Reform voters - why? Which policy attracted you?

[Flyhigher]

Why did you vote reform? I'm genuinely interested.

In my own area reform came second. By a long margin. But still.

It's a labour stronghold.

So why?

In the absence of any avowed reform voters putting their 2p in I would say the following:

cause people are sick of the tories, but don’t like labour. Reform fractured the conservative vote. I’m astonished they made 4 seats, but they actually won more votes than the Lib Dems who won 48. Even madder- Labour won less votes than they did under Corbyn but ended up with the biggest majority since the 19th century. FPTP does some weird and wonderful things!

Mostly people who aren’t left leaning are not so concerned with the appearance of their vote or virtue signalling, so if someone runs on a policy of “I’ll sort out the immigration issue”, then they’re happy to hear it. The tories have sworn for years they’ll manage immigration but they never did. Labour advertise they won’t.

It was an interesting experience in Australia 20 years ago when the same debate happened. 50-100k illegal immigrants coming in annually and most of them crowding into the cities. Obviously they’re unable to afford to live in the more salubrious parts of town, so they move into the congested suburbs where services and infrastructure is already creaking. The same debate happened “oh you people who don’t like immigrants/vote one nation are all racist” and so no one admits to voting for reform (or Pauline Hanson’s one nation party as it was in Aus), but they do because they’re sick of having to deal with the issues that immigration causes.

dismissing everyone who votes Reform as racist is a mistake. Mostly they just want to be able to go to the GP, to go to A&E and wait less than 4 hours and to use buses and trains. They get lured in by parties like reform cause the major parties are dishonest.

No one says “immigration is at the level it is because we don’t have enough children. In consequence we need to bring in lots of people or our economy will collapse. But because they’re migrants with different cultural values and multiculturalism is really hard to get right, and we tend to fuck it up, they end up crowding out poor areas where services are already pretty bad.”

i would bet that Nigel Farage isn’t even a racist. He’s just an opportunist. We’re living in the worst cost of living crisis since the oil shocks of the 70s. Even before the COL crisis, wages have been stagnating and inflation rising (steadily around the 2% mark). More and more people are dissatisfied and no one is being honest and explaining what’s going on and how it will ever get fixed. When people are desperate they will turn to someone who appears to be being honest, and at least identifies openly something they experience: immigration causes issues.

Im not here saying we shouldn’t have immigration- it’s absolutely clear that with a negative birth rate immigration is an absolute must. But it causes issues and governments tend to be bad at managing migration. And the people for whom it causes issues are upset about it. So they voted Reform. It’s a finger to the Tories, not an “I hate foreigners”.

Well mostly- there will obviously be some racists in there. But overall I would expect that racism is not why people voted Reform.

I know someone who probably voted reform. He doesn't think tories have managed the economy well. But wouldn't vote Labour due to concerns of 'wokery'.

I didn't vote for them, but the best voice to explain it is Professor Matt Goodwin... has his own pages, substack etc but this podcast sums it up well:

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-winston-marshall-show/id1727337401?i=1000646313769

For the general election, I would normally vote Tory. I have nothing against my Conservative MP, in fact, he is one of the better ones but I didn't want them back in.
For local elections, I vote for whoever offers the best for our area, last time it was an Independent.

I will not and never will vote Labour in a GE.
My vote went to Reform (she was previously a Tory but the COVID debacle didn't sit right with her) as they weren't Labour or Tory and they were the only other candidate who declared they live in the constituency.
I also will not vote for someone who doesn't live local, how can they represent people they know nothing of 🤷🏻‍♀️

Immigration.

I work in Lee Anderson's constituency. People like him because he's proactive. He is an MP that gets involved at least.

I wasn’t voting Labour because they don’t know what a woman is, and I wasn’t voting Conservative.

I realised I had just written Reform off as a potential vote without knowing anything beyond press headlines. So I took a look at their manifesto. It only took a quick scan of some of the points for me to write them off again: green lighting fracking, fast tracking new gas and oil licences for the north sea, cutting foreign aid by 50%. I didn't need to read more!

I'd hazard a guess a lot of people saw them as an F U to the big parties, a protest, a vote against. Without fully appreciating what they were voting for

What I don't think many on Mumsnet understand is that many parts of the UK have their own identity that's separate to London. They don't want all the immigration that idealists from other parts of the UK have forced on them.

Immigration.
Being able to keep my petrol car.
Not being taxed higher.
Increasing police.
Keeping all the woke rubbish out of our schools.
Getting rid of the tv licence.
Reforming the House of Lords.

I'm rural with a farming background. Lib Dems and Labour are really urban in their approaches. Lib Dems especially who were the only alternative in this Tory stronghold.
But I also didn't want the Tory's in for another term. Went with Reform as they have good agricultural policies but I knew they would have no chance in this political seat.

That's exactly why I voted Reform.

The three people I know who voted reform are racists and don’t know anything more about policies apart from reform are against non white people coming here or those already in the UK (including British citizens born here) getting what they believe to be preferential treatment. I have yet to meet a reform voter who is not thick and a racist. Maybe some are less racist and just xenophobic.
The people I know are not living in a deprived area or in an area with a high level of immigrants. They are not poor and in fact one had a private education. It is just that they hate black people and think anyone non white is a lesser being.

I did not vote reform

however, their education policy really interested me. More special school places. More pupil referral units and easier to move disruptive students out of mainstream into PRUs

But you would have to swallow the racism ,and the sheer nastiness to refugees.

I know two people who voted reform.
There reasons were around immigration. They were concerned about illegal immigration not being tackled. They both were happy with skilled immigration on a points basis, both OK ish with asylum but really couldn't see why people weren't safe in france and weren't really convinced they were all asylum seekers anyway.

They were also concerned about clashing cultures, particularly Islam. One didn't want to be heckled in the street as was happening to them and felt any granddaughters they had might end wearing a burqa as they felt there was an organisation to return as many muslim candidates to parliament to impact on law.

I am trying really hard to not dismiss reform as I don't want them in power. I live in a very nice area and my view of immigration isn't one where I feel under threat in any way so I am trying to understand people's worries not just think racist.

A friend of mine (early 20's) did due to tax claims as he is on just over minimum wage.

If you don't know there racist undertones their policies seem entising. They ran a great campaign on social media.

I voted Lib Dem.

Immigration
Getting rid of gender ideology in schools
Protecting biological female spaces and races
No longer being forced to pay for TV licence which supports the woke BBC but instead making the BBC a subscription service
Getting rid of net zero before other countries like India implement it
meaning manufacturing is not closed down in the UK if it was it means we'd have to import manufactured goods from other countries that did allow it so support other countries not getting to net zero plus import cost
Raising of personal threshold to £20k to encourage people off benefits
Higher defence budget
More support for veterans
New model for NHS based on French model so those who can pay do so but low paid workers don't pay but still get access to full service

lol you do realise many non white people voted reform?

It really is simple, you don’t need to over complicate or over think this.

It’s nothing to do with racism either.

The answer is simple. Reform is neither Conservative or Labour.

This is why they will win the next election, then you’ll see a landslide.

Im old enough to know the Tories ruled for so long because beforehand labour couldn’t have done a worse job, then conservatives go and fuck it up too. They’re both shit. Time for a long overdue change.

For the first time in 30 years, I didn't vote Conservative and voted reform.

Why? Partly as I believe the Conservatives have become too centrist. The tax burden is the highest since WW2, as is our public debt. I believe the only way the NHS can cope with the ageing population is through reform to a French or German model. I think immigration is too high and is putting additional pressure on already squeezed housing, education and healthcare. (I also know that HNW individuals are amongst the most internationally mobile and raising taxation further will result in some of the highest net contributors leaving the U.K.). And I think the Conservatives have managed the country poorly at times, particularly during the pandemic, so no longer deserve to govern.

It's a more nuanced point but I have issues with immigration that doesn't go hand in hand with a level of integration. I've spoken about this before but my brother lives in a closed (religious) community and my SIL gave birth to her first child (not via my brother) in the U.K. at 13. That's child rape, irrespective of whether it's under the guise of marriage or not. Forty years later she can't read, write or speak basic English and she is not atypical of the women in their community. Yet political correctness means that this still continues today and I don't believe it's a healthy situation.

I knew Labour would win a huge majority but, like the 14% of the U.K. that voted reform, I hope it has some impact on the direction of future policy, at least for the Conservatives.

Well considering you've only met 3 out of 4million I'd say there's a high chance that they're not all racist, and that you maybe need to change your social circle

Farming support
More special school and PRU places
Getting more people into the trades rather than the university Ponzi scheme
Defence
Reform the NHS to a French/EU style system.
investing in British manufacturing and British industry.
Stopping illegal immigration.
Reducing legal immigration to something the country can actually handle.

I didn’t have the option to vote Reform but I liked their ideas for the NHS, as simply throwing more and more money at it isn’t solving anything - we need to try something radical. I also liked their idea of “front-loading” child benefit so you get more money when your kids are little. Plus I’m a racist xenophobic thicko, obv.

I like all there policies, and after 4 years of Labour I think a lot more people will like there policies. I have lived through a Labour government twice and I’m not looking forward to the next four years!! I am hoping I’m proven wrong for the country’s sake but i doubt that.