New poll finds only privileged people will vote for Labour - but why?

[ProudAmberTurtle]

This is a new IPSOS poll. It finds that among the least well off in society, support for Labour has collapsed - it's now just 10%.

Even among people who are 'just about coping' financially, they're a distant fourth in the polls, and would be wiped out if it was just them voting.

But - here's what might be surprising - among wealthy people they are first in the polls, in fact their lead is so big that if only rich people could vote, it would be a landslide for Labour.

Any thoughts as to why it is now that only the most privileged people in society are voting Labour?

https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2026-04/Ipsos%20Apr%202026_Political%20Monitor%20charts_Public.pdf

Do you live somewhere impacted by asylum seekers?

Fascists = Antifa = Opposed to fascism

Cross dressing men = Trans women = Women

Everyone thinks the same = Diversity

Intolerance = Tolerance

Comfortably Off = On benefits

Financially struggling = Rich

The left's ability to try to win the argument by pretending the words mean the opposite of what they actually mean never ceases to impress.

For us personally it depends if that would mean that we’d be taxed so much that it would wipe out our universal basic income? We’d appreciate a bit of a tax break while we’ve got the high cost of raising children and the scrapping of the higher income child benefit charge but probably wouldn’t mind current taxation levels otherwise, they’re just not sustainable for alot of people raising a family, particularly if paying off student loans, a blended family etc. I’m not really in favour of the government taking with one hand to give it back to me with the other, just let us keep enough of our earnings to give our children a decent standard of living

Except they abolished the 2 child benefit cap and did a u turn on proposed unpopular benefits cuts. I would genuinely love to know what reform will do for poor / working class people. What’s their solution to the economic crisis?

I hate this horrible dismissal of Brexit voters and over generalisation of them being Reform voters and the stupid use of the word 'furriners'. The one thing our electoral system does is give everyone's vote equal weight. I might not agree with the way people vote, they might not be educated, they might not have thought much about policies, they might even have spent hours agonising over their vote - but their vote counts just as much as yours. Their outlook may be very different to yours - their concerns are very different to yours. But their votes counts just as much as any sneery 'educated' vote.

Check the poll you posted. "Financial wellbeing segment trends". Dec '25 the financially precarious and extremely vulnerable both had a fair dip. I have clipped it and attached.

Just about coping shot up a bit in the same period, but it's still less than in sept '22.

Difficult to tell as much of the graphs appear to be trend rather than data points. But it does appear that labour policies are starting to kick in to help the poorest. But then Trumps war happened.

Financially precarious is a success story it seems. As is Extremely vulnerable. Just about coping is not good.

I don't see any data points there that show trans policy had any impact.

Going by that poll, labour policies do appear to be working for many.

Same.
Hell would freeze over before I'd vote Reform or the Green party.

Is that the definition of privilege now?

How are we defining "financially stable" please?

Most of the wealthy young couples near us are now displaying Green party posters in the window and previously it was Labour. most of them are quite dim and we dont really chat to them...all have big expensive electric cars and seem to earn huge amounts of money for non stop renovations and food deliveries...All the traditional working class have sold up and cashed in and moved to norfolk etc !!

Doesn’t make much difference if you’re not eligible for those benefits, it was never a 2 child benefit cap, it only ever related to the child element in universal credit so if you’re not on UC it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference. Labour have decided not to go through with the conservatives plan to make child benefit much fairer and dependant on household not individual income, we’d of not had to cancel the kids swimming lessons if they had

Ignore my question by the way, I see it's been answered

doh

I would think people who are on benefits and class themselves as poor (i.e. they don't work or only work a few hours) will vote labour to keep things as they are. In other words they are living on benefits so they won't want to rock the boat.

People who are in full time work and class themselves as poor/struggling will vote for someone else as they are working full time but are still skint due to high taxes. This is the group that will be totally fucked off seeing all the benefits getting dished out. Good chance this group will vote reform to see benefits cut.

Either way UK is in serious decline and has been for a while. Did you know the markets charge the UK more to borrow now than Greece, Morocco and Spain. If we get a more left government that will be viewed badly by the market. We can't even afford our current debt without borrowing more each month. We should be taking drastic steps to show the world we can make hard decisions when we have to. This is going to involve pain for most of us. If not our rate to borrow keeps going up and the decline speeds up. Right now the UK is beginning to look financially unviable with governments that are spending way over what they are bringing in.

As I heard recently the UK needs to start spending according to how rich it actually is. Not how rich it wishes it was, or thinks it is, or how rich it used to be.

Growth is stagnant, inflation is going up and spending is out of control.
If the markets decide they no longer want to lend to us at any kind of sensible rate then the shit will really hit the fan when bonds come up for repayment as we will not be able to borrow to cover it.

Vote for whoever you think will fix this not who makes your life the easiest by continuing to pay you to stay at home.

Indeed @ConstantlyPeeing it"s a sad state of affairs when the whole of the UK's income tax receipt cannot cover the welfare bill.

One of the flaws in your argument is that benefit claimants are actually more likely to support Reform than Labour. Plenty of research out there if you Google.

@TheLandlordsAreFrowning sorry to go off piste, but is that username from the Waterboys song? Fantastic!

Bit rich coming from someone who pretended the words in the report she quoted meant something they didn't.

They're doing very well financially for 'dim' people.

Yes it is! I am a big fan of the Waterboys ❤️

I have to say it’s really difficult to make a decision on who to vote for. So whilst historically this was not the case I can understand it. I would not vote for the current conservatives

Same here. I don't feel enthusiam for any party at the moment. I seem to be drawn to voting against parties i.e 'ie anyone but the Greens' rather than FOR anyone. Please can we get better quality candidates?

this new breed of middle class claimants who are threatening to destroy the entire welfare state by refusing to work due to mild anxiety

With the exception of PIP, no working-age benefits claimant can be middle-class, by definition. No person out-of-work on means-tested benefits can be middle-class. Middle-class refers to earning levels.

Horrible dismissal? The people who sold their own country’s economy down the drain because they believed some shite in the side of a bus? It has absolutely nothing to do with education and the fact you think it does is classism at its best. I think if modern politics and the rise of Trump and Farage and their ilk has shown us anything, it’s that people from all walks of life and every class and socioeconomic level have the capacity to be hateful and to vent their hate straight into the ballot box. Fact: when wages drop, populism rises. It’s not “sneery” (how reductive it was to even say that - maybe sit down and think for a second that men never seem to call each other sneery). It’s the fucking historical record.

I’m not saying anyone’s vote counts any less or any more than anyone else’s. But no, I don’t have respect for one-issue voters on any side of the “aisle;” I would be just as dismissive if they were little-l liberal as I am if they’re little-c conservative. When you vote on a single issue, whether it’s stopping immigration or energy prices or the sex/gender debate, you show yourself to be uninterested in the actual governing of your country, and guess what happens when the people voting only care about a single issue, and not the actual governing of the country? The country becomes shite. No one works together and you get what we have now in so many countries in the world. Racism. Tribalism. Enshittification on a social level.

Watching Labour get a clear mandate and then just totally waste it has been incredibly disheartening, and I definitely won’t be voting Labour unless it’s strategic.

But parties that use hateful rhetoric SHOULD be sneered at. When the hell did it become wrong to disapprove of evil? Is this how much they’ve used “be kind” to shut us up? That you can’t even call out racists? I loathed Reform UK’s ad here in Scotland this month: showing non-white people in a dinghy-style boat with the words “Scotland’s at a breaking point.” Funny, if you don’t want immigration, maybe worry about the almost million (898K) legal immigrants. If you claim to care about immigration and then mention the words “small boats,” yes, you’re going to look like a racist arsehole. That’s not MY fault, nor am I sneering at that. Racism isn’t something to be sneered at; people die as a result of it every single day.

What do people expect with an ageing population?! The majority have paid no where near enough tax for a state pension & the NHS. That is the issue.

The triple lock is completely unaffordable but no party is brave enough to lose that vote

I have a good Labour council that has, amongst other things, extended free school meals to every child attending an LEA school, avoiding the means-tested entitlements cliff edge that can see the poor-but-not-quite-poor-enough-for-UC children go hungry during the school day. I will be voting Labour this local election to keep it this way.

I recognise that local elections are just that: elections of local representatives that have a real effect on what happens in my borough. I will vote for the party that I think, given a majority in the borough council, will do the best for the people in my area.

Local elections are not any of the following:

• An opportunity to change matters at national level.
• An opportunity to protest against the party in government.
• An opportunity to protest against my MP.

The above three items are what general elections are for.

Based on poll results and previous posters, I estimate that around 99.9% of voters erroneously think that the point of local elections is to give an unpopular Govt a "bloody nose" in between general elections. Don't waste your vote like that. Use it to influence what happens where you live.

I don't think that message has got through to Starmer as he is constantly banging on about working people but they are not the party for those 'working people' any more