Short THREAD on the @UKLabour heartlands.

A 2016 study found that the sharp decline in the number of working-class  @UKLabour MPs had - entirely predictably - caused a slump in support among voters with similar backgrounds,

https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/a-growing-class-divide-mps-and-voters(4f318307-6ddf-46f9-85ef-9e294b438407).html

The study says Neil Kinnock & Tony Blair made a deliberate & concerted effort to select “more & more middle-class candidates to run for office during the 1980s & 1990s as part of an effort to rebrand,” resulting in success at the ballot box.

But the study claimed that the “conscious electoral strategy” of reducing working-class MPs stored up intractable problems for @UKLabour - played out with the rise of UKIP & Brexit - as working-class voters, who initially simply didn’t vote in response, sought an alternative.

Working-class people are much more likely than middle-class people to vote @UKLabour when the party contains a substantial number of working-class MPs, and variation over time in the number of working-class Labour MPs closely tracks the strength of such class voting".

Even when other factors were controlled, the number of MPs from poorer backgrounds had an effect.

The fact that 37% of Labour MPs came from a manual occupational background in 1964 but just 7% did in 2015 had profoundly harmed the party’s image among its traditional voters.

“The research showed that as @UKLabour candidates became more middle class, many working-class people simply stopped voting. For the last 20-30 years we have had a picture of gradually growing working-class abstention": people felt Labour was no longer representing them.

"They became alienated from the political process – and that went unnoticed for quite some time. But these alienated voters are fertile territory for being remobilised,” & that is why they were drawn to UKIP and then – more clearly – the vote for Brexit.

“It is very difficult for @UKLabour to rebuild the connection in a credible way. The party needs to reassess what its social identity is – who it wants to represent: the disaffected working-class voters in the north or the more liberal middle classes".

This STILL a problem that the @UKLabour leadership shows little sign of explicitly engaging in. Meanwhile the @Conservatives have wisely increased the number of working class MPs, while Labour flaps about. Occasionally dropping words like 'patriotism' isn't going to cut it.

I think @UKLabour is still struggling to define a strong, clear identity.

The original shift away from poorer candidates was started by Kinnock as part of an effort to break links with the unions, and disassociate with working-class radicalism - now it looks like a BIG mistake.

His research found that the problem was most acute with wealthy candidates, finding that they tended to “particularly repel” the working classes, because they were not seen as "approachable." Hence the being "intensely relaxed" about the grotesque wealth accumulated at the top 1%

“MPs from privileged backgrounds are perceived as less ‘in touch’ by working-class voters, who regard a pledge to stand up for the underprivileged as more credible coming from someone whose own background is modest than a similar promise coming from the child of millionaires".

Political parties had rightly tried hard to increase the representation of women, ethnic minorities and young people in Westminster. “But the representation of those groups has been growing over time, while the representation of working-class MPs has been falling".

Jonathan Ashworth said: “This is a problem for politics across the piste, but the @UKLabour party needs to increase its efforts to find candidates who come from the communities we want to represent. That is more working-class, female & more black & ethnic minority candidates.”

I think @UKLabour members & supporters have a right to know what the Party's strategy is.

I'm getting fed up of waiting, of not knowing, & I get the impression that Labour has just gone back to the formula used by New Labour - but we're in a very different country & world now.

I see concerning signs that @UKLabour is losing support from important voters: from many w/c people who feel alienated, unrepresented & ignored; from the many women concerned about "self-ID"; from those concerned about climate-change; & especially from millions of voters who were

inspired to become Politically engaged by @UKLabour's more "radical" agenda (normal across much of western Europe), concerned with making society MUCH fairer & MUCH greener, primarily by tackling the greed & growing unchecked power of corporations, & grotesque wealth inequality.

We need a @UKLabour Party willing to tackle greed & corruption, which reduces division, which represents the 99% (not the 1%), which promotes secure jobs & fair pay for ALL workers, helps those in need & delivers a functional, impartial legal system which treats EVERYONE equally.

@threadreaderapp please unroll.