"The town's finished' North-east feels the despair of broken trust

Two days after his landslide election victory in 2019, Boris Johnson practically crowd surfed into Sedgefield cricket club. Jubilant fans at the venue in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, jostled for a photo; one thrust upon him their family pet, and another begged him to sign a copy of the Northern Echo, headlined: Tory tsunami from the Wear to the Tees.

- Josh Halliday 

"There was an absolutely huge buzz in the place," said Jean Gillespie, 69, in the same function room this week, whipping out her phone to show a picture with the former prime minister. "I got a snog and a selfie," she joked.

Between pulling pints and toasting victory, Johnson made a promise to the thousands of former Labour voters who had backed the Tories for the first time. "I want the people of the north-east to know that we in the Conservative party, and I, will repay your trust," he pledged, wearing a red tie in Tony Blair's former constituency.

More than four years later, the post-election party has given way to a chronic hangover. Support for the Tories nationally has fallen to the lowest level in nearly half a century. With Johnson and his successor, Liz Truss, pushed out by the party, Rishi Sunak is facing fresh talk of a mutiny before what are set to be dismal local election results on 2 May.

"Unless there's some massive change, I don't think I will vote Conservative," said Gillespie, who has relinquished her Tory membership, largely over the way Johnson was "stabbed in the back". She added: "I don't think there will even be a Conservative party by the next election the way things are going." Her husband, Trevor Gillespie, 73, said he too voted Conservative in 2019 but was leaning towards Labour. Levelling up, once the centrepiece of Johnson's premiership, was in tatters, he said: "First it was the 'northern powerhouse' under [George] Osborne. We're still waiting to see that; that never happened either ...