There was little sympathy for Alun Cairns on High Street in Cowbridge, a bustling market town in the heart of his Vale of Glamorgan constituency, following his resignation as Welsh secretary.
“I probably would have voted for him but I won’t now,” said Steve Roadhouse as he fixed a wheel in the cycle shop. “He should have had enough intelligence and sensitivity to approach a case that involves rape very differently to this. You have to remember there’s a victim at the centre of this. He really shouldn’t stand again here.”
Cairns stepped down after being accused of lying about his knowledge of an allegation that a former adviser had sabotaged a rape trial. He has been MP in south Wales since 2010 but many locals at the Vale of Glamorgan pub doubted he would win this time – if he chooses to stand in the first place.
Ron Davies said Cairns had no option but to resign as Welsh secretary. As a retired police officer, he instinctively distrusts anyone who has derailed a trial as a judge decided Cairns’s ex-aide did. “The law is the law,” he said.
Davies said he used to vote Labour but lost respect for the party over the Iraq war and changed his vote. “But to be honest, I’ve lost trust in the lot of them,” he added.
Roger Price, a retired local government officer, succinctly summed up his feelings about Cairns: “Good riddance. He should stand down – he has totally lost credibility.”
Patrick Sheehan, a painter and decorator, at least had some respect for Cairns’s longevity. The MP served as Welsh secretary under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. “That’s pretty good going,” he said. Sheehan said he would study the ins and outs of the case before deciding if he would vote for Cairns if he does stand again.
Cowbridge is a tightknit little town. A Labour-supporting bus driver said he used to ferry the ex-Welsh secretary’s son around and thought Cairns was a “nice fella”. The owner of one of the many smart shops chose not share an opinion because Cairns’s wife is a good customer.
The Vale of Glamorgan, which includes the seaside town of Barry as well as middle-class Cowbridge, is something of a bellwether constituency. From 1997 until Cairns won the seat nine years ago, it was held by Labour. But in 2017 his majority was a modest 2,190, with Labour second, Plaid Cymru third and the Liberal Democrats fourth. The Vale of Glamorgan, unlike Wales as a whole, narrowly backed Remain.
Sally Stephenson, director of the Pencil Shop on the High Street, is standing for the Lib Dems this time and sees Cairns’s resignation as an opportunity. “His situation was untenable. Even before this I was hearing a lot of Conservative voters saying they couldn’t go for this bunch of Tories. They thought that Alun has been lost to the dark side – the Boris Johnson side. But they won’t be able to support Jeremy Corbyn so maybe there’s a chance for us.”
The Labour candidate for the Vale, Belinda Loveluck-Edwards, called for Cairns to stand down. “It’s about being fit to fulfil his role,” she said. “His constituents have the right to expect their MP to act with integrity. People still want to know what he knew about the court case, when did he know it and why has he misled us. People feel let down and are hurting.”
Loveluck-Edwards spent her day campaigning away from Cowbridge in a less affluent area of the constituency. “People are relying on food banks. Elderly people I was talking to today in a block of flats are feeling they have to decide whether to heat their home or put food on the table. People are feeling the pinch.”
Of course, there was some support for Cairns in Cowbridge. Bryan Young, a television engineer, who was having his hair trimmed in Barbers 72, said: “It’s all about throwing dirt around now that the election has begun.” Young has voted Labour all his life but has joined the Brexit party. “Frankly I just want whoever can get us out to win,” he said. “Nobody is perfect. He should be left to get on with his job.”
