Every voter counts: winning over low-income voters
Low-income voters have been locked out of policy-making and debate for too long. How can politicians gain their support and trust in the next election and beyond?
Low-income voters have increasing power in British politics, and a strong wish to improve their own prospects and their communities. Slogans need to be backed up by reality: it is time for the concerns, ideas and values of people living on a low income to rise to the centre of politics. All political parties stand to gain by listening to these voters. So too does our democracy.
What you need to know:
- Low-income voters are a large segment of the electorate, around 9.5 million people; 2.7 million of them can be characterised as swing voters.
- Low-income voters are still more likely to vote Labour than Conservative, but they are less tribally loyal to one party.
- Brexit is not the most important issue to most of them: they want action to revitalise the places they live in, opportunities for themselves and their children to thrive, and for their living standards to improve.
What this report shows you:
- who is most likely to live on a low income in Britain, and their key concerns
- how people on low incomes voted in recent elections, and the pivotal role they might play in the next one
- results from a large survey of low-income voters, and a nationally representative sample, to understand the values and attitudes shaping their intentions right now.
Our interactive map - see the link below - shows you the percentage of low-income voters in parliamentary constituencies across Great Britain. You can also see the number of registered voters, and registered low-income voters, in each constituency. It's been developed by our collaborative mapping partner Alasdair Rae, using 2019 data supplied by Hanbury Strategy.
You can also download Hanbury Strategy's data (below) for the map and for the report.
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