Tories target Ukip voters in Slough as candidate declares town 'a victim of its own success'

Tory hopeful: Mark Vivis
Alex Lentati
Robin de Peyer6 June 2017
WEST END FINAL

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“Slough has been a victim of its own success,” Tory candidate Mark Vivis declares.

Mr Vivis, a 42-year-old former commercial lawyer, is discussing immigration in this commuter town, famed as the setting for the Ricky Gervais comedy The Office. It has a large migrant population, with 150 languages spoken — yet more than 54 per cent of the electorate voted Leave.

“That’s the paradox,” says Mr Vivis. “You have a town that has been based largely on immigration but is now feeling full.”

Conservative HQ is pouring in resources in a bid to mop up the Ukip vote — 6,000-strong in 2015 — and end Labour’s 7,336 majority. Chancellor Philip Hammond and Brexit Secretary David Davis have visited. Labour’s Fiona Mactaggart, who had held the seat since 1997, stepped down after the snap election was called and former mayor of Gravesham, Tan Dhesi, is defending it.

Sylvia, who emigrated from the Caribbean 57 years ago, said she had been a lifelong Labour voter but was ready to “give Theresa May a chance”.

Labour rival: Tan Dhesi

She added: “She’s a tough lady… like Mrs Thatcher. Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister? That’d be a laugh. I’d go back to the Caribbean!” But payroll administrator Ruth Knight, 56, said: “Jeremy Corbyn is the best candidate in my lifetime.”

On the doorstep, Mr Vivis tries to steer the talk towards his party’s “strong and stable” leader, but here Mrs May’s gloss seems to be wearing off.

One voter says “I just don’t like the way she comes across”, and another adds of the two party leaders: “I don’t know if either of them are up to it.”

It is these undecided voters, and disaffected Ukippers, who the Tories hope to win. But why is a town built on immigration a realistic target for a party vowing to slash net migration? Mr Vivis says: “Slough voted for Brexit, there are strains on services and maybe it’s an irony it’s been a victim of its own success at attracting people and they’re now feeling that ‘enough is enough’.”

Mr Dhesi declined to speak to the Standard but has vowed to be “a strong voice for Slough after seven years of damaging Tory cuts”.

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