Murton is a rather frowsy former pit village in County Durham, about half a dozen miles down the A19 from Sunderland. Chip shops, tanning salons, elderly people with no teeth on mobility scooters, huge cannabis farm in the disused old Co-op store which has just been busted by the Old Bill. It almost became a ghost town after the pit closed in 1991, but they built a largeish retail park on the outskirts so people could spend money they didn’t have on useless shit and bad food. Its north side has one of the lowest average incomes in the county (£34,400) and a much lower than average life expectancy. Benefit take-up somewhat high, above 50 per cent.

I hope, in these few sentences, I have brought the place to life for you. Breathe in its flavour – smoke from the coal fires, the patchouli reek of spliffs, the spicy tang of infrequently laundered chain-store leisure wear, boiling animal fat from the chippy. You may never have heard of Murton nor care why it exists (which somehow it still does) – but beware, Murton is a harbinger of what our future might hold, politically. A kind of template, perhaps.

The Reform popular vote in the polls has shrunk and shrunk until it now stands at 23 per cent

The Reform popular vote in the polls has shrunk and shrunk until it now stands at 23 per cent

If ever there was a Red-Wall seat, Murton is it. And indeed when Durham county council fell to Reform in one of the most spectacular and comprehensive of Nigel Farage’s victories last May, Murton gave both of its seats to Reform.........

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