picture of him. I think he’s cool.”

Asked about Farage’s overtures to the people of Doncaster, he is not impressed. “Ukip? Are they the ones who don’t like the foreigners, so to speak? Totally against them. They don’t have a lot of support round here.”