Labour Party must focus on cost of living and NHS to keep voters-study

Keir Starmer won the election owing to a ruthless focus on winning over people who voted Conservative in 2019, but the party has been left with a "fragile coalition" of supporters who will abandon it if it fails to deal with the cost of living crisis and the NHS, a thinktank has found.

- Aletha Adu

In a report by Labour Together, a highly influential Starmerite thinktank, researchers concluded voters had "cautiously hired" the prime minister "on a trial basis", and he was "liable to prompt dismissal" if his government deviated even slightly from focusing on voters' priorities.

The thinktank reported their findings to key No 10 figures, including Pat McFadden and Morgan McSweeney, in a Cabinet Office meeting last week.

Officials were told that if the government did not deliver for voters, who have become more transactional than ever, they could easily face the same fate the Conservatives did after their 2019 election victory. The report is based on a survey of 10,000 people across the country in polling and small focus groups, asking them why they voted the way they did.