You may not realise, but West Yorkshire has been at the heart of British politics in the Brexit era.
Jo Cox’s brutal murder here put quiet Birstall, in Batley, at the centre of national attention during the 2016 referendum campaign
It is also home to several marginal seats, many of which voted leave and some of which have changed hands dramatically in recent years, such as Tory arch-Brexiteer Andrea Jenkyns taking Morley and Outwood from Labour’s then-shadow chancellor Ed Balls in 2015.
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both launched their election manifestos here in 2017 – the prime minister in Halifax and the Labour leader in Bradford.
The towns of West Yorkshire are seen as leave-voting, mainly Labour heartlands that could swing the other way under Corbyn’s leadership.
As part the HuffPost’s Listens series, we spoke to voters in the area who are split on Brexit but unanimously unhappy, and almost every single one is scathing about MPs’ inflation-busting 2.7% pay rise.
‘I’d agree with a referendum on the final deal’
Neil O’Grady, who works in Lloyds bank in Halifax (58% Leave), is happy to leave the EU with no deal if it comes to it, describing economic warnings as “scaremongering”.
He wants May to “kick some backsides, to put it in a good blunt Yorkshire way” and get a better deal from the EU, but he remains sceptical.
“Get on and finish it. It’s just dragged on for far too long, the country voted, make it happen, it’s pretty simple.
“I would leave without a deal if it came to it, just cut those ties. I’ve not got the confidence that the deal she’ll end up getting will be the Brexit people want, I think there will still be too many ties back to Europe, the idea of Brexit is to break those ties, of course.”
On the pay rise
Like many voters, Neil thinks MPs do not deserve a wage boost when Brexit remains unresolved.
“Happy days for them isn’t it. Not very good, given the job that they’re doing currently.
“If I was doing a similarly bad job, I wouldn’t get a pay rise.”
‘It fills me with horror’
Judith Wright, also from Halifax, thinks May “deserves some support” and is “doing the best job she can under very difficult circumstances”.
“It fills me with horror, I want to get them all in a room and bang their heads together because it’s not the government’s choice, it was the people’s choice and regardless they should be able to sort it out,” she says.
On MPs’ pay rise
“Maybe it should be deferred until they’ve sorted out Brexit.”
‘They’ve not given us much information’
Rebecca Foster has recently moved from remain-voting Leeds to leave-voting Halifax, and her experience of the divides in the county are obvious to see, as she reveals she still does not know how she would vote in a second referendum.
“I don’t think they’ve given us much information, especially for my generation, I’m 26 and learning from people my age, they’re the same as me, they’re still the same as me, they’re not sure which way they’d vote.
“My group of friends, we aren’t sure, we feel like we just don’t want to vote because we’ll be scared of the side effects which way it went.”
On MPs’ pay rise
“I don’t think they deserve a pay rise, personally. I don’t think that should happen.
“Not now anyway, not while we don’t know what’s happening, why should they get a pay rise for something that’s not happening right now - nothing of this makes sense at all.
“It just baffles a little bit. Please just sort it out so we know what’s going on.”
‘I think there’ll be a realignment of parties’
Oliver Morton, in Halifax, believes the referendum result must be fulfilled, suggesting the hit to faith in democracy could be greater than the economic impact of no deal.
“There’s obviously a lot of unknowns with no deal but at the same time it’s delivering what’s been voted for.
“It’s always a worry isn’t it, but people try to put a price on economic uncertainty, saying it’s going to damage the economy, it’s going to cause a lot of risk, at the same time flip it on its head and say what’s the economic impact of not delivering the democratic will of the people?”
On MPs’ pay rise
Oliver is the only voter we speak to in West Yorkshire who defends the increase.
“Their salaries are probably index-linked and their salaries are probably justified, I have to say.
“If you want to maintain a stable, democratic system you’ve got to pay them a sensible amount of money.
“If you don’t pay them a sensible amount of money they are open to probably some illegal, illicit ... how do I put it? They’d want to supplement their income with other means.”
‘I think it’s serving a very limited vested interest’
Carl Gottowick and Patricia Foley, in Birstall (60% Leave in Batley and Spen), believes Brexit will only deliver for the elites.
Patricia describes her feelings about the entire enterprise as “lies, deceit, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nigel Farage getting dual citizenship for his children but saying it’s a good idea to be out of Europe”.
And Carl picks up on media reports about ardent Brexiteer Rees-Mogg setting up a fund in Ireland, although the Tory MP denies it has anything to do with Brexit.
“The people who are in charge who want it are jumping ship, making sure they’re safe, moving their assets to Ireland in Jacob Rees-Mogg’s case,” he says.
“Why would he do that if he actually believed? I think it’s vested interests and a very limited vested interest this is serving, not the vast majority.”
On MPs’ pay rise
Patricia says: “Everybody else has to do without anyway. I can’t understand that.
“How do they think people are living? I used to volunteer at a food bank not long ago, there is another world out there.
“That’s disgusting, not impressed.”
Carl says: “A lot of the MPs have got quite lucrative second incomes.
“They say the captains of industry get a lot more money than an MP does but the MPs have all got sidelines.”
‘No-one gets everything they want’
Charles and Diane Creek, in Morley (59% Leave), want MPs to “get their act together, stop squabbling between themselves” and back May’s deal to end the “chaos” in Westminster.
Charles says: “In my opinion they’ve got a deal, it’s not a perfect deal, but it’s been negotiations and the thing with negotiations is no-one gets everything they want.
“It’s there, take it, get on with it. Let’s get some trade deals in place and let’s start going forward and get the country back to being sensible instead of being at war with itself.”
On MPs’ pay rise
Charles says: “Well, if they didn’t get it they’d only do it through their expenses some more.
“And we all know they’re hypocrites - we’re all in this together except they want more money than everybody else.
“Personally I think, ours included - overpaid lobby fodder. Turn up, vote where they’re told to, go home.
“Or go to their second home or go to whichever of their homes they can get tax relief on. Politics is broken.”
Diane adds: “It is, it is.”
Constituency referendum vote figures are taken from estimates by Professor Chris Hanretty at East Anglia University. The HuffPost Listen’s Brexit tour of the north continues in Leeds.