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

The almost-certainly-trafficked workers where I live (northern suburb) and work (northern inner-city) are:

• Young brown men, probably from north and east Africa, riding electric bicycles with food delivery bags and covering their faces in all weathers.
• Similar at the hand car washes.
• East asian and south-east Asian women and men in nail salons, all wearing surgical masks, that take cash only and have frosted-effect film on the front windows so you can't see in.

That's why I'm talking about dark-skinned people: it's what I see near me. These people are exploited by criminals. It's a criminal offence to pay less than NMW. These people are imported like goods to work in conditions that we have rightly outlawed and they tolerate it because it is, or at least seemed like for a while, a better situation than the one they came from. Are you trying to claim that British people are competing for these illegal jobs?

Everyone else I can identify as foreign either runs a family business (the Polish shop I pass on my way to work, the Chinese and Indian takeaways), came here from the EU before Brexit, is a student, or is here to fill a skills gap. A foreigner without a visa and right-to-work cannot be lawfully employed here.

I understand what you’re saying and I do get it. It would be a struggle for me as well if only one party approved abortions and the other wanted to repeal that protection for women; I’ve seen the cases and countries where women die without that care, and America is rapidly becoming one of them. I do try to understand that for single issue voters, it’s usually something they feel as strongly about as I feel about that.

From my POV, the problem is just that you rapidly get a decaying society if you vote in worthless arse hats who are horrible for the country but happen to agree with you on one big issue.

I think it’s very difficult when people talk about immigration and safety. I’d actually like to know the science on towns with asylum hotels - is it really much more unsafe or is this a perception thing? I admit, I don’t know the exact figures. Google didn’t seem overly helpful when I tried to look it up and 90% of the pages I found were just rhetoric about the issue and not actual facts. As for safety from sexual attacks, yes, they have shown that foreign nationals account for a disproportionate percentage of rape convictions in several European countries. I don’t know the actual reality - if there are really more attacks, or just more convictions because when a rape case is between two Britons, it’s always a he said/she said, and I think they can decline to prosecute if it’s unlikely to lead to a conviction.

My point though is that even when you have a a single issue and it’s a really important one, we should all be careful (me included!!) so that political parties don’t use your support as a bulwark that allows them to push through otherwise shite policies.

At the moment, I almost think Labour is a better example than Reform of this - they talked a good talk, they got the total mandate that they wanted, and then… they did nothing and killed the party with infighting. What a bunch of utterly selfish knobs.

Because those who are struggling or precarious may have had a poorer education and if you are poorly educated you vote for a party that appeals to the poorly educated; bite sized messaging ( like Trump), makes promises it knows it can’t deliver( £350 million for nhs), aligns itself to your values the pub, a pint, a fag ( even though he’s a public school educated entitled wanker.

Another "poor people are stupid because they don't vote the way I do" post

And another!

Because I try not to turn everything into an argument and just listen - as I said I wasn’t trying to persuade them not to vote for whoever they want to. Also am in these situations with people for another reason, so don’t want to start a huge debate.

You seem very argumentative.

This in spades.

I always said (living in a brexit heartland) that a good number of people were on the fence in the lead up to the vote but what ultimately made the remainers lose was their narrative that all people considering voting leave were horrid nasty racists and totally disregarding the issues people said they felt membership had on their lives and communities. I have friends who made the most of what our membership had to offer working and residing in the EU or doing quite well employing cheap EU labour and they couldn’t understand why anyone would vote leave and were shocked when I said I think there would be the strong chance of an overall leave vote, I had to point out that all the overwhelming benefits they experienced in membership were not felt shared by most of the population in the UK

The trouble is most people are not economically educated enough to know how their vote will affect them as an individual, as a community, as a country.
Just look at BREXIT.
Serious question: if you vote for Reform, why are you not demanding an answer to where the promised £350 million PER WEEK going onto the NHS is?
They said they would pour millions into the NHS if we voted for BREXIT, where is that money? Why are we still waiting for appointments and operations etc etc?
How can you vote for the same person who spectacularly failed you?
What are the serious contenders to Labour?
As for the words privilege, comfortably off- far too subject to even discuss.
I don’t consider a university educated person privileged at all.
Everyone thinks they deserve good fortune. Everyone believes they work harder for what they have than everyone else, even those who don’t work!
Lots of people don’t want other groups to receive benefits, yet they have not got the intelligence to work out the logical conclusion as to what stopping these groups from receiving benefits will look like. Prime example ‘ Don’t have children unless you can afford them.’ Women stop having children. ‘Oh who will wipe my backside in the care home now there aren’t enough staff?’

Another problem, in my opinion, is that there seams to be an increasing number of adults who do not work. They don’t pay into the system yet do benefit quite well. Plenty of people avoid paying their share of taxes either through being wealthy enough to pay accountants to hide money or through not working and receiving benefits which pay for everything.
I think Labour need to concentrate on the working population. Those who have to work to pay their bills.
I don’t think any party represents the working person anymore.

...and yet another post from you slagging off Labour...... its tedious.

This IPSOS poll shows many things, that the Tory vote has collapsed & that Reform are losing support fast... what happened to their 35% lead??? but Labour, having fallen so far, is still holding up.

But what do you highlight? yet more division, its what the 'right do, so no surprise i suppose.

I note you do not highlight that despite Starmers obvious problems, the poll you link too still shows Starmer is considered the most capable PM.... a bit embarrassing & 😆

You asked for ‘any thoughts’ I’ve offered those thought. Oh sorry, I didn’t know you meant ‘any thoughts that just align with my thoughts’!

People who are not this go for soundbites too, ‘change’ ‘smash the gangs’

Poorer education is a bit negative anyway, it’s just a different path through education and work.

You don't have to start a debate with them, you can just ask them a question about their life and listen to the answer.

Being interested in someone poorer that you's life doesn't and shouldn't mean getting into an argument with them.

I genuinely don’t understand Reforms policies

Freeze non essential migration

What does that mean as much of it is essential? The boat people? Is there really a cheap & easy solution to that? Processing illegals offshore & returning them, again how does that work in real life?

Big tax cuts for small businesses paid for by taxing big business & banks. Will those tax rises not impact us?

They are going to cut NHS waiting lists & want a model like France, fantastic but this costs serious money. European countries with better healthcare systems have higher social security taxes on employers so how will it be funded?

Cutting taxes eg raising stamp duty, IHT thresholds, raising the income tax threshold all funded by reducing welfare payments but not the triple lock obviously.

This is not going to lead to growth.

I feel the same about Green policies too.

Am genuinely astonished at the number of people on this thread who consider themselves left wing but seem to openly despise people poorer than them, and say they are too stupid to vote the correct way

Well this is awkward

There is no evidence that the 5 categories used in the polls actually reflect a smooth scale from rich to poor. That's 100% your projection @ProudAmberTurtle. The 5 categories are purely about how skilled the respondent is at livvng within their income, and to what extent they feel they ought to be entitled to be wealthier. There will be plenty of extremely wealthy people who classify themselves as "Just about managing" or "financially precarious" if their high income has depended on being an exploitative lamdlord and the recent renters rights bill (passed by Labour to make a huge difference to the poorest and most vulnerable) has slashed their ability to fleece poorer people so much, and won't vote Labour because their wealth and greed is not being prioritised at present. There will be plenty of lower income households where budgets are managed tightly but successfully to live within a limited income who would consider themselves financially stable precisely because Labour policies have helped them to achieve this stability. This poll is meaningless with subjective and wooly categories like this and no rational conclusions can be drawn from its guff.

I am grateful for your thoughts. I never said they're not welcome.

I'm just very surprised at how many people on Mumsnet are willing to go there - and actually say that people with less money than them are just stupid.

How do you explain people with more money than you who don't vote for left wing parties?

There’s quite a few on mn who use denigration for lack of degrees but on an AR thread will say the opposite. They probably wouldn’t use the same terms for those with jobs such as carers or staff in Tesco.

It’s an obvious inconsistency.

And that’s before you get to how many soundbites Labour used to get in.

Have they broken the respondents down by age? Older people are more comfortable but I don’t think they are more likely to vote labour or are they?

There’s quite a few on mn who use denigration for lack of degrees but on an AR thread will say the opposite.

I think it’s inconsistent to claim degrees equal privilege when the narrative on here is normally far too many go, pointless degrees, etc

Not true.

The Labour government is implementing a significant shift in council funding, targeting increased, long-term investment towards disadvantaged communities through a revised "fairer funding" model. Key initiatives include the £5 billion "Pride in Place" programme, aimed at upgrading 339 deprived communities, and a new £600 million annual "Recovery Grant" aimed at councils with the highest needs.

I work for a ‘shires’ council where funding has been cut. The money is diverted to areas with much more disadvantage. I see the investment in NE cities where disadvantage is an issue, new buildings, targeted employment, new opportunities, money spent on the environment and street, yet the same council is likely to have a Reform majority.
I do not understand the voters logic.

Quote :

"How do you explain people with more money than you who don't vote for left wing parties? "

Odd question when the misleading title of tour thread is:

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

But that's not what the poll says. Myself and others have pointed out what the poll says

“People living in areas with poorer healthoutcomes are more likely to vote for Reform UK, new analysis has suggested.
Experts at Imperial College London looked at voting data from the 2024 general election, when Nigel Farage’s party won five seats in England, and found that three of the five constituencies (60 per cent) returning a Reform MP were in the most deprived fifth of the country, compared with 103 (29.7 per cent) of Labour constituencies.”

”The study, published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research, found that the strongest links between voting for Mr Farage’s party and conditions in constituencies were for obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and epilepsy.
Reform-voting areas had the highest proportion of people aged over 65, and residents were more likely to suffer from 15 out of 20 common chronic diseases compared to other regions.”

I just don’t understand why they think Reform will make things better for them?