It is a town that sits on the banks of the River Mersey which has been a Labour stronghold since 1945.
But now in Bootle, even lifelong ‘Red Wall’ voters are fed up with Sir Keir Starmer.
In what could be an ominous sign of things to come for the floundering premier, despite his pleas for ‘space’, there is only one man people in this working-class town are throwing their support behind: Nigel Farage.
A megapoll has suggested Reform would get the keys for Number 10 if an election was held now, in what would be the biggest surge in British political history.
Reform’s net gain of 306 seats would be easily the biggest increase for a party between two general elections.
Meanwhile, the number of seats held by Labour would plummet by more than 250 seats from its current tally.
Sir Keir yesterday admitted it would ‘take time’ to ‘change the country’.
‘I just need the space to get on and do the things that I need to do,’ the premier said.
He argued he can ‘pull this round’ despite another poll showed the party on track for disaster.
It’s a town that sits on the banks of the River Mersey which has been a Labour stronghold since 1945. But now in Bootle (pictured), even the lifelong Red Wall voters are fed up with Sir Keir Starmer
The More in Common research estimated that Reform would scoop 373 seats if an election were held now. Labour would be reduced to just 90 MPs, from nearly 400 currently.
The poll also found Labour’s failures – including the recent exits of Angela Rayner and Lord Mandelson – have had more cut-through with the public than the party’s successes in Government.
That shifting mood was evident in the supposed Labour safe seat of Bootle when the Daily Mail visited last week.
Pensioner John McNamara, 77, explained why people have already had enough of Labour just a year after the party’s landslide victory.
‘I think something has just snapped and people won’t take it anymore,’ he said.
He pointed to Sir Keir’s disastrous decision to scrap winter fuel payments for pensioners just months after Labour’s loveless landslide, before the PM made a humiliating climbdown.
‘I just think Labour lost it when they scrapped the winter fuel payments. That was it really,’ he said, before adding: ‘I am moving more toward Reform now.
‘We are just sick and tired of it all now. There are just too many foreigners here now and they don’t have to pay for things we worked so hard for.
‘You see it in The Strand Shopping centre, which is just behind me. Ten years ago it was full of locals. Now it’s the other way around.
‘We have a lot of family in Southport and the attack last year really shocked us. That lad should not have been walking around.’
Fellow pensioner Susan O’Brien said she would also be voting for Reform next time.
‘It’s the small boats,’ she said. ‘We just can’t take them anymore.
Pensioner Susan O’Brien said she would also be voting for Reform next time. ‘It’s the small boats,’ she said. ‘We just can’t take them anymore’
Joe Rimmer’s father used to work on the docks and said he was raised to believe in the Labour Party. ‘Labour just don’t seem to have the answers anymore,’ the 71-year-old said
Pensioner John McNamara, 77, (left) thinks Labour lost it when they scrapped winter fuel payments. While Eric Bates, 78, (right) used to be a Labour Party member, but the once staunch red said: ‘I won’t vote for Labour again’
‘People like Nigel [Farage] because he talks their language. He talks about stopping the boats and sending people home.
‘That is what we want to hear. If he turned up here now, everyone would want to speak to him.’
Eric Bates, 78, used to be a Labour Party member and activist and previously chaired a ward in Kensington.
But the once staunch red said: ‘I won’t vote for Labour again. And yes I am looking at Reform.’
Joe Rimmer’s father used to work on the docks and said he was raised to believe in the Labour Party.
‘Labour just don’t seem to have the answers anymore,’ the 71-year-old said.
‘But the small boats problem has been too much and it’s time for a change. People just won’t have it anymore, and it’s not racism. We just don’t have the room for them.
‘I think Liverpool’s problems date back to the militants in the early 1980s, when they started knocking down all the old buildings. Labour is the problem now.’
Polling by Ipsos Mori has put Sir Keir’s personal ratings at the lowest level of any PM since comparable records began in 1977.
Litherland mother, Jill, who did not supply her surname, said: ‘Yes it’s all Nigel Farage now. I get most of my news on YouTube – I follow the protests outside the hotels and all that.
In findings that will spread alarm among activists in Liverpool, More in Common research estimated that Nigel Farage’s insurgents would scoop 373 seats if an election were held now
‘People like Farage because he says what they want to hear. Stop the boats and send back the illegals.’
Jean Macauley, from Seaforth, said she too is ‘sick of the small boats’ and that most of her friends are talking about Reform now.
She said: ‘But there are other things too, like all the boarded-up shops. And there has also been a collapse in dental care too – you can’t see a dentist anymore.
‘Everything has gone wrong.’
Schoolworker Kathleen was also shifting away from Labour, but it wasn’t to Reform she was heading to.
‘I am looking at Jeremy Corbyn’s new party,’ she said. ‘I just agree with most of his policies, particularly on Palestine.’
