Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is out of touch with public opinion, poll finds

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is out of touch with public opinion on woke issues, a Mail on Sunday poll has found.

The survey revealed that the party was overwhelmingly associated with support for politically correct issues – such as pulling down statues of historical figures – that are not backed by voters.

The figures will add to concerns among Labour strategists that the party’s metropolitan image is alienating its working-class base, particularly among its former supporters in the North.

Sir Keir’s position is under pressure following a poor set of local election results along its former heartland of Red Wall seats this month and the loss of the Hartlepool by-election to the Conservatives for the first time since 1974.

The poll, conducted by JL Partners for the Campaign For Common Sense, found that 56 per cent of people think Labour is most likely to agree with pulling down statues – despite Sir Keir saying it was ‘completely wrong’ for protesters to take down a statue of slaver Edward Colston last year. 

Only 18 per cent of people support pulling statues down, while 59 per cent oppose it.

Labour is also perceived to support the issue of men being allowed to redefine themselves as women and access female-only facilities, with 43 per cent associating the party with support for it and just nine per cent regarding it as a Tory issue. 

Only 19 per cent of people support the measure, while 48 per cent oppose it.

Likewise, 31 per cent think Labour would support the idea of breastfeeding being renamed ‘chestfeeding’, but only five per cent of voters back it; and 36 per cent think Labour would support children being given puberty blockers as part of hormone therapy to change gender, with 61 per cent of people opposing it.

The poll also finds that 52 per cent of people ascribe ‘negative attitudes towards the Royal Family’ to Labour – attitudes which 51 per cent of people object to; and 47 per cent think Labour wants shorter sentences for criminals, which are opposed by 65 per cent of people.

The gulf between the parties is also revealed by analysis of the voting records of the respondents. 

Sixty per cent of those who support statues being taken down voted Labour in 2019, compared with 11 per cent of Conservatives, and 58 per cent of those who support children being allowed to take puberty blockers voted Labour, but only one in ten Tories. 

Just over half of those who support shorter sentences for criminals voted Labour, but only 16 per cent of Conservatives.

The Campaign for Common Sense says it champions ‘free speech and tolerance’ and questions issues such as whether the police are ‘prioritising language on social media over fighting street crime’ and whether children ‘can consent to changing their gender’.

This newspaper reported recently how research by the group found that out of 364 comedy slots broadcast by the BBC in a month, just four featured comedians with explicitly Tory or pro-Brexit views.

Commenting on the survey, Mark Lehain, director for the Campaign for Common Sense, said: ‘The results of this poll show the vast majority of British public are tolerant, fair-minded and moderate people who are not interested in divisive identity politics.

‘It shows that those who want to import the kind of extreme ideas that have proved so polarising in America will have to contend with the common-sense majority of the British people. Britain does not have to accept this path.

‘Labour has a huge problem – its values and its priorities appear to be out of step with the public. Culture is to Labour what the NHS was to the Conservatives for so long.’

JL Partners interviewed 2,026 people between May 12 and 14.