The UK's most read publication - The Sun - waged all-out war on Corbyn. But Merseyside voters rejected the hate.
The ‘Brexit election’ saw shock gains by the Conservatives in long-standing Labour constituencies in the North like Darlington, Blyth and Durham North West. But 14 Labour MPs retained their seats – or gained them back from ex-Labour defectors – across Merseyside.
Some of the largest Labour majorities were made in Liverpool, with Walton’s Dan Carden winning 84.7% of the votes and Knowsley’s Sir George Howarth winning 80.8%. Although an argument can be made that these seats were retained or gained because some of these MPs have been long-standing candidates, Birkenhead’s Frank Field, former Labour MP of 39 years, ran as an Independent but lost to Labour’s Mick Whitley by 17,705 votes.
What makes Merseyside so different in their voting intentions than say, Workington, which has a similar racial and gender demographic but was gained by the Conservatives from Labour? Clearly, there are other loyalties at play, and this can be found in a regional distrust of the right-wing media.
Liverpool was largely a Remain area in the referendum, and a report this year by academics from the London School of Economics and the University of Zurich found that Merseyside rejecting the most read newspaper in the UK – The Sun – played a role. The study showed that attitudes towards the EU got significantly more positive in Merseyside during the boycott.
After the election, Professor Jon Tonge of the University of Liverpool, told the BBC that Merseyside remained strongly Labour due to a local history and culture that ‘sets it apart from the rest of England’: “It’s the socialist republic of Liverpool. The citadel. It’s Corbynista-land”.
Merseyside’s ‘Total Eclipse of The S*n‘ campaign seeks to eradicate The Sun newspaper from shop shelves – and it has been successful. Campaign banners are hung around the city, many black cab taxis advertise the message and independent shops pledge support with stickers in their windows declaring that they do not sell The Sun.
This campaign was formed in the years since the 96 deaths of Liverpool FC fans at Hillsborough during an FA Cup match, and the deeply offensive coverage that The Sun newspaper published that claimed that Liverpool fans picked the pockets of victims. Following advice that Liverpool should be “allowed to decline” some years before, Margaret Thatcher voiced a concern that a report into the disaster would be a “devastating criticism” of the police and should not be pursued, leading to a cover-up that has yet to be resolved. The connection between the media and politics has been ever-present in Merseyside. The right-wing media and the Conservatives have been rejected repeatedly ever since.
Much of the criticism that Corbyn supporters had, and still have, is the media’s portrayal of him as unelectable – a message particularly pushed by The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Express – and of course more subtly in other parts of the media. In terms of The Sun, Merseyside voters have remained indifferent to their message by simply not engaging with it, but in voting overwhelmingly for Labour they have also displayed an awareness that the political messages of the right wing newspapers should be questioned because they are undeniably linked to political bias.
My guess is that Merseyside residents will continue to vote for Labour, no matter who is the leader. But in personal experience, Corbyn and his shadow cabinet are well-liked, shown by huge numbers of people attending the rallies he put on during his leadership. It’s no coincidence that the ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn’ chant was first coined in Birkenhead’s Prenton Park during a Libertines concert.
By staying loyal to their voting habits, Merseyside has not only shown their rejection of the Conservatives, but also their rejection of a media-spun stance that arguably won the election for the Tories.
It is important to analyse where Labour went wrong, but equally productive is to see where it went right, as it did in Merseyside. I’ve no doubt that rejecting a key plank of the hard-right press has played a part – as part of a long term political praxis, a general questioning of what news can be trusted.
Encouraging this scepticism to the right-wing press, and building our own media, could help a future Labour victory.
Jessica White is the editor of Another North, an online literary journal promoting writing from and about the north of England. She is also a PhD student at University of Liverpool, looking at class systems and handiwork in Victorian literature.
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15 Responses to “General Election: Did Merseyside’s rejection of The Sun help Labour?”
nick w
as a scouser I can tell you that the Sun is still sold and bought all over liverpool, its fact, not a fact we may like but fact, Like the fact that in all the Liverpool constituencies the labour vote fell mostly around the 5% mark, which was mirrored ( forgive the pun ) in a roughly 5% rise in the ukip/brexit vote the entire narrative that we lost due to a secret press cabal doing us down is not founded, it wasn’t Brexit, on every canvassing night I went out it was the leadership that lost it, some nights brexit didn’t even get a mention ! to be crude and in rough terms the Sun many elections ago boldly stated “It was the Sun what won it” well this time around let be under no pretence it wasn’t the Sun what won it it was JC that lost it, sorry but for me thats the facts.
Matt
Thanks for this piece, really interesting.
The almost total boycott of The S*n across Liverpool is definitely an interesting quirk that contributes to the city’s distinct political allegiances.
It’s a shame about the commentators.
Michaela – coming on here to tell us about the things she doesn’t know but continues to opine about anyway. I asume she is also in the process of writing to Boris Johnson to make clear her opposition to his decision to boycott R4 Today and ban national newspapers from his campaign bus.
nhsgp – Labour has one seat in Scotland
xenophane – Liverpool is in the north of England
Michaela McManus – we’re still waiting for the Tory’s islamophobia enquiry promised in the summer, do you consider some religious groups more important than others?
Nick W – I don’t know which part of Liverpool you come from (the Manchester part?), but as a city resident I can comfortably say that the boycott is almost entirely successful. To the point that when I travel out the city and see someone reading The S*n, I’m actually shocked, it’s such an uncommon sight in my home city. If someone was seen reading it here, they would be gently informed of their error.
Big up Patrick, Sam, Phil and Alan!
nick w
Matt, I come from the constituency that saw a 5% increase in the Brexit/ukip vote and our MP seeing a 5.1 drop, it does us harm to pretend the sun isn’t read in liverpool it is, listen to the phone Ins on BBC merseyside for some staggering views, the fact is this is just the typical “lets believe what we want to believe” and dont let the facts get in the way, as I say I did 15 days of door knocking this election, and the unfortunate truth is Joe Anderson and JC were the cause many voters some I know who left the party
didn’t vote, the narrative of the press lost it is not the truth, we lost it with help from the press yes , but we did most of the damage ourselves.
Wally Crazier
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https://1xdaftar.com
Peter
Nick W. Something struck me as odd about your contribution is your door knocking activity. Can you tell us in which Liverpool constituency you spent 15 days door knocking during the 2019 General Election? Well done for that work by the way and I appreciate it was necessary to do some work for our candidates in Liverpool but spending 15 days in our very “safe” seats in Liverpool seems misdirected effort to me. For example us members of Liverpool Riverside Labour Party were directed by our local LP executive, regional Labour Party & the national Labour Party to canvass for Labour in the nearest marginals outside of our Liverpool strongholds. i.e. Southport, Wirral South, Wirral West, Warrington South and Crewe & Nantwich. Liverpool Riverside piled up the votes despite our absence. Maybe ask your local executive to direct members to assist in the marginals next time as your 15 days would have been very useful in Southport for example. It seems odd to me to spend 15 days campaigning in a safe seat when there is a marginal up the road. So which Liverpool constituency did you do that door knocking in – Garston, Walton, Riverside, West Derby or Wavertree? I reckon we will get Southport next time around from the Tories so it is important to spread our wings and bring our Liverpool enlightenment to the seaside.
Cheers, Peter.