BBehind Blackpool’s brightly lit coastal façade is a town in desperate need of regeneration. The Magistrates Court has collapsed from Lark and no longer hears cases. Visitors who come to the South Shore area behind the famous Pleasure Beach expecting hustle and bustle are instead greeted with a dark atmosphere created by disillusionment and lack of trust.
“Scott Benton is a filthy thug,” says Dale Dodwell, manager of Monster’s Inc. tattoo parlor. “He keeps posting pictures of himself eating a lot of food. What about the homeless? You have a lot of money so you’ll be fine.”
Mr. Dodwell’s words are emblematic of the feeling that many locals have given up on politics. A by-election will be held on May 2 to replace Mr Benton, who resigned as Conservative councilor for Blackpool South on Monday night.
It is a new political headache for Rishi Sunak ahead of an election in which polls show Labor is expected to win.
Mr Benton was arrested last year by undercover Times journalists posing as a fake investment fund, offering to lobby ministers on behalf of the gambling industry and leak confidential policy documents for up to £4,000 a month. He was found to have breached parliamentary standards and was facing a local vote on whether to remove him from office following his expulsion from the House of Commons.
Blackpool South was a Labor seat from 1997 to 2019, but Mr Benton won the seat with a majority of 3,690 votes. Before Labor MP Gordon Marsden won one of the most powerful seats in 1997, deprived The region of England remained under Conservative control throughout its existence.
Ian Graham, a Blackpool-born postal worker, said politicians like Mr Benton were pushing to level up voting, but Mr Graham said he didn’t see anything getting done. To tell.
He said, “He is just the tip of the iceberg, and he is being caught with his hand in the bottle. Many politicians do this and they don’t get caught.
“I’ve seen firsthand how he addresses people this way and shows his face and does PR stunts. To be honest, I’m not a political person. Two major parties. I don’t think it’s a good idea to vote for one for the Conservative Party and one for a lighter shade of the Conservative Party.
“I would be better off with the Green Party or another political party that comes along.”
Julie Kirkham, a former special education teacher, said the next councilor should think about renovations and that the town has “plenty of parking.”
“Back in the 80s there were holiday apartment complexes on the South Shore, behind Pleasure Beach, and it wasn’t just the deer and chickens that people came to for a two-week holiday,” she said. “We just need people to care and bring a little bit of life and soul back into the place.”
Mr Kirkham added that as a lifelong Conservative voter he was undecided on who to vote for, but that Labor candidate Chris Webb, who was born in Blackpool, expected “a lot of leaflets to arrive at the door”. Stated.
Mr Dodwell’s colleague Zoe Sarah Neale said it was particularly important for women to vote because of their affinity with “suffragettes”, but she didn’t think anything would change.
“The tattoo artists were the first to close and the last to reopen.” [during Covid],” she said. “It wasn’t good for the self-employed.”
Neil, who is recovering lost income, added:
“I became independent in September.” [2019]before March [2020]. I was on the edge. When I called, they said, “We’re sorry, but you’re one of the people who has slipped through the cracks that we can’t help.” Now taxes are going up, food prices are going up, and it’s tough. ”
