10 October 2022
Party conferences are always slightly surreal — politicos, lobbyists and journalists crammed together living off a diet of warm white wine and beige snacks. But rarely have I felt a contrast more jarring than between the halls of the Birmingham International Convention Centre and pitchside at Swindon FC, where we spoke with voters the day after the Conservative Party conference had finished.
7 October 2022
And it's been a hectic few weeks at the major party conferences, but what do the voters really think of the state of politics? Lewis went to a focus group in Swindon to ask what they make of Liz Truss and her opposite number Keir Starmer. Polly Billington, former Special Advisor to Ed Miliband, and Luke Tryl, former special advisor to ex-Conservative minister Nicky Morgan, and current director of public opinion research agency More in Common are with him to dissect the results.
6 October 2022
If history will not serve as a warning, perhaps the government would like to take a look at More in Common and Public First’s research which has detailed the segments of voters that built the Tory voter coalition of 2019. It shows that the Conservatives continually grew their vote share in successive elections by capturing more and more of the centre, whilst simultaneously preventing fractures on the right. Despite outward appearances, the Tories were always getting stronger.
1 October 2022
Luke Tryl, the UK director of More in Common, said: “Anxiety about the reaction to the mini-Budget, the rising cost of living, and a perception that the Conservatives haven’t yet delivered on levelling up, tackling crime or stopping small boats mean that if things carry on as they are, the door could be open to the next Nigel Farage to eat into the Conservative vote.
30 September 2022
The Conservatives could do well to compete with Labour on the green agenda, according to focus groups from More in Common, details of which were shared with Playbook. The campaign found that ignoring so-called “green pragmatists” could cost the Tories their Blue Wall of heartland seats. Green pragmatists aren’t die-hard climate campaigners but see net zero as a necessity and rate the environment as one of their top three issues and a voting motivation. They also accept that fossil fuels will help with the cost of living crisis and are skeptical of green utopias, wanting a realistic plan for net-zero that won’t upend their lives.
24 September 2022
There is some evidence that the public will give Truss the benefit of the doubt for now. In a focus group with voters from the marginal Midlands seat of West Bromwich East conducted by Luke Tryl, a former Tory political adviser, on Friday evening, many questioned the effectiveness and fairness of the budget measures. But they also said it was “too soon” to judge Truss...In a vote at the end of the focus group, they divided six for Truss and two for Starmer.