Public Opinion and the Depth of Labour's Crisis

Labour's current problems are the culmination of long‐term trends flowing from the rising cost of tax‐funded services and welfare and voters’ mounting resistance to higher taxes to pay for them. As a result of this, there is now a big gulf between the attitudes of Labour party members, and in p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Political quarterly (London. 1930) 2017-01, Vol.88 (1), p.20-29
Main Author: Kellner, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conservatism
crisis
Elections
Immigration
Immigration policy
Jeremy Corbyn
Labor force
Labor parties
Labour party
Political parties
Politics
Public opinion
Resistance
Services
Taxation
Taxes
United Kingdom
Voters
Voting behavior
Welfare services
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Summary:Labour's current problems are the culmination of long‐term trends flowing from the rising cost of tax‐funded services and welfare and voters’ mounting resistance to higher taxes to pay for them. As a result of this, there is now a big gulf between the attitudes of Labour party members, and in particular the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour voters—and an even wider gulf with the extra voters Labour needs to win a future election. This gulf is also wide in relation to a range of other issues, including immigration, education and economic ideology. For Labour to return to government, it needs not just to narrow the gulf in policy, but to persuade voters of its ‘valence’ virtues of trust and competence—qualities in relation to which Labour currently lags the Conservatives by large margins.
ISSN:0032-3179
1467-923X
DOI:10.1111/1467-923X.12328