Tamworth by election 2023: I spent two hours on the streets of Tamworth - and not one person had any praise for politicians

Some building work was going on with one resident telling me it is going to be a new Nationwide, which he hoped would maybe bring more shoppers into the town. He said Tamworth is like “a ghost town” now and he would rather shop further afield in Lichfield. He was not impressed, and not impressed with his former MP Chris Pincher either.

He said the MP, who resigned last month after he groped two men last year, “didn’t leave a good taste in the mouth” and it has made him lose “a bit of confidence”. However, he said he will still vote Conservative in tomorrow’s by-election (Thursday 19 October) to give the party “another chance”’.

A lot of locals I talked to were very much not impressed with Pincher and rightly so. A lot seemed very fed up with politicians altogether - there was not one person who had a good thing to say, apart from one woman who said she had “faith” in the Labour party. Another said she was just voting Conservative because she always had - and her husband would vote for himself instead if he could.

The general consensus was that no one trusts politicians, they are all in it for themselves and don’t care about the people they are actually representing. Many feel like their needs and worries are not being heard over and over again - and they are fed up. As soon as I mentioned the word by-election to some people they immediately shook their heads and carried on walking, with one man saying “I’m fed up with all that”.

One man, called Ronald Skett, 78, was sat down on a bench with a placard that was advising people to not vote for Labour or the Tories due to their policies to build on greenbelt land. He said he thinks all politicians are “self serving” and he doesn’t even think this by-election will mean a great deal as “we’ll be back here again in eight or nine months time with another election”. I asked him if he hopes the next candidate will have more integrity, to which he replied laughing: “From the Conservatives? Not possible”.

One aspect that was striking to me was the fact that it was mainly the older generation that would speak to me about their thoughts and views surrounding politicians and the by-election. Anyone I saw who was of the younger generation, above 20 years old, out and about on that particular day on the high street, didn’t want to talk about it and certainly didn’t seem bothered. Maybe this goes to show that politicians do need to get involved more in the community - as it was a point raised by people who spoke to me, that they don’t see councillors now like they used to back in the day.

Overall, people are fed up with politicians saying a lot and not doing much - and it is a shame this is what the general view was of those I spoke to on Monday and how it has got to this point. It is clear the trust between politicians and the people they represent has been broken - more than likely due to Boris Johnson’s partygate antics. And also the likes of Matt Hancock, the former Health Secretary who of course had a prominent position during the pandemic, now being seen on programmes such as I’m A Celebrity and Celebrity SAS - blurring the lines of politicians being taken seriously.

The area of Tamworth has long been Conservative as Pincher held the seat since 2010 but the odds are showing that Labour are the favourites to win. Whatever the result, I think the people of Tamworth just want to see change happening in their town and for their voices to actually be heard. Less lies and scandals, more integrity and action.