Seat where Jones looks a surefire winner. Only question: which one?

“I am not voting this time, nothing can change my mind because there’s just no trust,” says shop worker and former Labour voter Leanne Elliston as she mans the tills of a convenience store in Merthyr Tydfil High Street.

The 37-year-old added: “It’s an awful thing to say because this is a strong Labour area but I can’t vote for them.”

The Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney constituency is steeped in Labour history. Party founder Keir Hardie represented the town more than 100 years ago and it also borders the former seat of Michael Foot and Aneurin Bevan, architect of the NHS.

Nigel Farage has made the seat a top priority but his fledgling party must unseat Labour’s Gerald Jones, who grew up in the constituency and secured a 16,334 majority two years ago.

However, Brexit has blurred all party lines in the former coal mining heartland, which voted Leave by 58 per cent.

Since 2000 the area has received more than £52 million in EU funding for projects including a further education college, a museum and a major widening of the Heads of the Valleys road between Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.

On a chilly Monday afternoon on the campaign trail the Labour candidate is focusing on winning hearts and minds on local issues rather than pushing the party’s leader or its Brexit stance.

Gerald Jones said: “Brexit is the biggest decision in a generation. There is a perception that the focus of the election is on Brexit but that’s not the reality I am seeing on the doorstep. It is a big issue for some but not everybody. People raise other issues like youth facilities, poor transport, parking problems and even street lights.”

Former coal miner Keith Simmonds, 70, is canvassed by Mr Jones in the small town of New Tredegar. He said: “I would go back down the pits tomorrow if they were opened. Once they shut the collieries they ruined the valleys. There was camaraderie and purpose.”

The next day, Baptist pastor turned Brexit Party candidate Colin Jones hits the bustling market in Merthyr Tydfil town centre but is still waiting for his election pamphlets to be printed.

He lacks the name recognition of his main rival but said he felt confident he can overturn the Labour majority.

“If we can get money back from the EU and have good people in the Welsh Assembly and Westminster we can make sure deprived areas, not just the valleys, get their fair share,” he said.

But as with all things Brexit nothing is clear cut. Glyn Thomas, 68, a retired electricity board worker, told Mr Jones he will vote Labour and gave short shrift to the Brexit Party pitch despite his concerns about immigration. He said: “I like Jeremy Corbyn because he is old school and I like his policies. This is still a Labour area no matter what.”

The Conservatives will be hoping Farage’s decision not to stand in Tory-held constituencies will diminish support for the Brexit Party in this seat.

Tory candidate Sara Jones will hope to increase the 6,073 votes her party received here in 2017. She faces a battle to keep up with the other Joneses standing in the area but has found support from voters who “just want Brexit done”.

One of them, Judith Gwynne, 72, said: “If Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minster I will emigrate to Australia. I voted for Brexit and I am disgusted that it’s been blocked. I will be voting Conservative again because Brexit is a point of principle.”

Despite a nascent call for a Welsh independence referendum, including a rally that drew thousands to Merthyr Tydfil in September, there was little support for nationalist Plaid Cymru party on the campaign trail.

Ann Balston, 70, who owns a florists in Merthyr town centre, voted Remain but has not decided who will get her endorsement next month.

The grandmother-of-five said: “Corbyn and Boris are different cuts of the same cloth. I won’t be voting Labour.

“When we leave the EU the effect on this town will be much greater than people see.”

Macaulay Morgan, a 20-year-old bus driver from Merthyr Tydfil who will “probably vote Labour”, said: “All politicians here need to listen to young people and use the money wisely. We are fed up of false promises.

“When it came to the [Brexit] referendum there was a massive gap with the older generation voting to leave. There is definitely a generational divide.”

Voter apathy is a hurdle for Labour and its challengers, with many younger people feeling disconnected from national politics.

Emma Harden, a 28-year-old Leave voter who now regrets her choice, will vote Labour in spite of Corbyn. She said: “A lot of people here don’t care about politics because they feel it doesn’t affect them. In my friendship group a lot of them are not interested at all, they feel there is a block between them having a voice that means anything.”

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