Poll: Majority of Labour members want party to move to the left

A majority of Labour members want the party to move to the left, according to exclusive polling by Survation for LabourList.

Survation asked Labour members what direction Labour should move in order to win the next election.

They were given four options: move to the left, move to the right, move further and faster on the current agenda, and don’t know.

The most popular answer by far was to move to the left, with 64% of members choosing this option.

Moving further and faster on the current agenda was in second place at 31%, don’t know was in third at 3% and moving further to the right was the least popular option at 2%.

READ MORE: Rayner and Burnham most popular with Labour members of opposite sex

After losing heavily to Reform at the local elections, there have been calls for the party to move to the right on immigration, as a way of winning over communities in former Labour heartlands.

However, the polling suggests that such a move would be deeply unpopular with Labour’s base – the very people who do the hard yards of campaigning for the party at every election.

That said, party strategists could argue that members are not the people they need to win over if they are to win the next general election.

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Indeed, Gurinder Singh Josan MP said that – when it comes to winning elections – the views of voters are more important than those of party members.

“The views of Party members are incredibly important for setting the direction of the Party and there are lots of ways these views can be input. However, when it comes to winning elections, how the voters see things has to be more important than just our members’ views.

“And recent elections, including the catastrophic 2019 general election defeat under a markedly more left wing leader, shows voters are more often in the centre and are more interested in practical solutions to everyday problems rather than an ideological fixation.”

However, Nadia Whittome MP said the polling showed Labour members recognised the need to deliver “transformative change”.

“When Labour came into power last year, we did so on a promise of change, especially after 14 years of Conservative austerity that hollowed out public services and left millions worse off.

“While this government has taken some crucial steps towards undoing this, there’s a growing sense across the country that the scale of change just isn’t matching the urgency of the moment, while other policies, like the proposals to cut disability benefits, feel like a repeat of the austerity era.

“At a time when the far-right is gaining ground both at home and abroad, Labour must also show bold, principled leadership. We cannot abandon our progressive values in pursuit of Reform voters.

“It is not progressive politics that risk opening the door to the far right, but the failure to deliver the transformative change we promised. Clearly, Labour members recognise this too.”

The poll is the latest in a series of regular polls LabourList is publishing in partnership with leading pollsters Survation, a member of the British Polling Council and a Market Research Society Partner.

Survation surveyed 1,304 LabourList readers who also said they were Labour Party members between May 30 and June 1.

Data was weighted to the profile of party members by age, sex, region and 2020 Labour leadership vote, targets for which were derived from the British Election Study and the results of the 2020 leadership election.

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