'I don't think either of us will be voting... I don't think our opinion counts'

In 2019, a Labour MP took Worsley and Eccles with a majority of just over 3,000 votes, so it could justifiably by called a marginal seat. Although the current incumbent, Barbara Keeley, has announced she will not be contesting the July 4 General Election, you’d be hard-pressed to find even the most staunch Conservative voter who thinks Rishi Sunak’s Tories could win there.

But judging from the number of negative, shoulder-shrugging responses the Local Democracy Reporting Service gleaned from the streets of those two areas of the constituency, if there was an ‘Apathy Party’, it might romp to victory. The number of people who said they had lost trust in politicians and would not vote was worrying, if not surprising.

Affluent Worsley is a haven of cottages and greenery just a stone’s throw from one of the busiest motorway junctions in the UK. From The Green, where young couple Charlotte and Jack are playing with their child you can hear the constant buzz of traffic noise not far away.

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“I don’t think either of us will be voting,” said Charlote, 25. “I don’t think our opinion counts. If I was voting for anyone, it would be the Green Party. My parents talk about it but I don’t see anything coming from it, so I don’t really give it much thought.”

Another man who did not wish to be named had a similar view. “I don’t bother voting,” he said. “I’ve got my own stuff going on.”

Julie Bowyer, 59, who runs The Flower Stop and a coffee shop on the banks of the Bridgwater Canal at Worsley would not disclose her voting intentions but said she would vote. “I keep who I vote for private,” she said.

“I know you’re probably thinking that because I’m