The Bucks Free Press has asked shoppers on Marlow High Street who they’re backing in the general election on July 4.

Our small survey of shoppers in the town centre offered an insight into the somewhat resigned political mood of the Tory stronghold constituency.

Hospitality worker Scott Lambert said he wasn’t planning to vote on Thursday and that the people around him were “generally thinking the same thing”.

The 36-year-old, who works in Marlow but lives in High Wycombe, said: “I don’t vote – I’ve never wanted to and it’s definitely not something I’d get into now. Nothing I see about politics interests me, especially at the moment.”

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It’s a position diametrically opposed to that of former engineer and teacher Alan Kenny, who has been a loyal Labour voter all his life and bitterly regrets voting for the Liberal Democrats in 2019, effectively “letting the Tories in”.

Mr Kenny, 83, said voting in the general election was an important way to “shift the direction” of the country, which he believes has “been against working-class people” under the Conservative leadership of the last 14 years.

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The long-term Marlow resident is prioritising the national political climate over the local – praising Tory incumbent Joy Morrissey as a “good, active MP” who can’t be blamed for the “ruin” done by her party.

“As a working man, Labour is the party that has always been on my side. I think they’ll go in the right direction, and I trust them with the NHS because they were the ones who founded it.”

Julie Batten, who lives just across the border in Berkshire, said she was also voting with a national rather than local party focus in mind – admitting that she “doesn’t even know” who the Conservative candidate is in Theresa May’s former seat of Maidenhead.

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The 65-year-old, who works in IT, said: “I don’t think the Conservatives are a perfect party, but they’re who I have always voted for and they’re better than Labour. I don’t agree with a lot of what Keir Starmer says and does and I think the main issue the country is facing is immigration.

“I just don’t think our politics are that good or inspiring at the moment and the Conservatives are the best of a bad lot. I thought about Reform, but they seem to have gone so extreme they’re right out of the picture.”

 Jon Speirs, 50, also said he’d be voting blue tomorrow, though added he’d only been “motivated” to cast his vote by respect for Ms Morrissey’s “personable” nature and quickness to respond to local issues like sewage in the Thames and the Marlow Film Studio plans.

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The artist, who lives and works in Marlow, said: “I think Joy is great and she represents the area super well in parliament because she’s a well-known figure.

“The bigger picture is a bit more complicated. I’ve always voted Tory in the past, but I don’t think I would this time if we didn’t have her as a local candidate.

“If it wasn’t for Joy, or someone similar of her calibre, I would find it very difficult deciding who to vote for. I might even abstain.”

In tomorrow's vote, Conservative candidate Joy Morrissey will face Matthew Patterson for Labour, Anna Crabtree for the Lib Dems, John Halsall for Reform UK, Dominick Pegram for the Greens and independents Cole Caesar and Pippa Allen.