To not vote for Labour as a former conservative voter, would you vote for Labour now?

[SonicBroom]

Just that. This thread is for anyone who has voted conservative in the past to ask what you’d do in the future. Please don’t derail with anything else.

I voted conservative most of my life until Boris came along. I voted LD in the last election not just because of Brexit, but because I couldn’t support the way that Boris conducted himself and his party.

But. If there were an election tomorrow I couldn’t bring myself to vote Labour. I can’t put my finger on why. It’s partly because KS just hasn’t cut through, I don’t question his integrity but I can’t quite see him as a statesman? And partly because Angela Raynor makes me worried that the Corbyn politics could rear their head again at any moment. Rightly or wrongly, she comes across to me as being too aggressively against people who have made a success of their lives —there, I said it— !!

So I wondered how many former conservative voters feel the same or not and why… partly as a proxy for how BJ might weather the partygate storm?

YANBU - I don’t want to vote conservative but Labour haven’t convinced me either so I won’t be voting for them

YABU - I don’t want to vote conservative again and I’d vote Labour

Lib Dem all the day. The Lib Dem MP in my constituency is simply inspirational and I was glad she kicked out the Tory waste of space who was in place in the last GE. However at a national level I wish there was a truly centrist moderate party with a strong leader who will actually lead with heart and soul

Boris will be gone soon. Nobody really wanted the job after Brexit but with Covid, nobody could have come out of that in the lead.

For me I will stick with the Tories, Labour would be horrendous with the up and coming recession inbound.

I think they realised their failure to consult women's groups in 2015 was a big mistake and they have been trying to distance themselves from a shit show of their own making since.

Not really, in March 2021 PM once again asserted that TMAM and TWAW. ^The context of Mordaunt’s remark was theMinisterial and other Maternity Allowances Bill: a bill that allows the Prime Minister to designate a Minister on maternity leave as a ‘Minister on Leave’. Once upon a time, such legislation would naturally have talked about pregnant women. But this is 2021. Only after a lengthy debate in the House of Lords last week was the bill amended to replace pregnant people with expectant mothers.^

The Conservative party created this. They have kept it going. They have the power to scrap it because of the clear problems it creates for women but they haven't.

Did they have an official policy on it in the last election?

I hear the word honest and Starmer mentioned. He knew about Jimmy Saville and the rest of them but put a lid on it. He knew about the groups grooming children in certain areas and help in preventing any further movement in terms of investigations. I now hear Allister Campbell telling everybody there are public standards. He and Blair fabricated documents so we could go to war and then Blair buried the information for 100 years. Career politions in my view are the scourge of modern society.

I voted Conservative in the past but I honestly couldn't give my vote to anyone at the moment.

I've always viewed the election as a necessary evil, but I can't say I know who the lesser of all the evils is.

@stoppedlurking

I hear the word honest and Starmer mentioned. He knew about Jimmy Saville and the rest of them but put a lid on it. He knew about the groups grooming children in certain areas and help in preventing any further movement in terms of investigations. I now hear Allister Campbell telling everybody there are public standards. He and Blair fabricated documents so we could go to war and then Blair buried the information for 100 years. Career politions in my view are the scourge of modern society.

Every time I hear Alistair Campbell talking about honesty, I can feel my hackles rising and steam starting to rise. He got his staffers to look for anything they could find on the internet that would help justify war. When the found it, he got them to change all the 'mays' and 'mights' to 'are able to' and 'do' and 'will'. He instructed Geoff Hoon not to correct misinformation that was going around. He cost hundreds of thousands of lives and he has the gall to criticise others over lack of integrity. He hasn't one moral in his body. Ugh.

Former Conservative voter here. I would vote Conservative again. Tony Blair took us to war on a lie, Boris attended an illegal party. There are more pressing matters to deal with going forward, and the Conservatives are more capable of dealing with them than the opposition, IMHO. The illegal party is a storm in a teacup whipped up a media obsessed with Twitter and who are ignoring many more important issues. Ditto No.10 wallpaper. Yawn.

@stoppedlurking

I hear the word honest and Starmer mentioned. He knew about Jimmy Saville and the rest of them but put a lid on it. He knew about the groups grooming children in certain areas and help in preventing any further movement in terms of investigations. I now hear Allister Campbell telling everybody there are public standards. He and Blair fabricated documents so we could go to war and then Blair buried the information for 100 years. Career politions in my view are the scourge of modern society.

That isn't right about Starmer. It's been debunked for a very long time, yet people with an ace to grind keep trotting it out as fact, when it's anything but.

I voted Tory when I was younger, then moved on to the Lib Dems. I voted Labour in the last GE, tactically.

I'm another politically homeless person at present, due to women's rights being erased. I've no clue who to vote for next time; I'll potentially spoil my ballot, even though I'd prefer not to.

@Alisae

Please don't vote Tory folks.

I do not honestly know how any person with a shred of decency could vote, campaign or stand on a Tory ticket these days.

There are no "decent" people left in the Tory party. Not if you take decent to mean kind, empathetic, honest and principled human beings.

And this kind of immature hyperbole is exactly why I usually stay off these threads. The black and white thinking of Tory/evil and will eat the poor = Labour/good and will change everything is what I blame for a lot if people being turned off Labour. It only entrenched views, certainly NEVER changes someone’s vote and only leads to polarisation of political discourse.

All parties have good/bad policies depending on your viewpoint. All politicians are human beings, whether you vehemently disagree with them or not. All parties have corrupt elements. Instead of trying to beat people over the head with your purity for a brief rush of feeling superior, maybe try discussing things respectfully and not pigeon holing entire segments of the population!?

Hear, hear. 99% of politicians want exactly the same things for the country. They want their constituents to be happy and healthy. The only thing that they disagree upon is how best to achieve it. Juvenile claims of "evil, heartless tories" achieve nothing.

I'm a former Labour voter who could not vote for them.

As repugnant as the downing Street parties are, they are simply child's play when it comes to labour's dangerous tinkering into what consistutes a female...

I'm female, I have daughters. No way will I vote for them.

@TooBigForMyBoots

The current trans debate has come about because of CONSERVATIVE PROPOSALS TO REFORM THE GRA. THEIR STARTING POINT WAS TWAW. Remember Penny Mordant?

There is cross party support and opposition to the Tory government's reforms. The current shit show wrt the definition of woman is down to the Conservatives.

Yes, they were heavily implicated in what has happened so far. Even so, they seem to be the only party so far to have had second thoughts. Only one Labour MP and one SNP MSP have spoken out for women and children, both have received abuse from within their own party for speaking out.

Penny Mordaunt and a few others may be signed up to TWAW but they are in the minority on the Conservative benches. The government as a whole have begun to wake up to what is going on and is starting to U-turn. That's the best we've had so far.

As for Starmer, he appears to be shit-scared of saying absolutely anything controversial. Not just on that subject but on any policy at all. He appears to feel safer sitting on the fence until he's worked out which way the wind is blowing. As far as I am concerned he is a coward.

Please do tell us how the ongoing welfare of women will be effectively addressed under a continuation of the Conservative government...

Yes, do tell

I voted for tory this election but I've voted Labour and Lib Dem in the past

I tend to go for the party I feel willl support my life more at the time. And those needs do change before I get jumped on.

Now I'm leaning towards Labour because of the sleeze however if they get a new leader in and she or he can turn things around then maybe I'll vote Tory again

However I will say I need more clarity from Labour as I do t really know what they want to do and I really don't like Angela raynor. If she went for PM there is no way I'd vote Labour.

I have voted labour in the past.

Wouldn’t dream of doing so right now, because they are still in the grip of insanity. I have never lived through a period of such incompetence in UK politics, on all fronts. But Corbyn and his cabinet would have fucked up the last 18 months to a greater degree than Johnson and his posse, extraordinary thought though that is.

I hope Corbyn sets up his party, as it may draw a lot of the poison out. But as yet I can’t see any sign that Starmer is Kinnock, or who the hell would come after him to actually win.

I wouldn’t vote Tory now either, so depressing times..

For the first time ever I don’t think I’m in a position to vote! I’ve voted all 3 major parties for different reasons in the past but I genuinely have no clue who I would pick out that circus , I suppose I could vote the Green Party 🤷‍♀️

Which Corbyn policies do you have an issue with?

Great question.

A spoilt ballot is a vote for the incumbent MP

@Floundery

I'm also politically homeless - I abhor the odious Boris, find Keir Starmer breathtakingly dull and sanctimonious and think Angela Rayner comes across as the kind of scrote who'd pick a fight with you in a dark alley.

I could probably get behind the Tories under Rishi.

You've expressed it perfectly

@SeaWitchly

Which Corbyn policies do you have an issue with?

Great question.

I, personally, didn't have a problem with Corbyn. But I just couldn't figure out what he was about. I felt he was being forced to be dishonest because the party was scared that what he really thought would frighten the voters.

I didn't like that he wanted to do away with the Queen, wouldn't sing the national anthem, wouldn't wear a poppy. But I admired him for taking the stance against so much criticism. The next thing he is wearing a poppy and singing the national anthem (I think he always wanted rid of the Queen, TBF.) So now, he still believed things that I didn't and I couldn't even admire him for standing up for what he believed in so I didn't even respect him.

I agreed with quite a lot of things he said but you could never be sure that he was going to stick with it. He supported Brexit, he opposed Brexit, he opposed Brexit and supported it. Who knows what he thought? And then at the election, every day he was coming up with another policy that the govt was going to spend billions on. I didn't necessarily disagree (although I think people look back on public services as if they were the best functioning ever. My god, the length of time I had to wait to get a phone put in or my electricity started. And trains were dirty and ran equally late.), but there was no long term plan for anything. It was all just reactive and populist and too much.
That's why I couldn't vote for Corbyn.

These are great answers thanks all. I realise I could have phrased the question better, by former I meant people who’ve voted conservative but don’t want to again as opposed to anyone who has ever voted conservative… but I think most people understood what I meant!

As for Starmer, he appears to be shit-scared of saying absolutely anything controversial. Not just on that subject but on any policy at all. He appears to feel safer sitting on the fence until he's worked out which way the wind is blowing. As far as I am concerned he is a coward

I’ve not thought of this before but I think you’re right. He actually seems afraid of the British public , he does always seem scared of being controversial and upsetting anyone. And in that way he’s pleasing no one.

@Floundery - spot on. I’m in the same alley as you.

I’m surprised to hear the number of people for whom womens rights would stop them voting labour. Perhaps as I hadn’t given it enough thought myself but now it’s raised, yes wholeheartedly if they’re too scared to even say what they think a woman is then what hope, especially as women, do we have? Not a reason that conservatives are better, just that we have to ask for better from our politicians.

Tories have handled the Pandemic pretty well. Labour in charge would've been a disaster and I'd have lost my job and home. The No10 parties are disappointing, but are inconsequential when it comes to me deciding who to vote for.

Tony Blair invaded Iraq resulting in millions of deaths, yet still got re-elected in 2005. Is a drinks party really comparable?

@starfro

Tories have handled the Pandemic pretty well. Labour in charge would've been a disaster and I'd have lost my job and home. The No10 parties are disappointing, but are inconsequential when it comes to me deciding who to vote for.

Tony Blair invaded Iraq resulting in millions of deaths, yet still got re-elected in 2005. Is a drinks party really comparable?

Precisely

Right now Diane Abbott is arguing for Zero Covid. That's how batshit insane the Labour Left are and why Labour are still unelectable.

@whenwillthemadnessend

I voted for tory this election but I've voted Labour and Lib Dem in the past

I tend to go for the party I feel willl support my life more at the time. And those needs do change before I get jumped on.

Now I'm leaning towards Labour because of the sleeze however if they get a new leader in and she or he can turn things around then maybe I'll vote Tory again

However I will say I need more clarity from Labour as I do t really know what they want to do and I really don't like Angela raynor. If she went for PM there is no way I'd vote Labour.

The last couple of years, I'd actually say Labour have given total clarity about what it is they want to do.

What they want, is to pass everything Boris puts into Parliament, making sure the PM never faces losing a vote. They have said repeatedly on national TV, when something is up to come into the Commons, Labour will be preparing to pass it. Often this is said 3-4 days in advance, meaning they could not possibly have even bothered to read it.

What they want, is hundreds of thousands of NHS staff losing their livelihoods. see the website: NHS100k.com -- and now bear in mind, this is just the number that have put their names to a public declaration. The real figure is likely to be a multiple many, many, many times higher.

After passing said legislation, Labour went on camera boasting about making sure everyone knows, it was them who eased the passage of this law.

So not a chance we will get Labour.

I see some are bigging up the chances of Sunak as a potential Tory PM - but personally I really struggle to see the appeal of a guy with more money than the Queen, a £400,000 swimming pool, gives his Wife a pile of unjustified Government loan money, and is pushing hard for a digital currency that the Bank of England plainly admitted will be "Government programmable." so you can totally forget about buying what you want; it will be predetermined. Forever.

As a longtime Labour voter (who has voted across the board, admittedly, the last 3 elections) there is no future in the current parties in Parliament. Well there is a future, but it is not a pleasant one.

Really has to be time for a whole complete shake up. New blood, please.