Ian West/PA
Labour is at risk of losing previously loyal progressive voters by tacking to the right on key issues ahead of the next election, the party has been warned.
Senior party figures say Sir Keir Starmer’s party could end up losing as many as a dozen of its key targets if the polls narrow in the next few months, with many of its core support being alienated by attempts to appeal to a broad supporter base.
One senior Labour adviser told the Guardian: “Are we losing urban progressive voters? Of course. At the moment it looks like it doesn’t matter as our poll lead is so wide, but it could hurt if they narrow and those voters don’t come back.
“What it really means is that a lot of Labour MPs who assumed their seats were super safe will have to spend more time this year campaigning in their own seats than they might have expected.”
The sentiment has been backed up by the pollsters, with Patrick English, the director of political analytics at YouGov, pointing out that alienating Labour’s core support could cost them in a “big way” in places where those groups make up 10-15 per cent of the population each.
“If the polls are level or even if Labour is five points ahead, it could be extremely damaging for Labour and could mean they fail to win a whole host of English bellwether marginal seats.”
Starmer has been tacking to the right on a number of key issues, including the economy, immigration and the environment in a bid to win over older voters who backed Brexit.
It could put target seats in jeopardy and even risk two current Labour seats – Bristol Central and Sheffield Hallam – of which one is being contested by a shadow cabinet minister.
Sunder Katwala, the director of the non-partisan thinktank British Future, said: “This is a 2025 or 2028 challenge for Labour. There is a danger of taking your core vote for granted, and that danger will be very apparent after the election.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “We’ve had a deliberate strategy to broaden our electoral appeal by changing the Labour party and putting it back in the service of working people. We don’t take any support for granted and we will continue to work to win back any support we’ve lost ahead of the general election.”
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