(13 Nov 2019) In Hartlepool, a tough, proud port town whipped by bitter North Sea winds, people have long felt ignored by politicians in far-off London. Not now, in Britain's Brexit-dominated early election.
Britain's political parties are battling to win Hartlepool and places like it: working-class former industrial towns whose voters could hold the key to the prime minister's 10 Downing Street office.
Once, it would have been no contest.
Hartlepool has elected lawmakers from the left-of-center Labour Party for more than half a century.
But in 2016, almost 70% of voters here backed leaving the European Union.
More than three years later, the UK is still an EU member, and loyalty to Labour has been eroded by frustration.
Trawlers still land with holds full of fish, lobster and crab; but the number of boats has fallen, and fishermen rail against the quotas and red tape imposed by the EU's Common Fisheries Policy.
Fisherman Robert Corner, 74, says he will be voting for the Conservative Party on December 12.
"I am voting Conservative for the first time in my life this vote. I hope Boris (Johnson, UK Prime Minister) fetches us out of this friggen EU," he said.
Fellow fisherman Steve Horsley agrees and feels the Labour Party offers "nothing" to people like him.
"l've always been a Labour voter," said Diane Jordan, a hypnotherapist enjoying an evening of music and bingo at the Hartlepool Working Mans Club. "My parents were always Labour: my grandparents were always Labour. Hartlepool's always been Labour and now I'm not going to go Labour."
Jordan is now considering voting for the Conservative Party for the first time.
That's good news for Johnson, who pushed for the December 12 election, more than two years early, in hope of breaking Britain's parliamentary deadlock over Brexit.
If he gets a majority of the 650 House of Commons seats, he will be able to ratify his EU divorce deal – which he withdrew from Parliament last month after lawmakers demanded more time to scrutinize it – and take Britain out of the bloc as scheduled on January 31.
Tom O'Grady, a lecturer in political science at University College London, said the Conservatives need to win seats like Hartlepool to compensate for the likely loss of pro-EU areas in southern England and Scotland.
"They're going to have to gain seats in the north of England and the Midlands from Labour if they're going to win a big majority at this election," he said.
But the Conservatives' challenge is complicated by the insurgent Brexit Party, led by veteran eurosceptic Nigel Farage.
Farage rejects Johnson's deal with the EU because it would keep the UK bound to the bloc's rules until the end of 2020, and possibly longer.
He'd rather leave the EU without an agreement, which would free Britain to strike new trade deals around the world.
It would also, according to most economists, leave the country poorer, by imposing barriers to business with the EU, Britain's biggest trading partner.
Supporters of a "hard Brexit" like Farage dismiss such claims, and accuse both Conservatives and Labour of watering down and delaying Brexit.
Hartlepool, where the Brexit Party controls the town council, is the party's top target in the election.
Richard Tice, the Brexit Party chairman and its candidate for Hartlepool hopes to win over former Labour voters who support Brexit.
Mike Hill, who has been Hartlepool's Labour lawmaker since 2017 and is running for re-election, says he's not worried.
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