Tories could tumble like Gloucestershire’s cheese chasers, but there is no mad enthusiasm for Labour
It’s a mucky, hazardous, undignified race that is all about risk and survival.
Competitors in the cheese chasing dash down Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire do it for the prize of a wheel of double Gloucester cheese.
Tewkesbury’s annual cheese chase begins
As for general elections, politicians play their game of survival for a place on the green benches in the House of Commons, and with it, power.
On the second stop of our tour with a peoples’ parliamentary bench, we came to Tewkesbury to talk to spectators at the annual event and find out what they want from their next crop of MPs.
Becky Rhode with her partner Tom, her 15-year-old son, and their family dog
Becky Rhode, her partner Tom, her 15-year-old son and her family dog were first to take advantage of the green upholstered bench which we left in a meadow with a view of the cheese chasing contest.
“In rural areas, transport is a lot more expensive, especially fuel prices. Groceries have gone up too,” she said.
Accountant Becky isn’t a big fan of the increases in the minimum wage. She feels it devalues the time, money and effort she has invested in getting her qualifications.
She says there is “no longer a sizable difference” between what she can earn as an accountant or doing something far less skilled.
Her apple orchard farmer partner Tom Spicer, adds: “We need more money or lower prices, really. That’s it, that’s the main struggle at the moment.”
Next in the chair was engineering student Joey Sharma who had travelled to the cheese rolling event from Bristol.
Engineering student Joey Sharma travelled to the cheese rolling event from Bristol
He hasn’t decided who he will vote for yet.
“I’m still a student, so student debt, I’d like something done about that. Public transport, I think that’s a big one, carbon-neutral is a big one too for me.”
Lucy Rickson, a housing association worker, thinks more should be done to help people who need social housing and that they tend to be “demonised” by politicians.
Lucy Rickson says people who need social housing tend to be ‘demonised’ by politicians
She adds: “There are a lot of issues in the southwest, rural regions, small market towns, seaside towns. Politicians need to know about seasonal work, seasonal hidden homelessness.
“If you haven’t got a huge amount of money, there’s not the work to keep your household going.”
Like student Joey, Lucy also worries about the environment and targets to reach net zero.
“I think pushing back all the targets and pushing back all the approaches to a better green world are just inappropriate. We say we can’t afford it, but then we can’t afford a lot of things. We need to prioritise more.”
Gloucestershire is our second stop in the South West, after Newquay in Cornwall, and in both locations the environment has been raised regularly on our people’s bench.
So far, it hasn’t been much of a campaign issue as both main parties have rowed back on green policies.
From Cooper’s Hill Cooper’s Hill, cheese watchers can see Cheltenham. File pic: AP
The view from Cooper’s Hill takes in key battle grounds of the election race.
You can see Cheltenham, along with its famous racecourse, a target seat for the Liberal Democrats, currently Conservative held.
The hill also peers over the town of Gloucester, where Labour need just under a 10% swing to take it. They will need that and more to win the election.
The hill itself is in Tewkesbury, a relatively safe Tory seat, and yet, not much in this election is safe. Even here the Tories could tumble like a cheese chaser.
The Lib Dems need an 18% swing, and they’ve done better than that in recent by-elections.
Labour has support in the area too, so it could turn into a three-way scramble for the line.
Jane Blofield is a urology and oncology clinical nurse
Enjoying a picnic with friends on Cooper’s Hill is Jane Blofield, who we coax on to our bench. Jane is a urology and oncology clinical nurse, and she feels her profession is understaffed.
“It’s not about making wild promises, it’s about diverting money to the right places,” she says. In her view, key among them is the NHS.
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She then says she will vote Labour but adds, “I don’t know if they’ve got the answers, but I certainly know the Conservatives haven’t because they’ve ruined the NHS.”
Pressed on if she thinks Sir Keir Starmer can repair the situation, Jane replies, “No.”
Cheese chasers tumble down Cooper’s Hill
Like the cheese race, the bumping, bruising electoral arena is a place where slip-ups happen.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is leading in the polls, but from the voices we’ve heard so far on our tour, it doesn’t feel like people are running towards Labour with glee, but rather running away from the Tories in dissatisfaction.
The cheese-rolling crowd in Tewkesbury
Even among those who say they will vote Labour, there’s no mad enthusiasm, certainly not of the type you find on the top of Cooper’s Hill, as they prepare to chase a wheel of double Gloucester down an insanely steep grassy slope.
Many Labour MPs have been left shellshocked after the chaotic political self-sabotage of the past week.
Bafflement, anger, disappointment, and sheer frustration are all on relatively open display at the circular firing squad which seems to have surrounded the prime minister.
The botched effort to flush out backroom plotters and force Wes Streeting to declare his loyalty ahead of the budget has instead led even previously loyal Starmerites to predict the PM could be forced out of office before the local elections in May.
“We have so many councillors coming up for election across the country,” one says, “and at the moment it looks like they’re going to be wiped out. That’s our base – we just can’t afford to lose them. I like Keir [Starmer] but there’s only a limited window left to turn things around. There’s a real question of urgency.”
Another criticised a “boys club” at No 10 who they claimed have “undermined” the prime minister and “forgotten they’re meant to be serving the British people.”
There’s clearly widespread muttering about what to do next – and even a degree of enviousness at the lack of a regicidal 1922 committee mechanism, as enjoyed by the Tories.
“Leadership speculation is destabilising,” one said. “But there’s really no obvious strategy. Andy Burnham isn’t even an MP. You’d need a stalking horse candidate and we don’t have one. There’s no 1922. It’s very messy.”
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Starmer’s faithfuls are ‘losing faith’
Others are gunning for the chancellor after months of careful pitch-rolling for manifesto-breaching tax rises in the budget were ripped up overnight.
“Her career is toast,” one told me. “Rachel has just lost all credibility. She screwed up on the manifesto. She screwed up on the last two fiscal events, costing the party huge amounts of support and leaving the economy stagnating.
“Having now walked everyone up the mountain of tax rises and made us vote to support them on the opposition day debate two days ago, she’s now worried her job is at risk and has bottled it.
“Talk to any major business or investor and they are holding off investing in the UK until it is clear what the UK’s tax policy is going to be, putting us in a situation where the chancellor is going to have to go through this all over again in six months – which just means no real economic growth for another six months.”
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Why is the economy flatlining?
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After less than 18 months in office, the government is stuck in a political morass largely of its own making.
Treasury sources have belatedly argued that the chancellor’s pre-budget change of heart on income tax is down to better-than-expected economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.
That should be a cause of celebration. The question is whether she and the PM are now too damaged to make that case to the country – and rescue their benighted prospects.
UK
Home secretary vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers – as Denmark-based reforms to be unveiled
The home secretary is set to unveil sweeping measures to tackle illegal migration, vowing to end the UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers.
People granted asylum in the UK will only be allowed to stay in the country temporarily, in the changes expected to be unveiled on Monday by Shabana Mahmood.
Modelled on the Danish system, the aim is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.
Planned changes mean that refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
The Home Office said the “golden ticket” deal has seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries, onto dangerous small boats.
Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.
As part of the changes, the statutory legal duty to provide asylum seeker support, including housing and weekly allowances, will be revoked.
The government will seek to remove asylum support, including accommodation and handouts, to those who have a right to work and who can support themselves but choose not to or those who break UK law.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood. Pic: PA
‘Last chance for a decent politics’
A government source said Ms Mahmood believes her reforms are about “more than the electoral fortunes of her party”.
“This is the last chance for a decent, mainstream politics. If these moderate forces fail, she believes, something darker will follow,” they said.
“But this demands that moderates are willing to do things that will seem immoderate to some. She has reminded those who are reluctant to embrace her ambition for bold reform, with an ultimatum: ‘if you don’t like this, you won’t like what follows me.'”
Ms Mahmood said they were the most sweeping changes to the asylum system “in a generation”, as she vowed the government will “restore order and control to our borders”.
The home secretary also told The Sunday Times that “I can see – and I know my colleagues can – that illegal migration is tearing our country apart”.
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System being ‘gamed’
The source said Ms Mahmood believes the system is being “gamed by those travelling on boats or abusing legal visas”.
Some 39,075 people have arrived in the UK after making the journey across the Channel so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.
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The gangs smuggling people to the UK
That is an increase of 19% on the same point in 2024 and up 43% on 2023, but remains 5% lower than at the equivalent point in 2022, which remains the peak year for crossings.
What happened in Denmark?
The UK government points to Denmark remaining a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, while also cutting the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully removing 95% of rejected asylum seekers.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the Labour government has “lost control” of the UK’s borders” with illegal channel crossings “surging to over 62,000 since the election”.
He said some of the new measures were welcome but “they stop well short of what is really required and some are just yet more gimmicks – like the previous ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick”.
Mr Philp added: “Only the Conservative borders plan will end illegal immigration – by leaving the ECHR, banning asylum claims for illegal immigrants, deporting all illegal arrivals within a week and establishing a Removals Force to deport 150,000 illegal immigrants each year.”
And Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said: “These sweeping changes will not deter people from making dangerous crossings, but they will unfairly prevent men, women and children from putting down roots and integrating into British life.”
Ms Mahmood will be appearing on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips from 8.30am on Sunday.
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