UK voters frustrated with politicians’ ‘desperate’ culture war tactics, survey finds

Voters have been left frustrated with “desperate” culture war tactics deployed by politicians and are prepared to punish those who use them at the ballot box, a survey has found.

Electoral strategies based on culturally charged and divisive issues repulse swing and undecided voters, who see politicians as “playing to the crowd” or “jumping on the bandwagon”, according to research from More in Common commissioned by 38 Degrees.

The MaxDiff experiment revealed the public were more likely to throw campaign adverts “in the bin” that focused on culture war messages rather than local issues.

A chart showing the popularity of messages contained on leaflets Richard, from Wokingham, Berkshire, told the focus group: “They’d both be in the shredder, and the only possible effect would be maybe I’d want to stay at home and not vote for anyone if those were the options.”

The researchers highlight that for Labour to win a workable majority it needs a broad coalition of voters spread efficiently in seats across the country, rather than amassing votes among its base concentrated in a smaller number of constituencies.

Many Tories believe that Anderson speaks for ordinary working people, even after he said that the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, is controlled by Islamists or that nurses should not need to use food banks.