On election trail in Yorkshire with Labour where Theresa May faces wipeout

History repeats itself in the most unlikely places.

Theresa May went north to launch her disastrous general election manifesto in Halifax exactly two years ago.

It fell apart within hours, and this week she faces fresh humiliation in local polls here.

Calderdale council is set to fall to Labour for the first time for 20 years, and victory will turn West Yorkshire into the Red County – a full house with Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees (Huddersfield) all under Corbyn’s control.

Luddendenfoot, a marginal ward in the Pennines, was once a Tory stronghold boasting three councillors. Two went down in previous polls, one to go.

I went there to witness the gathering political storm.

Labour candidate Roisin Cavanagh, 42, a community action manager, has been knocking on doors for months, and must be quietly confident – despite the overhanging miasma of Brexit .

“There are people who obviously feel that because of Brexit they are not sure whether they want to vote,” she says.

“Brexit is a mechanism for lots of things at the moment. It means that nothing is going on, politicians are not talking about major issues.

“But overwhelmingly, people I talk to are upset about the cuts in services.”

We’re on a walkabout in the Bankfield area of Mytholmroyd, a village devastated by the 2015 Boxing Day floods and still being reconstructed with defence walls along the river Calder.

Climbing a hilly stone terrace, we’re hailed from the window of a second-floor by 44 year old Richard Wilson, who wants to put up Labour Party poster.

In the next street – a stone’s throw from the birthplace of the late poet laureate Ted Hughes – Lesley Clemson, 52, asks “What have the Conservatives done for us? We need Labour in power for action on schools and housing.”

Mum Elspeth Allan, 41, comes to the door with toddler Ottilie, insisting: “It’s very disheartening what’s happened with Brexit, but it’s important to vote Labour.”

A few doors further up Jordan James, 29, an IT manager, admits to disillusion over Europe. He said: “I wasn’t sure, I’ve voted Labour before, and I will do again.”

This is getting like a fan-fest. Where are all the unhappy, brassed-off Tykes who are going to stay at home tomorrow? If they exist, they must be hiding from Roisin’s electoral blandishments.

So, thank you, John Davison, 84, for giving us some stick on the doorstep. “I’m absolutely sick of the whole lot,” he thundered.

Retired bus driver and staunch trade unionist John goes on: “I’ve always voted Labour but I’ve never seen the party in such a condition as they are now. They know what the country wants and they should make sure we get it!”

In a sample of 20 voters 11 said that they would support Labour.

Fair play rules that I should also talk to the defending Tory councillor, Nicola Jayne May.

It isn’t easy. “Is she Mrs May, like her unhappy leader, or Ms May?” I asked a one cheerful voter.

“We calling her Missing May,” he laughed. ”We never see her.”

Nor me, either. I e-mailed and phoned, and eventually got a reply: “I am not able to speak to you.”

So I’ll never know if she’s one of the Tory candidates calling themselves ‘local Conservative’ to distance themselves from the national leadership.

Are these the “shy Tories” identified by Conservative psephologist Lord Hayward, credited with winning the 2015 election for David Cameron?

Driving round Luddendendfoot, Elland, Sowerby Bridge and the Skircoat ward of central Halifax – all Labour target wards – I didn’t see a single Conservative poster.

That’s not simply shyness. It’s a Brexit-style divorce.

A past Tory MP for Calder Valley, butcher Sir Donald Thompson, boasted to me that he’d bought 100 pig’s heads for £5. His party now looks more like a pig’s ear.

All eyes will be on the key battlegrounds

When? The local elections are being held tomorrow and polls open at 7am and close at 10pm.

Some 8,300 seats are up in 248 councils in England. The Tories defend 4,628, Labour 2,069 and the Lib Dems 641.

Key battlegrounds? Labour hopes to seize Trafford, Redcar and Calderdale and leapfrog the Tories as Brighton’s biggest party. A good night would result in the party winning Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent and Derby.

Any signs of an anti-Brexit effect could come in Stockport, a minority Labour council with a big Lib Dem contingent.

What will the results mean for the main parties? Jeremy Corbyn will be hoping to show the momentum is with Labour by clocking up over 100 gains.

The PM knows a disastrous day could hasten her departure, especially if followed by a poor show in EU elections on May 23.