Labour activists in my hometown feel the tide may be turning, but worry it could be too little too late
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When Eric Harvey contacted the Guardian last month he was planning on voting Liberal Democrat. But he had reservations. Brexit was the main issue for Harvey, a retired registrar and post office senior manager who has lived in Stevenage for two years, but the Lib Dems’ complicity in austerity gave him pause. When I met him a couple weeks later, he was leaning towards Labour. His wife is one of the millions of women affected by the change in pension rules and he liked Labour’s promise on that front, while Labour is the only party that can beat the Conservatives in Stevenage.
“I don’t believe Corbyn or most Labour members are antisemitic,” said Harvey who is the descendant of German Jews. “It’s more to do with the way they’ve dealt with it. And I do worry about their economic policies. There’s an awful lot of money being banded about here and I’m not entirely convinced where it’s coming from. Who knows what’s going to happen over the next two weeks.”