Labour and Conservatives face a challenging electoral test | Letters
Readers respond to the upcoming local elections in England and the possibility of disillusioned voters abandoning the main partiesTalk of electoral pacts between the Conservatives and Reform UK for the right-of-centre vote has been widely reported. Your editorial (24 April) notes that as the policies of these parties move further right, some traditional Conservative voters will shift their allegiance away. Yet these voters are not going to the Labour party, as its leadership follows rightwards. A litany of government policies must seem as abhorrent to “old school” Conservatives as they do to traditional Labour values.Instead, there is steady growth in support for parties that are broadly in the soft left, socially and environmentally aware space: Liberal Democrats, Greens, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru. These four parties, albeit each with their own distinctive policy stance or geographic focus, now have a combined voting-preference share larger than that of Labour, the Conservatives or Reform. This can be seen in the three most recent nationwide opinion polls – More in Common: 26%; YouGov: 30%; Find Out Now: 30%. Continue reading...
Readers respond to the upcoming local elections in England and the possibility of disillusioned voters abandoning the main parties
Talk of electoral pacts between the Conservatives and Reform UK for the right-of-centre vote has been widely reported. Your editorial (24 April) notes that as the policies of these parties move further right, some traditional Conservative voters will shift their allegiance away. Yet these voters are not going to the Labour party, as its leadership follows rightwards. A litany of government policies must seem as abhorrent to “old school” Conservatives as they do to traditional Labour values.
Instead, there is steady growth in support for parties that are broadly in the soft left, socially and environmentally aware space: Liberal Democrats, Greens, the Scottish National party and Plaid Cymru. These four parties, albeit each with their own distinctive policy stance or geographic focus, now have a combined voting-preference share larger than that of Labour, the Conservatives or Reform. This can be seen in the three most recent nationwide opinion polls – More in Common: 26%; YouGov: 30%; Find Out Now: 30%. Continue reading...
