Ukip aims to turn Tory heartland purple with rage over HS2 'betrayal' Nigel Farage in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire. With St George's flags fluttering from redbrick cottages, Great Missenden is an unlikely location for a popular revolt. This sleepy Chiltern village was a retreat for the former prime ministers Harold Wilson and Clement Attlee; another local, Roald Dahl dreamt up Fantastic Mr Fox, the Witches and Matilda from his garden shed. But for local residents, the village is facing a worse punishment than anything Miss Trunchbull could have devised: a £33bn high-speed railway that will bring trains travelling at 250 miles an hour through the nearby countryside. The first services are not due to depart until 2026, but anger in this Tory stronghold is simmering. We put this government in power last time. We elected them. This is our government and now they are kicking us in the teeth," says Nick Rose, leader of the Conservative-controlled Chiltern district council. He is hopeful that his council's opposition to HS2 will limit the damage in local elections on 2 May. We have tried to persuade people that we are totally opposed to HS2 and we are going to go on opposing it for the next 10 years if necessary. The government has no escape from the opposition to HS2. It will grind on and on. Great Missenden is one of several potential political flashpoints dotted along the HS2 route that could give the government a bloody nose in this week's local elections. Seb Berry, an independent councillor who also opposes HS2, thinks that a hardening mood among locals could benefit Ukip, which is running a noisy campaign against the project. This is the Tory heartland and people are extremely angry about what they view - in my view quite rightly - as a betrayal. This month the Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, paid a visit to Great Missenden, where he called on voters to "create a political earthquake" and turn the electoral map Ukip-purple all along the proposed HS2 route. At least one Tory councillor has defected to Ukip, which is fielding a record 1,734 candidates around the country. The party has put up banners on the route to Chequers, the prime ministerial country bolthole just up the road. Anti-HS2 feeling is also running high in Tory-controlled Staffordshire and Warwickshire. Trevor Forrester, a Staffordshire businessman campaigning against HS2, says: "I am a staunch Conservative, but I will not be voting Conservative for the first time in 40 years." He says he will vote for Ukip on Thursday but would vote again for his local Tory MP - an HS2 opponent - in a general election. This illustrates how single issues can be unpredictable. HS2 is likely to have an effect in some shire counties, says Anthony Wells, an associate director at YouGov. But with Conservative MPs and councillors lining up against the project, it is unclear what difference it will make to the result. John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, points out that Ukip may struggle to win over Tory voters in the safest Conservative constituency in the country. "Mr Farage has been to Buckinghamshire before and has not proved to be particularly successful," he says, referring to a failed attempt to unseat the Commons Speaker, John Bercow, in 2010. Becky Monaghan, manager of St Andrew's bookshop in Great Missenden, expects she will probably vote Liberal Democrat, who support HS2, even though the route is "going to mess up the Chilterns" and will "do nothing for the village." She would vote Green if she could, but that is not an option in her Aylesbury ward. Anyway she is resigned to the rail project going ahead: "I am not sure we can stop it despite the amount of protest signs around the village." Not every resident is against. "I don't see what the big furore is, it's progress isn't it," says one local business owner, who did not want to be named because "everyone will hate me around here." This resident expected that Ukip could gain ground because locals "will sound off a warning shot" to the government. Cheryl Gillan, the local MP and long-term HS2 opponent, accuses Ukip of being opportunistic. They have just jumped on the bandwagon at the last minute to try and disrupt. She also believes that more of her party colleagues are beginning to question the "gigantic money-guzzling project." Conservatives have accused Ukip of rewriting history: their 2010 manifesto pledged three new 200mph-plus high-speed rail lines. A Ukip spokesman says the party never supported HS2 but is in favour of building high-speed lines along existing routes, rather than through virgin land. This distinction might get lost in the heat of an election. "If [Ukip] were in power they would probably be for it," says Andrew Robertson, a building surveyor. Voters have little choice because all the main parties are for HS2, he says. It is being railroaded through.