The town of Hartlepool in northeast England is the kind of place a Conservative prime minister would ordinarily struggle to find support.
One of the most deprived areas of the U.K., the blue-collar port saw its steel industry collapse in the 1970s and 80s and the unemployment rate remains among the highest in the country. Politically, it’s backed the Labour Party at every U.K. election for almost half a century. But then came Brexit.
Hartlepool holds a vote on May 6 that will be a critical test for Prime Minister Boris Johnson after his landslide victory in 2019 paved the way to take Britain out of the European Union after years of wrangling.