Spen Valley has always defied convention – this by-election will be no different

The people of Spen Valley have long had a non-conformist streak, religiously and politically, says Mick O'Hare. But that doesn’t make it any easier to predict which way it’ll swing this time

(PA)

Shortly after the December 2019 general election I was in a restaurant just off Oxford Street in central London. At a table

nearby were two rather loud men. One was, to judge by his accent, Dutch and was bemoaning Brexit. The other was a staunch Leaver. Over the course of the conversation, it became clear the second man worked for the Conservative Party. He was feeding his Dutch colleague the usual spiel of the Leave campaign: the desire of the British nation to be free, untethered to European notions of government – taking back control.

Talk passed onto the just-concluded election. I have no idea who the Conservative was. Pinstripe suit and patrician, he seemed pretty much from central casting. He appeared not to be an MP because he talked of arriving at Tory headquarters as the election results came in, rather than at a constituency count. His dining partner asked him what happened when the exit poll came through and he said this: “We opened up a few bottles of champagne and toasted the gullibility of the northern working class”. The Dutchman seemed taken aback, as indeed was I.