Brexit heartlands: pro-leave Havering – a photo essay

Brexit heartlands: pro-leave Havering – a photo essay

The London borough saw one of the biggest leave votes in Britain last June and Romford is the biggest town in the borough. Photojournalist Sean Smith and Lisa O’Carroll met some of the people behind the politicsThe London borough saw one of the biggest leave votes in Britain last June and Romford is the biggest town in the borough. Photojournalist Sean Smith and Lisa O’Carroll met some of the people behind the politics

Havering – sandwiched between Essex and London – was one of the strongest pro-Brexit boroughs in the country, with 69.7% voting to leave the EU.

Its population has remained relatively constant between the two past censuses in 2001 and 2011, with a 6% increase in residents compared with a 14% London average, but the population of the main town, Romford, has shot up by 21%, reflecting a glut of new apartment blocks attracting families squeezed out of the London market.

Two other things stand out from the censuses: it has an older population than average for the capital and is one of the two least diverse boroughs in London (the other being Bromley). But in the 10 years between both censuses the make-up of the population has changed, with the minority ethnic population having more than doubled.

Is that one of the reasons why the borough opted so emphatically to exit the EU?

We go to Romford to find out.

Social club
 Members enjoying the music of Larry and the Streamers, who play classic songs from the 1960s
Romford United Services and Social Club was set up in 1921 by the ex-servicemen of Romford, who were in the armed forces during the first world war. The present site was opened following the second world war.

Hillary and Paul Webster, line dance teacher and DJs - Voted: remain, leave

 Hillary Webster and her husband Paul
Married couple Paul and Hillary Webster had what she describes as “a massive fallout” over the referendum after he voted remain and she voted Brexit.

“I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m deeply regretting my decision. I don’t think I was given the correct information. Given another chance in another referendum I’d vote in now,” says Hillary, 61, a line dance teacher at Romford United Services and Social Club.

“I thought we had good reasons for going out. We had a better chance for the future. We weren’t making much of being in Europe. My mother used to say, ‘A pot has to stand on its own base,’ and Britain wasn’t standing on its own base.”

I think I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m deeply regretting my decision
Hillary Webster
Paul, 59, is more sure-footed: “I didn’t believe the propaganda being put forward by the pro-Brexiters. I didn’t believe them on the amount of money we were sending to Europe. One of the most preposterous things they said was we’d be opening the floodgates to Turkey and there’d be 40 million more in the country. I also felt we’d be more united in our fight against terrorism if we stayed in Europe.”

Nine months down the line, she says she wishes she had listened to her husband. “I think I just went along with the idea of coming out. I thought it would mean new horizons in industry if we were to start all over again. I didn’t think we’d end up with the pound so weak. Nobody said, ‘Be careful, if you vote out, sterling will become instantly weak.’ I’m frightened I made a terrible mistake.”

Snooker club
 The Romford Snooker Club, famous as the club where Steve Davies started his career
The Romford Snooker Club is famous as the club where Steve Davis started his career. We met some friends playing there

Tom Binder, firefighter, 24 - Voted: leave

Binder was born into a Romford family with a history of public service. His brother is a paramedic and both his grandparents on one side were in the police.

I’m a bit nervous about article 50 now being implemented
Tom Binder
He voted Conservative in the last election and in favour of leaving the EU. “My main reason was the point they made in their manifesto about the money we pay into Europe going to be put back into the health service, but straight away after the referendum they said they didn’t actually say that.

“I voted that way because I thought it was going into the public services. I’m a bit nervous about article 50 now being implemented. Does it mean more cuts to the public services? They said they were putting £350m into the NHS. Now we know they were lying. I think I should have voted remain instead, but at the moment I do have faith.”

 Geologist Daniel Jobson with his friend Tom Binder
Binder’s friend, Daniel Jobson, 25, a geologist, also from Romford – Voted: remain

I think a lot of people, especially the media, jumped the gun and said the country would suffer
Daniel Jobson
“At the end of the day there was nothing wrong with the EU, the country wasn’t in tatters. I feel that everybody, especially in this area, voted leave because there weren’t compelling reasons put to stay.”

Does he still think he made the right decision? “I think a lot of people, especially the media, jumped the gun and said the country would suffer. But nine months down the line nothing has happened and it will take a long time before anyone knows what the impact will be. I may have regrets in two years’ time, or I may not have regrets in two years time. Right now, it’s way too early to say.”

Friday night
 Outside the clubs and pubs in Romford on Saturday night
Romford has a night-time economy that is almost as significant as the daytime economy, which is larger than in any other metropolitan centre in Greater London, with more than 100,000 sq ft of bars and pubs.

 Police making an arrest
Police making an arrest
Controlling the huge numbers of people out on the town who might be drunk and getting into fights is no small task for the local police force.

 A young man who had been asked to leave the centre earlier in the evening later found uncouncious after getting in a fight and hitting his head on the pavement
 A man who had been asked to leave the centre earlier in the evening
Police found this young man, who had been asked to leave the centre earlier in the evening, unconscious after getting into a fight and hitting his head on the pavement.

 Back at the police station doing paper work
 A busker on the streets
Back at the police station, there is a lot of paperwork to be done. Right, a busker on the streets
 Police officers moving on homeless men from a shopping centre
PC Pete Kirk has been with the police for 12 years and Michael Price for two years. They have been asked by a shopping centre security guard to move on two homeless men.

The allotments
 Pete Ward at the allotment with Ken Foley. Both voted to leave the EU
We met members of the Hornchurch and District Allotments and Gardening Society. The society has been established for more than 60 years. The society now has 15 sites and almost 700 members.


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Ken Foley, 76, retired - Voted: leave but wavering

Ken Foley (above with Pete Ward) has a plot as large as a mini-farm, tilled and rotovated for the season. He has put 400 runner bean seeds in, with sweetcorn, onions, beetroot, carrots, potatoes all ready to go.

Born and bred in Mile End, east London, Foley worked for Barclays Bank for 20 years as security in hostels it used to house staff hired from northern England.

“I voted to come out, but I’m wavering now, I don’t know if I did the right thing. I think we could come out worse. I thought it would be OK, we’d still have access to the free market, and now we might not. I think it’s going to be very hard.

Kawa Amin, doctor - Voted: remain

 Dr Kawa Amin who grew up in Baghdad but is Kurdish
Kawa Amin, a consultant geriatrician at Queen’s hospital, Romford, came to Britain from Baghdad three years before Saddam Hussein was toppled. Three months ago he landed himself two plots in the local allotment off Fontayne Avenue. He had not gardened before, but luckily he inherited fig, apple and plum trees.

He voted to remain. “I think most of the doctors I work with prefer to stay in, but some of the nurses voted to stay out because of the competition from workers from Italy and Spain. They thought they were competing with them and taking their jobs.”

Having grown up in a dictatorship, Amin is sanguine about the future. “Britain is a very strong constitutional country. Democracy is very deep-rooted.”

I think Europe itself will need Britain. Even if Britain is out, they will find some way to keep Britain close
Kawa Amin
Jim Hamilton, 72, retired software executive - Voted: leave

 Jim Hamilton
Hamilton intended to vote remain, largely to protect his pension. He changed his mind in the last week during a car journey across London that took four hours. 

He has voted Labour for most of his life, but 12 years ago switched to the Conservatives. “I started to lean very much towards Ukip in the last few years,” he says. “We can’t let more and more people in here. It just doesn’t work. The infrastructure isn’t there,” he says.

I don’t think Hammond and May are the right quality of people to do this
Jim Hamilton
“I’m glad I voted Brexit. I think it’s going to be very contentious. One of the things that our Westminster politicians are going to have to do now is make a decision because Brussels does that now. I don’t think they [Hammond and May] are the right quality of people to do this. It’s been easy for them because they’ve been able to say, ‘Oh, Brussels won’t let us do this, Brussels won’t let us do that.’”

He says life has not got better as the country has prospered and he blames politicians. “All the talk was about the future being paperless, how we’d all be able to retire at 50 because we’d be able to afford to and machines would be doing most of the work. Well, now we’re talking about people not being able to retire at 65, young people barely able to get by or scrape enough together to get a home.”

Dot Spendiff, 55, full-time carer - Voted: remain

 Dot Spendiff
Although her family is from Havering and she moved back two years ago, Spendiff considers herself a blow-in. She spent most of her life in Stratford, east London, and says she still sometimes feels as if Havering is stuck in the 1950s. In Stratford, she helped run the estate as it was a co-op.

“I lived with people from all over the world. I’m used to mixing with different types of people. It’s a bit of a shock coming back here,” she says, telling me she heard a council worker use the phrase “darkie”.

“Havering has a got a very high population of elderly people, but it’s changing because people are coming out here because of the housing situation and some people find that a bit of a threat to be honest, but to me it’s normal.”

“I lived in France when I was 19 and I think it’s really educational to go out of your own country and see it from outside. I like the idea of being part of Europe. I’m glad I voted remain.”

Bingo
 Romford Mecca at the Mall bingo night
The 1930s art deco bingo hall in Hornchurch was taken over by Lidl in 2015, and Mecca bingo nights are now held at The Mall shopping centre in Romford. For many, such as Brenda Bargh, the bingo nights are a chance to socialise.

 Romford Mecca at the Mall Bingo night
It’s not generally a young crowd but bingo is fun for all
 Romford Mecca at the Mall Bingo
 Romford Mecca at the Mall Bingo
 Brenda Barge at the Mecca Bingo
Brenda Bargh, 76, retired - Voted: leave

In her broderie anglaise top, Brenda Bargh, 76, is all dressed up for bingo night. She’s been going to the Romford Mecca hall for 18 years.

“I come on Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Tuesday and Thursday I have to clean the house,” she jokes. “It’s not really about the money, it’s my social. The staff are lovely to me and you get to meet a lot of people, we have a laugh. On bingo days I jump out of bed and think, ‘Great, it’s bingo day.’ I don’t know what I’d do if it closed. I’d just sit and mope at home.”

She voted for Brexit because she sensed a decline in the town and its community cohesiveness.

Immigration? It is an issue for some people but not for me. What I don’t like is the people who do the muggings
Brenda Bargh
There’s “zero” in the historic market square now, she says, and the old brewery has been turned into a retail park. “Immigration? It is an issue for some people but not for me, everyone has been kind to me all my life. What I don’t like is the people who do the muggings.”

Market town
 Romford Saturday market
Romford has a large street market run by Havering council. Dave Davies, 57, has run a ladieswear stall in the historic market for the past 12 years and Brexit couldn’t come quick enough for him.

Dave Davies, market stallholder - Voted: leave

 Dave Davies who runs the ladieswear stall at the market
Davies voted Ukip in the general election and voted to exit the EU. Why? “I was fed up with everything really – all the different rules and regulations, immigration – I feel like we’re not in control of our own country,” he says, explaining that his anti-EU feelings hardened after 2004 when Poland joined the EU.

“When they came in it was just loads of people, legal and illegal, it started to get out of hand. The country’s over-populated. It’s too much overflow. I think it’s too late, I think the ones that are here are going to stay.”

I don’t think it’s going to make much that much difference for my generation, but hopefully for the younger generation
Dave Davies
 TJ’s South Side tattooing & Body Piercing. Terry Simpson working on Max ’s first tattoo having done on his birthday
Terry Simpson, 54, and John Norton, 57, tattooists - Voted: leave and leave

 Terry Simpson and John Norton
Simpson is confident Britain has made the right decision. He voted Ukip but says he is a “nationalist” and the party’s views are not strong enough for him. He voted to put a stop to the “open door” policy on immigration and blames Tony Blair for failing to put restrictions in place when the EU enlarged to include Poland in 2004.

“Immigrants have been coming to this country for thousands of years, it’s not about referring back to previous waves of immigration, to the Indians or the West Indians.

“This was just an open-door policy and the name of the people who wanted to come to the country and work and contribute is blackened by those who come and put nothing back, that’s not right, is it?”

His business partner, John, who voted Tory, says he voted out partly because of the European court of justice. “Take Abu Hamza,” he says, referring to theradical cleric who preached at Finsbury Park mosque, “it took us eight years to get him out because of the Human Rights Act.”.

He’s also angry at reports that Britain may have to pay an exit bill estimated up to €60bn (£52bn). “When you get divorced you split the assets 50/50. After 40 years of paying into the EU, Theresa May should be asking for a share of the assets back.”

For 2,000 years we didn’t need them. It’s only in the last 40 years we’ve had to be part of that stupid organisation.
John Norton