�������t¶��

But what I pick up anecdotally – I've just spent the last few days in Lincolnshire, reporting on the race to be the county's first directly elected mayor – matches what the research group More in Common has picked up in focus groups.

"What's happened now is that this is probably the first election that I've been in where there is no conversation about an Aboriginal policy. It's just gone silent."

"I've never seen a development with so much potential damage," she added:

"It's not yet lawful to say I've got to have one. And I really, really don't want one. I'm perfectly happy with the way things are," she said.

"I've got no idea where it's going to leave us," she told the BBC.