Whilst the Labour Party are pre-emptively celebrating a landslide general election win, a poll by YouGov has pointed out that many people are not pro-Labour, just anti-Tory. A whopping 48% of Labour voters stated they were voting that way simply to oust the Tories, compared to only 5% who actually agree with their policies:
We asked Labour voters to tell us in their own words the main reason they are backing the party. For the largest number by far the key motivation is ousting the Conservatives
Top 5 reasons
Get the Tories out: 48%
Country needs a change: 13%
Agree with their policies: 5%
To… pic.twitter.com/i76S3Zlghu— YouGov (@YouGov) July 3, 2024
“Agree with their policies” – 5%.
That is astonishing. Just utterly incredible. https://t.co/g41vquwH0i
— Ally Fogg (@AllyFogg) July 3, 2024
Why are you voting Labour?
Now, some Labour voters may have genuinely said “GTTO” as their main reason while still supporting the party and its’ policies – as people were pointing out on X:
https://twitter.com/JamesNUFC75/status/1808460226196021448
However, it is clear that a sizeable chunk of people aren’t voting Labour for its neoliberal, billionaire-backed half-arsed policies. They don’t want centrist or right-wing capitalist politicians tinkering at the edges of the countries biggest problems.
They are voting almost purely to boot out the muppets who have destroyed our country over the past 14 years.
Could the system be more broken? The electorate are forced to pick between evil and more evil. It’s like we’re deciding between electing the Big Bad Wolf and Sid from Toy Story:
I would argue that “the lesser of two evils”, “don’t trust Sunak” and “best alternative with a chance of winning” could be amalgamated into this same category. So over half the people voting for what they don’t want. What a broken system. https://t.co/EroJbjsas0
— Grace Petrie (@gracepetrie) July 4, 2024
Have we ever had an election that showed more clearly how undemocratic the UK electoral system is? A government that nobody is excited for, getting the biggest majority for generations because we only have two options https://t.co/ekWlXqBL4c
— Kieran Glasssmith (@kglasss) July 4, 2024
Tactical voting, or selling your soul?
If no one used tactical voting, Labour would still have a majority. However, the landslide wouldn’t be so significant. A remarkable 8% of Labour votes would go to the Greens or Independent candidates. Similarly, the Lib Dems and Tories would each lose some votes. At Least Reformers have few enough brain cells to be consistent:
Implied voting intention if tactical voting were not necessary
Labour: 29% (-8 compared to actual voting intention)
Conservative: 18% (-2)
Reform UK: 16% (=)
Green: 13% (+6)
Lib Dem: 12% (-2)
Other: 9% (+3)https://t.co/VFvDUBqUSN pic.twitter.com/IuoV9H9iUk— YouGov (@YouGov) July 1, 2024
People have been pushing tactical voting on social media to ensure the Tories retain as few seats as possible. But what sort of society do we live in when people are having to vote for the person that is going to fuck up the least? The point of voting is to have your say. So if you’re voting tactically – you’re just propping up the establishments two-party system:
tactical voting is never necessary, it’s a form of vote suppression https://t.co/hpqBxAEYXL
— a wild elasmotherium ☭ (@awelasmotherium) July 4, 2024
Tactical voting is a scam to funnel votes into the 2 established parties and avoid real change. https://t.co/URoiL2wNIX
— notbri.sol (@Xhakaed) July 3, 2024
Meanwhile, 28% of Britons say the outcome of the general election has little or no impact on them personally. So the majority of the public have a lot riding on this election:
28% of Britons say the outcomes of general elections has little to no impact on them personally
Personal impact of elections
Great/fair amount: 66%
Little/none: 28%Overall impact of elections
Great/fair amount: 78%
Little/none: 17%https://t.co/DXS00mb1ao pic.twitter.com/yWwv1kQYcC— YouGov (@YouGov) July 4, 2024
Equally, though, over a quarter of voters think it doesn’t matter who wins – ‘my life won’t change’. What sort of sustainable country is built on a foundation of hatred towards the other party and apathy to democracy – and how long can that stay standing?
I don’t think you can build a sustainable movement on “hating the other guy more”. https://t.co/0BxNJLW7Zy
— Fọlarin Akinmade He/Him (@A_King_Made) July 3, 2024
Whilst it is obvious who is going to win this election – we still have the chance to hold Labour to account by electing as many Independent MP’s as possible. So vote for your local independent, Green, or even Lib Dem if you really have to.
Don’t play into the two party system – that’s exactly what they want.
Feature image via the Canary
