Spalding is the heart of the Fens and the soul of Toryland. This Lincolnshire town is among the safest Conservative seats in the UK – the constituency of South Holland and The Deepings returned its MP, Sir John Hayes, with 75.9% of the vote in 2019. So the disappointment expressed by Conservative-supporting townsfolk in Spalding at the decision to cut short Boris Johnson’s premiership should ring alarm bells for his successors. If Johnson is looking for a country retreat after he hands back the keys to Chequers, he’ll find an enthusiastic welcome here. Less so his parliamentary colleagues. “He’s been stabbed in the back,” says Steve Mason, owner of Masons Models, as he stands among the Airfix kits and Warhammer figurines. “All politicians are liars, but Boris is the one that’s been caught out. Look at Keir Starmer – he should be punished same as Boris.” Mason was one of many people in Spalding who were persuaded by Brexit, and gives Johnson credit for that and his approach to Ukraine. Mason says that the Northern Ireland protocol should be top of the agenda, followed by the war in Ukraine, for Johnson’s successor. Who should that be? “I think Rishi Sunak will be prime minister and Sajid Javid … chancellor,” he says. But does he want Sunak to be leader? “All I’ll say is that Guy Fawkes had the right idea.” This enthusiasm for Brexit and cynicism about politicians who are not Boris Johnson is easy to find among Tory voters in Spalding. Many of them feel taken for granted. The town is a lower priority for levelling-up funds than neighbouring places such as Boston and Wisbech, according to John Bland, the chairman of the Spalding And District Civic Society, but it has been neglected for decades.
A prime example is the old Johnson hospital, built in 1881 after land and money was bequeathed to the town by Elizabeth and Mary Ann Johnson – no relations of the prime minister. Since 2010, though, it has fallen into ruin, after being sold by the NHS for a modest sum to an offshore company, whose identity was a mystery to people locally until it was revealed in the Panama Papers. The owners seem to have forgotten it, but it remains a major local landmark, for all the wrong reasons. “There’s a sense here of long-term neglect,” Bland says, as we walk around Spalding. “Whatever the new direction of the Conservative party is, the levelling-up concept and fairer funding [are] needed in South Holland.” He points out the multitude of vacant shops, vape shops and bookmakers, and the convenience stores catering for the eastern European workers who pick fruit, flowers and vegetables in the fenland farms. “About 30% of England’s food comes through Spalding,” Bland says proudly. Across town, the River Welland provides the sort of picturesque views that might encourage more people to visit. There are plans to revive the annual flower parade, and in the town square a blue plaque commemorates Jimi Hendrix who stayed at the Red Lion hotel when he played here at a precursor to modern rock festivals, Barbeque 67, alongside Pink Floyd and Cream. Yet although people can take a water taxi up to Springfields shopping centre, it’s harder to enjoy a riverside pint – Ye Olde White Horse, a charming thatched pub, is shut, while the former Bull and Monkie has been fenced off by the council to prevent break-ins. Even if the levelling-up funding has yet to reach Spalding, there is plenty of praise for Johnson’s record. “He’s done a fantastic job with the vaccinations,” said Rosemary Burton. “I can’t see who would take over from him who would do better.” She thinks the difficulties finding a doctor and police pay are the most important priorities. Rishi Sunak would be “OK”. “He’s the best of them, I suppose,” Burton says. Sajid Javid is “not bad”. “But that Truss woman – I don’t like her.” Why? “I don’t know. But I’ve got to like them.”
Gerald Pearl, who is enjoying an ice-cream outside Sheddy’s, a fish and chip shop that has been a Spalding landmark for more than 100 years, is another Johnson fan. . “He’s the best prime minister we’ve had for a very long time,” he says. “He did a very good job, faced up to the country’s problems, the common market. Nobody else is worth voting for.” Terry Moore is an independent parish councillor in Pinchbeck, but has voted Tory in parliamentary elections. “Poor old Boris,” he says. “He’s got the right ideas, but he’s easily led. He listens too much to other people and doesn’t make his own decisions. I thought he was going to be a very decisive leader, but it hasn’t worked out that way.” Conservative members of South Holland District Council were reluctant to discuss the turmoil in Westminster, although the council leader, Lord Porter, told the Spalding Guardian that members had lost confidence that Johnson would avoid “another cock-up”, while Kevin Geaney, chairman of the South Holland and the Deepings Conservative association, said that he wanted to wait and see who stood for leader. Not every Conservative voter in Spalding is unhappy to see Johnson go. Chris Carter, a farmer, had seen Johnson as a “breath of fresh air”, but said he had been getting “thoroughly fed up with lie after lie after lie”. “Probity is terribly important,” he said. “I’m disappointed but I’m also relieved because I think we were beginning to look stupid. “We’ve got to make ourselves a lot more friendly to the Great British public – there is a lot of antipathy towards the Conservative party. So whoever takes the poisoned chalice has got to do a lot of mending. “I want to be able to look up to my MP and say, ‘You’re doing a good job.’”