Meet Surrey’s ‘M&S movers’

On a street in Camberley, Surrey, a pensioner stands in the doorway, rollers in her hair, staring with some bemusement at the Liberal Democrat canvasser in front of her. Her preparations for Ascot have been interrupted. ‘I definitely won’t be voting Conservative. I used to be a member, but you look around now and, no!’ she explains. Not that she thinks her vote will count for much: ‘My husband used to say you could put a blue rosette on a monkey and they would win round here. It is a very affluent area – there is a lethargic habit of voting Tory.’

It wasn’t a monkey but Michael Gove who stood in this true blue constituency of Surrey Heath last time. Ed Davey’s party is now behind Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the national polls but its support is concentrated in a relatively small number of seats.