Attracting people who didn’t vote at the last election is key to winning in 2020, say LabourList readers

In recent weeks there has been building concern from some over who has been deemed eligible to vote in the leadership election. Under new rules, members of the public can sign up as party ‘supporters’ for £3, this buys them a vote in the leadership election. However, it’s been reported that some Conservative and other non-Labour supporters have been given a vote.

Labour say they have a vigorous vetting process to weed such people out. Yet some Labour supporters and people who say they identify with Labour values say this has led to them being barred from voting. We wanted to know what LabourList readers were most concerned about: Labour supporters being denied one a vote, or non-Labour supporters taking part.

The majority of people 51% said that they were most concerned about Labour supporters losing their right to vote. 23% said they were of equal concerns while only 20% said they were most worried about non-supporters being given a vote.

5% said neither and 1% said they didn’t know.

Ahead of the next general election we wanted to know, whether Labour should prioritise attracting people who voted Conservative in 2015 or people who didn’t vote in 2015.

The largest amount of people – 45% – said Labour should focus most of their efforts on appealing to non-voters. Post-election research shows a high proportion of notional Labour supporters didn’t turn out to vote – but the Fabian Society say that an electoral strategy focussing on non-voters would fail, and the vast majority of new Labour votes must be won from the Tories. However, only 17% think winning over Conservative voters should be given priority.

35% think the party should target these groups equally and 3% said the focus should be on something else.

Most LabourList readers have already voted in the leadership election. 74% said they’ve cast their vote, suggestions predictions are right that most vote soon after ballots have gone out.

However 18% haven’t yet voted, 4% don’t have a vote and 4% haven’t yet received their ballot.

2,314 people voted in this week’s survey. Thankyou to everyone who took part.