The forgotten towns that will decide Boris Johnson’s fate

If Boris Johnson does call a snap election this year, his fortune will be decided in the same places that swung the referendum for Brexit. Britain’s forgotten towns, places like my home town of Consett, perched high in the hills of north-west Durham, will determine the Prime Minister’s fate. In Consett, there is little sign now that this was a place once home to one of the world’s biggest steelworks. Steel from here was used to build great structures, bridges and battleships for the whole Empire, from Blackpool Tower and bridges in far-flung places to Britain’s fleet of nuclear submarines. But Consett went from being a symbol of industrial might to an emblem of industrial decline. When the steelworks closed in the early 1980s, Consett was one of the first towns to gain the unappealing epithet of “post industrial”. Several years later, in the Brexit referendum, towns like Consett delivered a withering verdict on the political and economic settlement, which had been failing them for decades.

“Left behind” became the phrase of choice to describe places like this, as well as fading seaside resorts such as Blackpool, which has been hit badly by a decline in domestic tourism.