Is Jeremy Hunt heading for his Portillo moment? On the campaign trail as Chancellor fights to keep Surrey blue

IIf polls are to be believed, the constituency of Jeremy Hunt, Godalming and Ash is still expected to be packed with Tories despite five years of chaos under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

The chancellor charts a narrow path to victory in the Surrey seat, which has been Conservative since its creation as South West Surrey in 1983.

But on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, just over a week before the polls opened, The independent I struggled to see how Mr. Hunt could avoid the humiliation of the infamous Portillo moment, when the then-Secretary of Defense was stunningly unseated in the 1997 election.

After spending the afternoon strolling the leafy streets and wandering along the waterways, we failed to find a single openly conservative voter. Mr Hunt's rivals in the race are Lib Dem Paul Follows, Labor's James Walsh, British Reformer Graham Drage, Ruby Tucker for the Greens and Harriet Williams for the Women's Equality Party.

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In a sign that Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey's strategy to win over so-called Surrey shufflers could work, this newspaper met a string of voters enthusiastically backing his party's bid to break the southern blue wall The 4th of July.

Residents of Godalming, the market town of 10,000 just a 30-minute train ride from Waterloo, said scandals including Partygate, Liz Truss's disastrous mini-budget and allegations of general election betting now engulf the conservatives had pushed them to the limit.

On a quiet residential street a few steps from the city center, The independent met Steven, a retiree and former Tory voter, including for Mr Johnson in 2019, who said he personally sympathized with Mr Hunt but would vote for the Lib Dems.

I voted Tory but I just haven't been impressed with their performance lately, I know they've been dealing with Covid and such but I just don't trust them now, he said he declares. Many of them seem to be in it for their own good. I'm quite impressed with Jeremy Hunt and I don't particularly like Keir Starmer, but there needs to be a change and that's the main reason I voted Lib Dem.

He also praised local Lib Dem candidate Paul Follows, the leader of Waverley Borough Council, calling him a good guy doing a good job.

On the other side of town, The independent met another Steven, Steven Wing, a retired systems engineer and long-time Lib Dem supporter.

I voted for Margaret Thatcher once, Mr Wing said, I thought she was on the right track to begin with, then afterwards I thought she wasn't for me.

Mr. Wing said he had met and liked Mr. Follows and considered him a very good local activist. Asked about the Conservative government, he said: “It’s despicable. Everything they do is completely wrong and against my values. »

And when asked what he thought about the prospect of Sir Keir Starmer entering Downing Street, he said the Labor leader seemed like a decent guy.

On another leafy street in Godalming, a few former Labour voters chatted with The independent in a quaint living room over a well-deserved cup of ice-cold ginger beer.

Philip and Helen said they would usually lean towards Sir Keir's party, but with the Lib Dems within striking distance of clinching the seat, they are backing Mr Follows.

The two men reeled off a catalog of local complaints against Mr Hunt, including once withdrawing a remark that a local school was poor rather than fighting for additional support.

They also criticized his stupid comments about the salaries of the people in the constituency. Mr Hunt said in March that $100,000 a year was not a huge salary for people in his Surrey constituency.

I would love to have 100,000, it just shows stupidity, Philip said.

They praised him for his activity on some higher-profile local issues, such as during the heavy flooding in the north of the city, but Philip said overall: I don't think he's a particularly good local MP.

Helen then listed a series of complaints about Mr Hunt's association with the Conservative Party nationally, including voting against Marcus Rashford's campaign to give children free school meals during school holidays and the support for Liz Truss as Prime Minister. She also took a look at Mr Sunak, saying that although he was relieved after the other two, I wonder if there is a store where you can buy a spine.

But the final straw for Helen and Philip was when their son fell ill during the second Covid lockdown. We were literally visiting him through the hospital window, sitting in the parking lot and sitting with our phones, talking to him through the window, Helen said.

She added: And then you find out they were having their parties, that's always smart.

When The independent met Lib Dem candidate Mr Follows at Coffee#1 on Godalming High Street, he spoke movingly about finding Partygate personally offensive.

My mother was hospitalized for nine weeks and my father for nine months. I found it personally offensive that these people were breaking the rules, he said.

Mr. Follows said: And it's the same with betting [scandal currently engulfing the party]it's one rule for them and another for everyone else.

He described building a base of loyal supporters over the past five years, after opposing Mr Hunt in 2019, and said that for the first time, winning against the chancellor seemed achievable.

“We're ahead of Jeremy in door-knocking, literature and social media. One of the problems conservatives face everywhere is that their game on the ground is diminishing because people are leaving them in droves,” he added.

The independent I haven't seen a single Conservative poster in the city, compared to a multitude of Lib Dem posters and garden stakes. Mr Follows said his team had counted just 50 Conservative posters in the constituency, compared to almost 400 supporting the Liberal Democrats.

He is losing votes on the reform right [UK]”, center for me and we hope to get a decent number of people on the left who will lend me their votes,” Mr. Follows said confidently.

He attacked Mr Hunts' voting record on key local issues such as sewage, areas where waterways have dangerous levels of pollution. E. coliBrexit and oil and gas drilling.

People are not stupid, he was a Tory MP for practically 20 years, a minister four times, including some of the big posts, so we are getting into a position now where he is telling everyone that everything is fine, said Mr .

People will look at the ballot and see Jeremy Hunt, Conservative, and that won't work, he added.

Mr Follows praised his leader Sir Eds' antics during the election campaign, calling them an inventive way of getting media coverage of key Lib Dem announcements that would otherwise be overlooked.

And he touted himself as a truly local candidate, saying I'm a kid from public housing next door, I've lived here for a long time now and I want to help people, he said.

Walking together from the cafe to the Godalming Pepperpot, formerly the Old Town Hall, Mr Follows was approached by a long-time Green Party supporter who came to support his campaign in this election.

Frances had been leafleting around Godalming during the day and, when asked why she had decided to support Mr Follows, said she could not see Mr Hunt winning.

But she said it was close, Jeremy could win… against Mr Follows. He could do it, Mr Follows conceded, that's why we have to do everything we can.

A voter interviewed by The independent did not know that there were elections and had not registered to vote. Another said he just wasn't interested.

Mr Hunts' wife was joined on the campaign trail on Tuesday by Mr Sunak's billionaire wife Akshata Murty, a sign the Tories know he needs all the help they can get.

The Chancellor cancelled a planned meeting with The independent He was accused of avoiding the media, barring journalists from attending a recent election event.

The news in Godalming was not all good for Mr Follows, but would not bring much comfort to Mr Hunt either.