Is Boris Johnson’s political style still alive and well in some parts of the country?
Travel 250 miles from London to the Tees Valley in the North East and a mayor with a big personality will govern the place in a familiar way.
Tory Ben Houchen is someone who appears to reach across party lines in search of support, but is hated by political enemies to an unusual degree.
A politician who was condemned for the lack of transparency and the way he makes decisions, but his opponents are fighting to make the accusations known to the public.
A lover of huge infrastructure promises – tunnels, as well as Johnson – this seems unlikely at best. Someone who understands social media better than most of his contemporaries.
Could Boris Johnson’s political style and approach be helping Houchen, who Johnson placed in the House of Lords, retain his role as Speaker in the traditional heart of the Tees Valley for a third time, despite the collapse of Tory support in the rest of the country?
At this point, the Tees Valley contest looks like Houchen is on the losing end.
He won 73% of the vote when he was re-elected in 2021. At the time of writing, many thought he had a good chance of hanging on, including Labor campaign figures, some in the Labor leader’s office, Number 10 and CCHQ campaign team, and the Tory rebels weighing up whether to expel Rishi Sunak.
Some think a Houchen defeat would be the most likely trigger for a proper effort to oust Sunak.
However, one of the reasons why Sunak promoted Houchen’s campaign to Sky News’ Trevor Philips this weekend it was expected that Houchen would be announced the winner on Friday when the Tees Valley results come in.
Sky News went to Hartlepool in the Tees Valley and heard from a range of voters and their views on the Conservatives.
In many cases they have criticized the party and its leader, Sunak. They told us that although Houchen was a “leader”, they “don’t think Rishi Sunak […] proved that to anyone.” They praised Houchen for bringing investment to the area and said he got things done.
People who said they would “never” vote Conservative said they were likely to support Houchen. Some who heard of the controversies surrounding Teesworks, the regeneration project of the former Redcar Steelworks site, still indicated they would give it their support.
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Teesworks became controversial after Questions were raised about the development of the new free port, which Houchen championed as mayor.
Private companies ended up owning 90% of the shares, despite hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money being pumped into the project. An investigation later found no evidence of “corruption or illegality” at Teesworks facilities, but raised concerns about “transparency and oversight”.
The presence of a big personality seemed to assure the people of the Tees Valley that their views would be represented, even if they didn’t think the same of Sunak.
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The parallels are profound – Houchen has promised a scoping review to see if there could be a tunnel from Hartlepool to Redcar, under the river and the port – a 12-mile project bigger than any other in the UK and likely to cost billions in the event unlikely to obtain authorization.
The scale of the ambition seems inspiring, even if few think it will ever emerge in practice. It is Johnson’s policy at its core.
On the other side of the “red wall”, the supplementary elections in Blackpool South seems lost on conservatives, according to many we spoke to.
Once again, the presumption in Westminster, in the offices of various leaders, is that it is transforming into the Labor Party – a seat won on the back of Johnson in 2019, now an emblem of the red wall coming home. With Johnson gone, Conservative dreams of keeping him will also disappear.
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Some of those we spoke to at the seaside arcade missed Johnson’s big personality in his politics. Sunak’s more technocratic approach doesn’t seem to give them much idea that they are figures fighting for their future.
Thursday will be a moment of reckoning for all parties. But an unfashionable question that can be asked later is: are the Tories missing Boris Johnson?
Full list of candidates for the Tees Valley mayoral election and Blackpool South by-election
Tees Valley: Ben Houchen (Conservative), Chris McEwan (Labour), Simon Thorley (Lib Dems)
Blackpool South: Stephen Black (Independent), Mark Anthony Butcher (Reform UK), Andrew Kevin Cregan (Lib Dems), Howling Laud Hope (The Official Monster Raving Loony Party), David Jones (Conservative), Kim Sherrie Knight (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom) , Damon Lee Sharp (NonPol), Ben Thomas (Green), Chris Webb (Labour)
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
