May brings her Brexit withdrawal vote back to UK Parliament again

Nobody I’ve met so far today in Doncaster — where seven in ten people voted to Leave the EU — wants Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal to pass.

Susan Horgan, a full-time carer aged 53, laughs at the very suggestion.

“What, the ‘meaningless’ vote?!” she asks. “What’s the point?”

“The Prime Minister is just wasting more time.”

This is stop number five on our tour of towns and cities that voted for Brexit and frustration with the process of exiting the EU is giving way to anger in Doncaster.

Ken Mannifield, a part-time farmer aged 71, says he has lost faith with all politicians, even those he usually supports.

“I’ve voted Labour all my life,” he tells me, “but I will never ever vote for them again. They have betrayed us over Brexit, they’ve stabbed us in the back.”

Doncaster has long been a Labour heartland. Now, the party’s policy for a closer relationship with the EU has put it at odds with some of its traditional supporters.

Mannifield says he would now vote for UKIP, the UK Independence Party, which currently has no representatives in the House of Commons.

Retiree Pam Hughes agrees. If there were an election today she says Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t be voted in.

“People will be screaming from their constituencies, saying we don’t want you any more,” she says of those MPs representing Leave voters, who haven’t delivered on voting for a hard Brexit.

And, asked what she will do if Brexit is revoked, or if a second referendum is granted?

“I would be more than willing to organize a mass rally. I would revolt, as old as I am.”

Even Remain voters — by some distance the minority in Doncaster — are frustrated.

“At this stage we should just leave without a deal and start rebuilding Britain,” Maths teacher Carol Hatfield says.

She thinks the heart of the problem is the fact that politicians in Westminster want to stay in the EU, and simply aren’t representing the people who voted them in.

Whether the Prime Minister’s deal passes or fails, today will give us a sense of what happens next with Brexit.

It’s unlikely, however, to change the sentiment in Leave areas like Doncaster, where voters appear to be moving away from mainstream political parties as Westminster continues its political wrangling.