Wrexham in northeast Wales is a key battleground in the upcoming general election. Labour has won every election here since 1935, but it looks like its hold on the area could slip for the first time in 84 years. The wider area voted 59 percent to leave the EU in 2016 and Brexit Party candidate Ian Berkeley-Hurst claimed local people are fed up with the result being frustrated.

In the last election, Conservative candidate Andrew Atkinson came a very close second behind Labour’s Ian Lucas, who has been the MP there since 2001.

Mr Atkinson was just 1832 votes behind the incumbent, meaning a 2.7 percent swing would have turned the seat blue.

However, both men have decided not to run in this election, sparking many to question why.

Labour are running a fresh face called Mary Wimbury, who is both a Remainer and a member of the strategy board of Corbyn-sceptic group Progress.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are standing Brexiteer Sarah Atheron, who is not supported by Mr Atkinson, who sits with her on Gresford Community Council.

The Brexit Party’s Mr Berkeley-Hurst claimed it was odd not to stand a candidate who nearly won the seat from Labour in the last election.

He suggested that the Conservatives may have put forward someone “sacrificial” because they think the Brexit Party look set to win in this area.

He told Express.co.uk: “It’s certainly noticeable in this seat they didn’t use the same person they used last time as their official candidate – the question is why.

“[Andrew Atkinson] did very well! He was within 1800 of winning it last time and I gather it was the dementia tax that put the voters off.

“It was probably a case of – at the time, the manifestos were saying a, b and c and ‘we’re going to honour the referendum’.

“They haven’t, so I think they’ve put someone in today whose ‘sacrificial’, let’s put it that way – if they’ve done their polling correctly. 

“It’s a seat we should be able to win if we get all the to all the voters.”

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However, his comments are not backed up by the YouGov MRP poll, a model of predicting election results which accurately forecasted a Hung Parliament in 2017.

The MRP election map prediction has Wrexham switching to the Conservatives with 42 percent of the vote, with Labour on 38 percent and the Brexit Party trailing in with 7 percent.

These data cast doubt on Mr Berkely-Hurst’s assertion that the Conservatives do not think they can win here.

That said, the Tory candidate Ms Atherton has faced some stumbling blocks.

Former Tory candidate Mr Atkinson, who sits on Wrexham Council’s ruling executive board, told BBC2’s Politics Live last week that he had not and would not campaign for Ms Atherton in Wrexham.

He did not indicate his reasons for withholding support for Ms Atherton, but said he will canvas for Tory nominees in other areas.

He said: “I’m not on the doorstep in Wrexham at the moment, I’m helping candidates elsewhere in the country.

“It’s not a campaign I’m supporting, I can only speak for myself.

“I’m helping candidates elsewhere because I’m helping people where I really want to see them elected and they will make a strong difference locally.”

Cllr Atkinson also disputed claimed in Ms Atherton’s campaign leaflet that she had worked closely with local councillors to address infrastructure concerns in Wrexham, including traffic measures on the A483.

Ms Atheron said she was “surprised and saddened” by his comments.

Meanwhile, Brexit Party PPC Mr Ian Berkeley-Hurst claimed the European Parliament elections in May put the Brexit Party head and shoulders above the Conservative Party.

The Brexit Party got 37 percent of the vote in Wrexham, far higher than the other parties – Labour with 15.3 percent, Plaid Cymru with 14 percent, Liberal Democrat with 13.3 percent, the Conservatives with 7.6 percent and the Greens with 5.5 percent.

However, Westminster voting intention is not looking so rosy for the Brexit Party – they are polling at around 4 percent nationally, a world apart from the 30.5 percent they got overall in the European elections.

Nevertheless, Mr Berkeley-Hurst insisted: “If you look at the figures for the 2019 Euro elections, it’s not a Labour stronghold, it’s not even Conservative, its Brexit.”

He added: “I think a lot of Conservatives are looking around and saying ‘Well [Boris Johnson] is not necessarily reliable, he says different things to different people to get results.

“And so they may be saying: ‘Well, the Brexit Party have been solid all the way through. Vote for us and you know at some point there will be a Leave.’”

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