Media request: has your political allegiance shifted to Reform?

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi there,

We've received the following media request.

Thanks,
MNHQ

I'd like to speak to women from Mumsnet whose political allegiances have changed to Reform in recent times. Ideally they would be willing to be named and pictured (in a piece for the Telegraph). Please contact [email protected] if you are interested.

You just need to look at how they’ve fucked up Kent to know they couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery, much less lead the UK. What are their policies on transport, infrastructure, adult social care, the NHS, education, and energy security, beyond ‘it will all be FINE once we get rid of the immigrants’?

Hear, hear.

No way. Ever.

Vote reform? Never!
I might be politically homeless- a lifelong Labour voter, now feeling let down and left out by a party who have forgotten both their roots and the fact that women are real humans, a fact also forgotten by the libdems and the greens. As for the Tories? Not again.
I would rather vote for the Monster Raving Loonie party than Reform, that bunch of incompetent racist fascists.

Hi everyone. Just to clarify a few things mentioned throughout the thread, including the recent poll covered in The Times.

The poll was conducted last year as part of our regular political polling, and it showed Reform leading the parties with Mumsnet users for the first time ever: 20% of users told us they would vote Reform if there was a general election tomorrow, 18% said Labour, 14% Conservative, 10% Lib Dem and 4% Green (and 2% each for the SNP, an independent candidate, or ‘other’). Nearly a quarter (23%) of the users we asked said they were unsure and 5% said they wouldn't vote.

As you may know we regularly ask users for their views on a wide range of issues that affect their lives and families. This includes social issues, public services, everyday experiences and, at times, political opinions.
We do this because Mumsnet exists to reflect what women actually think and experience, not what others assume they think. The scale and honesty of our large community of mostly women means we can surface perspectives that are often missing from public debate.

As with all our research, this polling sits alongside broader analysis of on-site discussion. Using tools like MumsGPT, we look at the themes and concerns being raised, for example around the cost of living, safety for women and girls, or children’s mental health, to understand why people are feeling the way they do. Those insights are shared with journalists and policymakers precisely so they can engage with women’s concerns, rather than dismiss or caricature them.

Our surveys are always clearly advertised on site, and participation is optional. They are also sent to our Mumsnet Voices insight panel, which is a group of users who have chosen to take part in research. You can sign up to Voices here if you haven’t already.

Mumsnet has always been politically plural. Our role is not to curate a particular set of ‘acceptable’ views, but to reflect what women are actually saying even when that’s messy, contradictory, or challenging.

Finally, a wee reminder that the Media requests board exists precisely so journalists can ask questions here rather than approaching users all over the place on Talk, so please bear that in mind and keep it civil. Thank you.

Never in a million years…

Can you clarify how the poll was conducted @BeckyAMumsnet, please? What was the sample size, and how was the sample chosen and constructed? As an ex-researcher those things are key.

@BeckyAMumsnet how many respondents completed the survey please?

And can you tell us how many individual users you believe were signed up to MN at the time of the survey? Not just members of the Voices panel. Although how many are signed up to the panel as well?

I'm interested in whether the poll is a self selecting cohort, and whether it was a proportionate number of respondents for example.

So if 50 people replied out of a potential cohort of 55000, the conclusions being drawn are ropey at best.

20% of users told us they would vote Reform

What do you mean by 'users' - members of MN or those who responded to your survey?

Mumsnet has always been politically plural.

If that were the case this thread wouldn’t have been posted. As previous posts suggest the politically neutral position would have been to reflect the politically homeless or don’t knows.

I would like to know this too. Also did you ensure all respondents were UK based? I appreciate that might not be possible, but would be good to know.

I agree with @Westfacing and @NeedForSpeedyGonzales I'm a statistician. Without any idea of the methodology you used, the actual figures, rather than just percentages, and whether you'd done any checks to make sure that your respondents were actually Mumsnet users (however that's defined) that 20% figure doesn't tell us as much as you think it does.

Not on my life

I take it you did not take note of @BeckyAMumsnet request to "keep it civil".

I find the thread heartening, though am aware that the vehement views expressed are upsetting some on MN.

Difficult to "jog on" if one doesn't have a leg to stand on, btw.

No way I would ever vote for the Reform company party. I don’t think any political party is perfect, but some are so far from even being vaguely competent it’s staggering that anyone would vote for them.
Farage and his cronies have crippled the country by pushing Brexit and demonising immigrants. Like previous posters I live in a county that is under Reform control of the county council… What a pile of incompetent charlatans they are proving themselves to be!

You do realise it is not just people on the left who won't vote Reform

I'm sure that there will be lifelong one nation Conservatives who won't vote Reform. They've probably been appalled by their own party's direction in recent years as well.

I think the incompetence currently on show in Reform run councils is already evident in Parliament - even though they only have a pathetic handful of seats. Today, Nigel Farage was allocated a question at PMQ on energy policy - he has been clamouring to have a question for ages. Did he bother to show up? Did he fuck.

This is how much Reform and its people care for the electorate.

Never in a million years. We're unfortunate enough to be in a Reform led Local Authority and a piss poor job they are doing as well. That said watching their introductions on LA website was one of the best laughs of last year, it was like a police line up (likely come in handy as such at some point). Some appeared unable to dress themselves and majority didn't seem able to voice a lucid thought.

Who would have thought having the skills and knowledge to be able to function as a councillor takes more ability than posting rants on Facebook

Never.

Can’t say fairer than that.

FUCK OFF FARAGE.

Definitely not