'People have their own seats to worry about!' The dire truth of the Tories' disastrous by-election campaign

Standing outside Wellingborough’s Conservative Office on a bleak February morning, you cannot help but feel sorry for local residents who have been represented by the Tories for 18 years.

A clamped car covered in bird droppings blocks the full sight of the depressing building but leaflets emblazoned with the face of the local Conservative candidate Helen Harrison attempt to add some life to one half of the building.

Looking through the windows into the dingy campaign office, you can only conclude the Tories have not even got into first gear.

I was about to turn away and head into town when an elderly woman gestured for me to come to the emptier side of the office.

The veteran activist, accompanied by two sheepish-looking 20-something-year-olds, did not wish to provide comment on the state of the campaign but did take down my details to pass them on to Harrison while out campaigning in nearby Rushden.

GB News had already attempted to arrange an interview with Harrison.

Harrison is perhaps unlikely to exude much energy from Tories down in Westminster.

The 51-year-old, who is the girlfriend of 71-year-old Peter Bone, is being shunned by ministers due to her relationship with Wellingborough’s disgraced former MP and dire nationwide polling.

Rishi Sunak last month refused to endorse Harrison's candidacy, instead highlighting how candidates are selected locally.

GB News understands that at least one Tory minister who was previously scheduled to canvas in Wellingborough has since removed the visit from his diary.

A Conservative source said: “There’s no value in being seen with the mistress of a disgraced MP. People have their own elections to worry about.”

And Tory MPs certainly do have to worry about the potential result of the next general election, with opinion polls consistently pointing to a 1997-style wipeout.

A pessimistic Conservative strategist now considers retaining 200 seats a success but stressed holding just 150 is more realistic.

Despite Bone’s 2019 victory coming with an 18,450-vote majority, CCHQ appears to have given up on even trying to cling on to Wellingborough.

“We’ve had no instruction on any by-elections that I have seen,” a Tory MP claimed.

It would appear the lacklustre central campaign is a far cry from previous by-election contests, with an ex-CCHQ source confirming a “whipping operation” is usually in place.

A former Tory MP corroborated claims about “whipping” MPs to campaign, adding it was enforced even in “unwinnable” seats.

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He argued: “I suspect that MPs have revolted and said enough is enough and they’re now concentrating on their own seats.”

A former No10 insider added: “We went into overtime making sure MPs were out and in studios.”

The local Tory campaign insists MPs have ventured to Wellingborough, with former Home Secretary Priti Patel snapping a photograph with Harrison.

The handful of others who made the visit include neighbouring Northamptonshire MPs and Bone’s former allies.

It is often assumed Westminster bubble stories about the personalities of politicians do not seep through with voters but a number of residents in Wellingborough voiced their dismay with the Tory campaign.

Only three out of the dozen residents who spoke to GB News yesterday confirmed interacting with Tory activists in the build-up to February 15.

Mack Wilton, 76, who was critical of Sunak’s handling of illegal immigration, told GB News: “We haven’t seen any Tory activists but we received a letter from the Tories asking what we would like to be done in the Wellingborough area. We filled it in, gave our email address and heard nothing.

Wilton added: “Bone's been out canvassing with his partner. It’s definitely wrong. They’ve got no hope of getting my vote and I hope ex-Tory voters will vote Reform.”

Jamie Mossddale, 44, who voted Conservative in 2019 but is now backing Reform UK, said: “What has Peter Bone done for Wellingborough? And Helen Harrison is a waste of space. It’s totally wrong.”

Mossddale also complained about Bone allegedly failing to address an incident raised and slammed Harrison for prioritising the wrong issues, such as potholes, over revitalising the high street.

Elaine Blower, 68, who is looking to switch from the Tories to Labour, also argued it is “time for change” as she claimed it was wrong Harrison received the Conservative nomination.

Labour voter Larry Pride, 42, added: “I haven’t seen them. B******s that they are out door-knocking.”

Another voter said: “It just shows complete disrespect not just for voters in Wellingborough but for voters across the country.”

Harrison is supposedly hoping to personally connect with voters rather than through media appearances.

Despite no sight of a fast-paced Tory campaign, Wellingborough was brimming with by-election fever yesterday.

Hack-after-hack was vox-popping voters, activists were hoping to shore up support for their preferred candidate and a few SW1 celebrities from the Shadow Cabinet even made the journey up to the Midlands market town.

Labour’s office was a hive of activity, with candidate Genevieve Kitchen spotted walking down the high street and Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey knocking on doors.

Healey told GB News: “You can see it when you walk past the Conservative office. It looks like it’s on its last legs, it looks like it’s a down-the-hill charity shop that is about to close up again.

“On the streets, part of the disillusionment that people feel in Wellingborough is spread more widely. This is the challenge for politicians of all parties; to give people a sense of hope that things can change and politics makes a difference.”

The Wentworth & Dearne MP added: “I can’t tell what the Tory campaign is. I saw no sign of it in the entire day. But what are they saying to people? What is the undertaking they give about the service that an MP should be offering?

“I think they’ve been badly damaged by Peter Bone, they’ve been badly damaged by ministers time and time again. Many people are saying time is up, time for a change.”

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins, who is leading Labour’s Wellingborough campaign, also said: “The fact that the Tories are taking this area for granted is something that is felt really powerfully by people across the constituency. There is a sense that they’ve abandoned their local campaign here and their local candidate here.”

Labour’s leading campaign figures were keen to stress it had not sought to make the by-election campaign personal.

Leaflets obtained by GB News show Kitchen championing her military roots, banging the drum for town centres, getting knives off the streets, sorting NHS waiting lists, fixing potholes and putting more money back into voters' pockets.

However, another leaflet did name Bone, saying: “Local people have been clear. Standards in public life matter and enough is enough yet even after Peter Bone has been sacked by the voters, the soap opera taking place at the heart of the local Conservative Party continues to rumble on.”

Directly addressing voters’ issues with Harrison’s connection to Bone, a Labour activist claimed: “Voters are disgusted that the Tories chose Peter Bone’s girlfriend. Labour could be on course for a close win.”

Reform UK also set up shop just a stone’s throw from Labour’s office.

The populist party’s campaign office was significantly smaller than Labour’s Yuppie-style operation but was nonetheless effective in connecting with voters.

Reform UK positioned a stall in the heart of Wellingborough and received a relatively warm reception from passers-by.

A number of activists, who travelled from across the country to campaign for candidate Ben Habib, have become increasingly confident that Reform could make a breakthrough by leapfrogging the Tories into second place.

However, a high-profile source within the party was somewhat more realistic about what result would be considered a success next Thursday.

“The fact is that we are actually looking at hitting our average poll score in a fought by-election,” they said.

“The Labour Party are everywhere, we can't compete with that. By-elections are won in the trenches, street-to-street, on the ground. Labour have made a huge effort and I expect they will win.

“But we will save our deposit. I will be delighted if we hit 10 per cent and will be over the moon if we surprise the Tories and catch them.”

Habib, who is striving to win in Wellingborough on February 15, also told GB News: “We are the only small-c- conservative party. The Conservative Party is not conservative. It’s basically a socialist party practising rampant immigration, high taxation, and large spending. They feel threatened by us because we are genuinely small-c-Conservatives.

“We’re proud of the United Kingdom, we want to make policies unashamedly for the United Kingdom, we want to reduce taxes on the working and middle class, we want to dramatically reduce legal immigration, we would stop illegal immigration. The Conservative Party wants to say it wants to do this but it doesn’t want to do it. The Tories are petrified of us because people might recognise that we would deliver.”

Slamming the Tory campaign, the ex-Brexit Party MEP added: “Their party office looks derelict and vacant. There’s a car outside it with bird droppings on it and a flat tyre. It’s clearly been there for months. It should be removed. I haven’t seen any Tory activists around.

“It could be that the Conservative Party doesn’t want any part of it because of what Peter Bone allegedly did. But it’s no way to fight a campaign.”

However, Reform UK's activists show the threat the rebranded Brexit Party pose to Sunak's Tories ahead of the general election.

Lifelong Conservative Tim Parry, 75, drove 60 miles from Stratford-upon-Avon to campaign for Reform UK.

He told GB News: “There are millions of people like me who feel betrayed and lied to.”

Campaign insiders also appeared somewhat surprised that their Conservative counterparts were so lax ahead of polls opening next Thursday.

A Reform source said: “I haven’t seen them at all. Normally, in the last few weeks, they flood the place but I’ve seen nothing.”

Another insider added: “You can’t speak to the candidate because they’re too busy talking to voters. B******s they are. They’re defending a 60 per cent vote and hiding from the media. They’re s**t-scared of Reform and it’s a multi-faceted thing.”

Conservative Party leaflets, which look to champion Harrison’s local record, appeared to illustrate Tory concerns about the threat from Reform as they referenced Channel crossings and warned votes for Habib would ensure Wellingborough ends up with an “anti-Brexit MP who didn’t respect the view and the vote of the vast majority in our area”.

GB News did not see a single Tory activist canvassing and was unable to find a single person openly planning to vote Conservative on February 15 over the course of five hours in Wellingborough.

CCHQ is perhaps hoping for a better result in Kingswood but next Thursday could otherwise become a by-election bloodbath for Sunak.