'People are fed up, tired and scared': the battle for Wrexham

Peter Hopwood spent 45 years working in the north Wales coalfield and now every time he walks through Wrexham town centre he stops for a moment at the sculpture of a miner on Lord Street. “I give him a tap and think about those years underground,” said Hopwood, a sprightly 87. “It was hard work but we had some good times too – until Maggie Thatcher came and wrecked it all.”

Like most of his workmates, Hopwood always voted Labour but not this time. “In my my heart I’m Labour and I voted for remain in the referendum because I reckon working people in places like this get a better deal from Europe than they do from London,” he said.

“This time it’s a toss-up between the Brexit party and the Tories. I never thought I’d say that. We’ve had so many governments over the last 300 years and nobody’s got it right. We’re still all arguing about how to run the country. We need to rip it all up and start again.”

Hopwood is not your archetypal rebel. After his mining career ended, he worked as a carer and then devoted himself to looking after his wife, Theresa, until she died three years ago.

Now he is searching for something different for his country, a fresh start, and his way of making a point seems to be to cast his vote for something that goes against what he has believed in all his life.

When the coal mines thrived Wrexham was indubitably Labour. The party has held the seat since 1935 and in the mid-1970s had a majority of more than 16,000. In 2017 this fell to a little over 1,800 and the Tories strongly believe they can cause a huge shock next week by winning in Wrexham and other longtime Labour strongholds.

Hopwood lives on the edge of the Caia Park estate, a key battleground in the campaign. One part of the estate is in the top 10 of the poorest in Wales and is the most educationally deprived spot in the country.

Eirian Hughes, 50, was on her doorstep of her house in Caia Park smoking a cigarette before heading off for the 3pm-midnight shift cleaning at the Eagles Meadow shopping centre.

She and her partner both work to enjoy the nights out and the holidays that two wages pay for. “We work hard for the life we want,” Hughes said. She doesn’t see herself as particularly rich or poor. “We’re somewhere in the middle.”

In the past Hughes has voted for both Labour and Tory but plumped for Ukip in 2015 when Nigel Farage’s party came a solid third in Wrexham. “The Conservatives and Labour say they’ll fight for us but we’re nothing to them.”

Hughes was among the 59% of the electorate in Wrexham who backed leave in the referendum. She insists she is not racist but rages against the town’s Polish and Portuguese residents, who she claims take jobs from local people.

She also complains about the town’s hospital, Wrexham Maelor, and was horrified by the story of a 70-year-old man who died after waiting in an ambulance outside the hospital for eight hours. “Is that going to happen to me in the end?” asked Hughes. “You pay national insurance from the day you leave school. And it comes to that.” She doesn’t even think she’ll bother to vote this time.

On the face of it, Wrexham should be a straight fight between Labour and Tory but it is complex. Though the parliamentary seat has been Labour for more than 80 years, Wrexham council is run by a Tory/independent coalition. One council officer, who asked not to be named, summed up the ruling group as an “austerity masochist Conservative coalition” – but added that there was no life in the Labour opposition.

Another complicating factor is that policy areas like health and education are the responsibility of the Welsh Labour government. With many different parties to blame, it is no surprise allegiances have become so fluid.

When the Guardian asked residents which issues were most important to them, Brexit was by no means at the top of everyone’s list. Respondents expressed concerns about the state of the hospital, the impact of austerity, homelessness, the struggles of AFC Wrexham (the third oldest professional football team in the world but currently floundering in the fifth tier of the English pyramid) and, perhaps most strikingly, the number of people for whom hunger is a pressing concern.

“Six months ago I think it was all about Brexit,” said 30-year-old Bill Long, who was born and bred in Wrexham. “I think people are now realising, hang on, we’ve had three prime ministers under the Conservatives since Brexit and things are getting worse. People are very fed up, tired and scared.”

As a teacher at St Christopher’s in Wrexham, the largest special school in Wales, Long sees the pressure on the most vulnerable. Some pupils come into school hungry and he says teachers dip into their own pockets to feed them. Long has sometimes brought in a toaster and bread to make sure there’s a snack on the go at break-times.

Teachers and teaching assistants don’t like to talk about the hand-outs. “It’s an unspoken thing but it goes on,” said Long. “It’s not something that should happen.”

At the Trussell Trust food bank on a Wrexham industrial estate, Sally Ellinson was supervising the preparation of emergency Christmas food boxes. Two years ago the agencies who refer people to the food bank asked for 200 boxes. Now the number is 500. “We’re not sure we can fulfil all those referrals but we’ll do our best,” she said.

It is not that there are no jobs in Wrexham. Most people agree that if you want work, you will find it. But more than half the people who use the food bank have jobs. “People coming in are embarrassed and ashamed,” said Ellinson. “But most haven’t eaten for a couple of days and are hungry.”

There are many good people trying to help. In the town centre, carer and Salvation Army volunteer Dawn was on her way to a shift at a food bank distribution centre. She stopped to buy the rough sleepers outside McDonald’s porridge and cheesy bacon flatbreads.

Dawn said she was a long-term Labour voter but she too was going to vote for the Brexit party this time. “I want Brexit done. Let’s leave and then we can focus on other things – the disgrace that is universal credit, the humiliation people face when applying for PIP (personal independence payment), the problems in schools, the long waiting lists in hospitals.”

A number of people who contacted the Guardian flagged up the decline of the town centre and the drug-takers on the streets. There are many empty shops in the town centre and drug users are a common sight but dig deeper and there are inspiring things happening too.

The building that occupies numbers 9-11 on Regent Street used to be a JJB Sports but is now an art space called UnDegUn (eleven in Welsh). It hosts exhibitions, poetry readings, debates and the Wrexham bands Baby Brave and Neck Deep rehearse here.

Dave Gray, 44, the founder of UnDegUn, is one of the few people the Guardian spoke to in Wrexham who was voting for the party he had always supported – Labour. “I feel I have to vote Labour. Its manifesto is optimistic, l like that, it’s brave. They seem to want to make a difference.”

Across town in the politics department of the further and higher education college, Coleg Cambria, a teacher predicted most of the 18-year-olds voting for the first time would back Labour.

It turned out not be so. Of five students interviewed only one was definitely voting for Jeremy Corbyn’s party. Two were opting for the Tories, one for the Welsh nationalists, Plaid Cymru. They were interested in the environment, university fees, the economy.

Cait Williams said she was “completely conflicted”. “I don’t think the politicians in London get north Wales,” she said. “They’re in their Westminster bubble. I want to vote in a passionate way for someone I genuinely believe in. But I’m not sure who that is at the moment. I’ll have to do some more research.”