Lucinda Leveson, 65, left the polls in Wandsworth, London, on Thursday. Credit … Andrew Testa for the New York Times
LONDON – For the past 44 years, the council in Wandsworth, South London, has been run by the Conservative Party.
But after Thursday’s vote, things changed, with control of the council shifted to the Labor Party. The vote came at a particularly difficult time for the Conservative Party, which has been embroiled in controversy for weeks over Downing Street parties that violated government restrictions on the coronavirus and a number of other scandals.
While a small number of voters flocked to polling stations in the area on Thursday morning, many expressed general dissatisfaction with the state of national politics, a glimpse of the tough battle facing conservatives in the area.
“I would always identify as a conservative, but this vote today was a vote to show that I do not agree with the government,” said Marcel Aramburo, 62, who has lived in the area for decades.
While he is pleased with the way local issues are being dealt with for the most part by the Conservative Council, he believes it is time to vote for Labor as he becomes increasingly frustrated with the Tories.
“I am not happy with the people who run this country,” he said. “Everything that comes out of their mouths is a lie.”
Dean Crosley, 45, who threw his ballot in the same small community church opposite Battersea Park as Mr. Aramburo, also passed from the Conservatives to the Green Party. He said it was partly because of local problems and partly because he wanted to see better initiatives to tackle climate change.
He also said his vote – usually for the Conservatives – is likely to change in the next general election.
“It’s the same old, the same old, it’s about everything they do, and it won’t work,” he said, referring to the Conservatives.
Lucinda Leveson, 65, who brought her dog to the polls, has lived in Wandsworth for decades. She said much has changed in the area, much of it for the better as it has developed in recent years. At the end of the road where she voted, cranes crowded the horizon over a major project to rebuild the abandoned Battersea power plant and the surrounding area.
She said she would continue to support the Conservatives despite recent scandals. “They are the best of a bad group,” she said.
She added that she believes Prime Minister Boris Johnson has done well in his response to the coronavirus pandemic and has shown a strong response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Another voter, 39-year-old Viviana Turturo, said national policy had influenced her decisions at the local level after watching those in the ruling Conservative Party “say one thing and do the opposite”.
She said she was unhappy with the latest immigration policies and that Downing Street parties had left her angry.
“I was hiding behind at the time, so I find it offensive and insulting,” she said of the blockade rallies. “They had to be the first to follow the rules they set.
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