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Politics Explained

Why the A-level results fiasco risks damaging Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ agenda

With former ‘red wall’ seats already in the cross hairs of coronavirus and a no-deal Brexit, Kate Devlin considers whether this latest impact on pupils from disadvantaged areas could return those seats to Labour

Thursday 13 August 2020 18:54 BST
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Boris Johnson speaks to voters in Sedgefield, one of the ‘red wall’ seats the Tories won from Labour, after his election victory in December
Boris Johnson speaks to voters in Sedgefield, one of the ‘red wall’ seats the Tories won from Labour, after his election victory in December

Boris Johnson won the 2016 European Union referendum with two messages. The first, famously, was “take back control”. The second was little said, but there nonetheless.

The Leave campaign tried to convince people in parts of Britain that felt left behind that they were being listened to, that they were being heard.

When he got into Downing Street, Mr Johnson attempted to recreate some of that same feeling around the 2019 general election.

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