Ten years after the city was the first to declare for Brexit, Sunderland has sent another message to the establishment parties in Westminster.
Labour has been virtually wiped out, having held control of the council for more than 50 years, it now has just five seats compared to its previous 54. Reform UK gained 58 seats, while the Conservatives, who had previously served as the main opposition, failed to win a single seat.
Reform has a huge majority and new councillor, Chris Eynon, says he has a clear idea of what he has been elected to do.
“Put Sunderland first,” he told The i Paper.
What does that mean in practice?
Labour would argue Sunderland has enjoyed a period of successful regeneration in recent years, with more than £600m invested to date in new housing and infrastructure on the banks of the River Wear.
But Eynon, who won his seat in the Redhouse ward, home to one of the largest council housing schemes in England, says not everyone is feeling the improvement.
Asked why he felt voters turned to Reform he said: “Antisocial behaviour is a big one. People feel like the council is not really responsive enough.
“A lot of it is people thinking the votes are being taken for granted.
“Around here we’ve noticed that a lot of what Labour are getting flak for is a lot of the regeneration, which is great, it’s very city centre focused.
“It’s not really going out into the housing estates or in the coalfields or Washington [a town in the wider Sunderland borough].
“A lot of people are just feeling like that, yes, Sunderland’s on the up as Labour say, but you know, is it on the up everywhere or just in the city centre?
“Locally, that’s what people are saying and just essentially people are realising the council is not being run very well, it’s in half a billion pounds of debt.
“It’s been Labour for over 50 years, so I think people are just really ready for a change.”
Some have claimed regeneration in the centre of Sunderland has not been felt in the city’s outskirts (Photo: Getty)Eynon says other priorities for his party will be “a war on potholes” and housing.
All parties in Sunderland conceded immigration was a concern for voters, although the statistics suggest the city has not experienced dramatic change in recent decades.
In contrast to the North East, and the country as a whole, the population of the city has actually declined slightly since 2011 and the proportion of people born in England remains much higher than average at 94 per cent.
The average for England as a whole is 80 per cent.
There has been a surge in the number of non-UK employees in Sunderland which has increased from 4,100 or 4 per cent of the total in 2014, to 15,400 or 12 per cent in 2024.
As of last March, there were 830 asylum seekers housed by the government in Sunderland, which is home to about 275,000 people.
Asked how Reform will deliver on its tough stance on immigration at a local level, Eynon said: “I think anything’s possible if you have the political will.
“Can we, can Sunderland council directly stop the boats? No, that’s not what Sunderland council’s there for, it has to be a national strategy.
“If people realise how well ran Sunderland council is compared to a Labour council down the road, I think that’ll start to plant the seed.”
Labour suffered heavy losses which saw it left with just five councillors after its previous strength of 54 (Photo: Ian Forsyth/Getty)Paul Donaghy, another Reform councillor, told The i Paper his party would look at whether it is possible to give priority to people who are British-born and on the waiting list for social housing.
This kind of rhetoric is a worry for Lewis Atkinson, the Labour MP for Sunderland Central.
The city was one of many places in the North of England to experience anti-migrant rioting in the summer of 2024 which led to police being attacked.
“Sunderland saw significant demographic change under the Boris Johnson government,” Atkinson said.
“We’ve got a university that undertook an amount of international recruitment. People came to study, people came to work in our hospital and in our health service.
“I have to say there is maybe not full public appreciation that a lot of the demographic change that they can see in the streets is not about asylum and boats.
“It was about visas that were given out under the Tory party – there is nothing that a council will do about [it].
“We had a riot in the centre of Sunderland within a month of me being elected, the start of August 2024, where divisive rhetoric, where misinformation led to, marches on a mosque, buildings being, vandalised and set on fire in town.
“We all have a responsibility to have a city that rejects division and hatred, and that comes together and that will be, you know, a challenge that certainly I will be holding a new Reform council to.”
Hence then, the article about how migration and potholes helped farage win a labour stronghold was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( How migration and potholes helped Farage win a Labour stronghold )
Also on site :