Is voter apathy the hidden threat in Batley and Spen?
Sign up to FREE email alerts from the Northern Agenda Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign Up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice  Theres a theme running in the battle for Batley and Spen, and it doesnt bode well for the mainstream parties: voter apathy. In one of the most tense and bitter by-elections in recent memory, Labour and the Conservatives may find themselves not only fighting to get the electorate out for them, but to get them out at all. Residents here have grown weary of political parties and by elections - this is the second in five years - and it shows. READ MORE: Tesco set to charge 99 deposit for pay-at-pump petrol  Its all promises, says Linda Keenan, 63, who has gathered outside Greggs with a group of friends for a morning chat. Linda and her friends lament the closure of high street shops on the high streets. There are no longer any clothes shops, they say, leaving nothing for us. Instead a number of takeaways have cropped up in their place, leading to more and more cars and bikes parking on the pavements and rubbish piling up. They say the council rarely takes action. To get the latest email updates from Yorkshire Live, click here. Batley is like a filthy ghost town, one remarks. In the past, Linda would have voted Labour, but in this by election she isnt sure. She praises Boris Johnson, saying the Prime Minister coped with Covid while being thrown in at the deep end. Labour arent for the working class anymore, she says. Theyre out for themselves,  Her friend adds: Nothing will change, no matter who gets in.  Its a story that carries far and wide in the constituency, including towards the more affluent parts of the Spen Valley, such as Roberttown in Liversidge. Roberttown is one area that 23-year-old SDP candidate Ollie Purser has been canvassing hard in. The themes that I see, the problems that I see, they kind of rhyme in every place, he says. Id change my name to none of the above, and Id stand, and Id get in.  One door along, and Mike Dawson says in 2019 he voted for Brexit - but before that, he didnt vote for 30 years. Because theyre all a waste of time. Ninety per cent of MPs are in it for what they can get out of it, he adds. They get their 80,000 a year, fiddle their expenses.  For Purser, an enthusiastic and engaging candidate, the antidote to the tragedy of voter disengagement is more community-based politics, with an emphasis on family and a return to British manufacturing. When he explains his vision to the next person to open their door, they smile fondly, I was idealistic once.