Jeremy Corbyn has Britain’s youngsters and middle class to thank for ‘tsunami of support’ – polling guru says
The pollster believes voters had been attracted by Labour’s promise to scrap tuition fees as well as it's hints of delivering a ‘softer’ Brexit
JEREMY CORBYN’s Election turnaround was fuelled by a “tsunami of support” from Britain’s youngsters and middle class – a polling guru declared yesterday.
John Curtice said while Theresa May secured the Tories’ best working class vote since 1979, Labour benefited from an astounding swing in support from ABC1s, metrpolitan professionals and managers.
The pollster – behind the Election night exit poll – said voters had been attracted by Labour’s promise to scrap tuition fees but also indications it would deliver a ‘softer’ Brexit.
Speaking in London yesterday he said: “The Tories did win working class voters, they did win Ukippers, they did win leavers.
“It’s must that the tsunami of support of among young middle class, pro-Remain professionals for the Labour party proved to be more than enough to counter act the Tories success in their target audience.”
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He said Labour was no longer a party of the working class, but of “social liberals”.
Meanwhile the Tories were overwhelmingly backed by ‘Leavers’ - signalling it will be hard for Theresa May to water down her Brexit demands.
The verdict followed an Ipsos Mori survey which showed Labour achieved its best score among ABC1s since 1979 – increasing its vote share among the group by 12 points on 2015.
Meanwhile Ipsos said the Tories increased their vote share among poorer C2DEs by 12 points – again its best score since Margaret Thatcher first swept to power.
Incredibly, Mr Curtice showed a swing to Labour in certain constituencies was greater if at least 25 per cent of the local population was made up of professionals and managers.
And there was a net swing of nearly 6 per cent from Labour to the Tories in London and by 3.7 per cent in the South-East – a traditional Tory heartland.
By contrast, there was a swing of 0.4 per cent FROM Labour to the Tories in the north-east.
Jeremy Corbyn is really the first leader in British politics who the public - having decided you’re useless - changed their minds.
Professor John Curtice
We certainly know Theresa is a lousy campaigner and not a people person.
Yet Mr Curtice warned Jeremy Corbyn’s best chance of gaining power was to “bring down” Theresa May’s government in the coming weeks.
He said there had to be some doubt over whether the Labour leftie could deliver a further 3 or 4 per cent share in the national vote.
But he said no leader since the Second World War had enjoyed such a stunning turnaround during an Election campaign.
And he panned Theresa May for appearing to be no better than “another Gordon Brown – a departmental manager”. He said: “Jeremy Corbyn is really the first leader in British politics who the public - having decided you’re useless - changed their minds.
“We certainly know Theresa is a lousy campaigner and not a people person.”