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

And yet how many are former Tories?

They are more of the same, they lie.

No idea. If they prove to be more of the same, we really are circling the drain.
We need to find a way of getting better elected representatives standing for parliament..but I can understand why no one of any quality would want to stand. We need to protect and support our MP's and never let what happened to Jo Cox and Sir David Amess ever occur again. Why would you want to stand as an MP if activists think they can come to your family home and protest on your roof!

Are activists protesting on MPs roofs ?

Do you mean Greenpeace on Sunaks roof ?

Yes - Greenpeace on Sunaks family home.

Op- who is saying that people with less money than them are stupid?
And again, answer the question about the £350 million this country will spend extra per week on the NHS.
Where is it?

A quote from a friend ‘it’s nice to be rich enough to afford to vote labour ‘

I quoted several of them.

Re the £350m - I don't know what that's got to do with this thread or why you're asking me! I didn't support Brexit at the time (although I'm now very happy we're not part of an EU that believes that supporting giving puberty blockers to confused children is now an essential criteria for pre-membership)

Such basic analysis and sweeping generalisations from the OP, which is in keeping with her regular Labour bashing threads. It’s always so polarising too, like there aren’t any connections between these groups.

I’m a long-term Labour voter, as our many of my friends who have been on a similar path - working class background (Red Wall for me), did well at a state school with lots of challenges, went to uni, now a professional raising a family, paying a mortgage, etc. - doing ok, but no safety net of wealthy parents or inheritance. My experience is that most people who’ve done well through education and opportunity in the state system will lean left.

I’d say most of the people who come from financial privilege (unlike me) and live in my middle class area voted Green at the last election. They also seem to have a different concept of what is ‘comfortable’ to me, likely because of our backgrounds.

I’m also very closely connected still to my working class family, community, etc. and definitely not in a bubble of privilege like some seem to suggest. And while I despise Reform, I recognise what’s happening in those areas like my hometown and how we’ve got here. What I also see are the local campaigners and loudest voices on local social media for Reform are ex-UKIP and BNP - something that people seem to what to pretend isn’t the case. They’ve never been Labour (or Tory), but Reform have now given them credibility and a platform - no matter how much spin or money Reform throw at rebranding, that’s who a proportion of their party are and always have been.

I’m asking because that was a key policy of NF Brexit campaign. It’s obviously never happened so my question is this: why would anyone with more than an ounce of intelligence vote for him?
He is obviously a liar.
That’s not to say other politicians don’t lie and that is one of the problems.
We need politicians who lay out their policy and how that will be achieved.
So I have no problem at all with for example, saying I will cut income tax by 3% and I will achieve that by increasing VAT on fuel so that certain sectors of society benefit.
What I do have an issue with is those who vote for this, then cry when their bloody gas bill goes up. Doh it’s not rocket science!
Pick your battles.
You want free services then someone has to pay for it.
Problem is nobody seems to want to pay yet everyone wants the benefits.
You want council tax slashing then what services are you prepared to do without?
Personally I’d be happy for some services to be cut but I don’t get a choice in that.

Wow you really do jump to the far extreme don’t you op. That’s not what I said in my post at all. Plus there are numerous polls that a very quick search would reveal that identify educational level and voting preference. The reasons for that correlation are varied and nuanced.

Heres one such report:

https://natcen.ac.uk/news/educational-experience-primary-driver-uks-divide-immigration-and-politics

There are many others.

One of the challenges in public decisions is that not everyone fully understands the realities of leadership and managing change. Whether in industry, public service, education, or small business, there are some consistent truths about effective leadership.

Leaders who inherit broken systems as Labour have, rarely see immediate results. Meaningful change often takes years before positive outcomes are fully felt. During that process, resistance to change is inevitable, particularly when difficult decisions must be made. Strong leaders also recognise that it is impossible to please everyone all of the time. Instead, they rely on evidence, data, budgets/funding limitations, professional expertise, relationship-building, diplomacy, and long-term thinking to guide their decisions.

Often, the first leader willing to confront deep-rooted problems is the one who absorbs the criticism and “takes the flack.” Later leaders are then able to build on those difficult foundations, frequently benefiting from progress that has already been made.

In my own experience turning around failing and inadequate schools, I have seen first-hand how essential leadership is in difficult circumstances. Real improvement requires resilience, consistency, and the willingness to make unpopular decisions in pursuit of long-term outcomes.

Keir Starmer demonstrates many strong leadership qualities during an exceptionally challenging period. Whether people agree with every decision or not, leadership should be judged not only by immediate popularity, but by the ability to navigate complexity, make difficult choices, and work towards sustainable long-term change. You can’t please everyone all of the time!

Do the general population of the UK really understand the strong leadership required of anyone running the country (or any other organisation)?

I am talking about all lower end jobs, and businesses too. Just because you are a xyz and hire yourself doesn’t make you devoid of the ripple effect of that.

Further than that I am just talking generally. The country has become rapidly more multicultural the past few decades and less cohesive, and less affluent. I am not saying that’s cause and effect. But that’s what people see.

I think people need to stop taking this so personally and we do need to have discussions and conversations on good faith. Unfortunately it’s actually getting worse in this regard because whilst many are actually opening up to having conversations now; actual racist people are now emboldened with the rise of the right. & Normal people don’t want to associate with that so the normal part of this conversation no one wants to have or be associated with which leaves people to act privately at the ballot box.

And to clarify again so there’s absolutely no confusion about what I am saying:
There’s nothing wrong or racist about being unhappy about the town you were born and grew up in becoming increasingly non British. Recognisably so. In the shops, in your workplace, in the schools, in the A&E waiting room. Poorer people are more likely to have been born, live, work and die in the same communities. They are more likely to see this change.

That doesn’t mean I don’t like the kind Sikh man who owns the corner shop, or my polish window cleaners or my non British friends. Or my non British colleagues. It’s not a personal thing. It’s a cumulative thing.

And no I am not going to vote reform. They are clearly racist to me, so much so I fear they will actually go down the eugenics route and ban abortion to try to get the white population up again. But lots of people don’t think that. And there’s a large portion of our society who whether we like it or not have this as such a single issue point who have repeatedly voted against immigration for over a decade now that it’s clear they are quite willing to take us all to hell in a hand basket in an attempt to resolve it.

And can I make a point on this too.

It is not surprising to me poorer people have lower levels of education. As PP points out there’s a trillion reasons for this.

What to this day still surprises me is how blind (and yes I am using that word but you could write uneducated, unaware, head in sand, wilfully ignorant) the ‘left’ (again I don’t like that as I don’t think it’s actually left) are to the drivers and reasons behind the rise of the right.

You saw this quite clearly with Brexit. They just could not understand it.

And that’s really interesting because leavers very clearly understood remainers.

That is really interesting to me. I am a centre swing voter. I really do see clearly both sides. Why don’t they get it?! Is it classism, identity based blockage in the brain, lack of emotional intelligence, literal complete naivety, parallel lives, virtue signalling, echo chambers? Honestly I do not know. But that I struggle to understand more than leavers/ far right voters. And there’s ‘left’ really need to get to the bottom of that.

Ironically, you’re making blind generalisations and failing to understand a significant amount of ‘the left’ - I’ve said already on this thread and others, but many of us on the left are from working class communities where Reform support seems to be thriving. I hate it, but I understand how we got here. And unlike populists on both the left and right would have us believe, the reasons are many and the solutions complex.

Re not understanding things. I think a good example is Trumps tariffs. That is really easy to understand. They are an import tax that the importer pays. So boom. That is the concept.

However, Trump himself keeps saying the exporting nation pays. But that is just not true. Yet he and his followers just keep parroting it.

So it's not a case of the left, or whoever, not understanding their opponents, it's a case of understanding it, but being somewhat bewildered as to why people consistently do not.

Apply that to the far right and Brexit. It is more nuanced yes, but pretty much the same applies as per Trumps tariffs.

Can you for example, as you can see both sides, say what policy of the far right is most attractive. And why that policy is correct ? That is, why would you vote reform?

No they actually understand it less than the other way around. There are studies on this.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2018/05/04/leavers-have-a-better-understanding-of-remainers-motivations-than-vice-versa/

Can you for example, as you can see both sides, say what policy of the far right is most attractive. And why that policy is correct ? That is, why would you vote reform?

And the answer to that is their anti immigration policies.

That policy is obviously going to be seen as correct if you don’t like the immigration we have historically had/ continue to have.

I am not voting for reform because I don’t think it’s something you can reverse. And also I am quite tin hat about how far I think they are willing to go. I genuinely believe they want to increase the white population by banning abortion.

Interesting article. Sort of shows turkeys voting for Christmas.

😂

I have no idea how that’s what you took from the article.

The three major themes are economy, sovereignty, and immigration - all pretty important headline themes politically.

To me the take away was re. the ‘left’ - because they are more educated, that is proven - are so behind on this. The default should be they understand MORE. And yet statistically they came out streets behind. That is hugely significant. It’s more than a gap. They are clearly capable.

And as a centre voter it’s super frustrating. The headline issues above are important to everyone. By making them left and right we have completely screwed ourselves over and it’s a huge driver of why we are where we are today.

Of course remainers didn’t understand leavers motivations. That’s because they were batshit!

I live in Spain but I’m going to vote for Brexit. Er!!

Im a farmer in Lincolnshire that needs my fruit picking but I’m going to vote for Brexit. Er!!

Immigration policy. And I think anyone anti reform will say that. Because it is true. The difficulty comes, I think, in trying to explain why that is number one for reform voters.

And I think its interesting that your follow up is abortion access. Because I think the anti abortionists might be quite similar to reform voters when it comes to immigration. They both have characteristics that drive the most vocal. Racism for Reform, and religion for pro-life. But the vocal of both these groups have become adept at deflecting from the core reasons I think.

Thing is this isn’t the most vocal.

It’s literally half the country. I am going to actually hazard more than half the country at this point.

It’s the silent majority who are unhappy with the level of immigration.

So I googled and its coming up two thirds…
https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/two-thirds-britons-believe-total-number-people-coming-uk-too-high

How many of them are so pissed off they would vote reform is another question.

Fair enough.

The latest YouGov poll on issues that affect voters the most found this (those polled could pick more than one):

1. Economy (54%)
2. Immigration (51%)
3. Defence (29%)
4. NHS (28%)

It really shouldn't be a surprise that people want change when so far this decade the two main parties have been appalling on the two issues that are far and away the most important to voters at the moment. Calling them 'batshit' or 'stupid' just suggests you're financially so comfortable that you're not impacted by immigration.