Taken from an article by James Harrison 2 October 2024 at 1:55 pm

While Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives might have been consigned to their worst election defeat in parliamentary history – sinking to just 121 seats – four in 10 Britons feel the party still has too much influence.

According to pollsters YouGov, 69% of the public has an unfavourable view of the opposition, compared to just 22% with favourable opinions.

And, concerningly for the party, despite the new government’s own battles over winter fuel payments, early prisoner releases and gifts to the prime minister, those figures have barely changed since the July general election.

Voters for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK outfit, a target demographic for the Tories, also pose a challenge, with 38% of those surveyed holding a ‘somewhat unfavourable’ view of the Conservative Party and 32% holding ‘very unfavourable’ views.

According to YouGov, a majority of “pretty much every key social and political group” has a negative opinion of the Tories, including Leave voters, who were considered “as dependable Conservative voters just a few years ago”.

Dishonest, divided and unprofessional were among the terms Brits were mostly likely to use to describe the party, with “only interested in themselves” top, selected by 56% of those asked.

Less than 3% of respondents considered the Tories either trustworthy, likeable or “like normal people”.

Despite Boris Johnson’s efforts in the so-called ‘Red Wall’, at the 2019 general election, the Conservatives still struggle to convince lower income voters.

Almost nine in 10 Britons think the party is interested in ‘rich people’ and while seven in 10 said it was interested in ‘business’, compared to less than a fifth who thought it has the concerns of the working class.

Regional divides also continue, with just 22% convinced the party cares about people outside southern England.

The Conservatives also appear to continue to struggle with throwing off perceptions about their attitudes to women and ethnic minorities.

Just a third of those surveyed said the party cared about women or “people with families”.

There was also a split over the party’s approach to older people, traditionally one of its core voting blocs, with 42% saying Tories care about older people, rising to 48% for those who said they don’t care.

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