Labour used to be the party of the working class. I haven't got a clue what it is now," was how Richard, a retired welder, described his feelings towards Keir Starmer's fledgling government. That response would be sobering anywhere, but more so for the fact he was speaking as part of a focus group in Merthyr Tydfil, the parliamentary constituency of Labour's founder and the prime minister's namesake, Keir Hardie.
Richard wasn't alone in his views. This week, More in Common conducted four such groups in Merthyr Tydfil and Dudley - the former held by Labour for a century, the latter a "red wall" seat Labour lost in 2019 and regained in last year's landslide.
With projections suggesting both seats could be won by Reform UK, we wanted to understand what was driving the momentum of Nigel Farage's party and how real it is.
What we heard across the two towns was a grim assessment of the state of the UK. We were told Britain was a "broken", "depressing" and "ripped off" country. As Lynn, a Dudley admin worker, put it: "All the services are down; they are cutting, cutting, cutting, but they keep increasing taxes."
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