6 January 2025
Should Starmer worry about Elon Musk’s attacks on his government?
Elon Musk’s support for Mr Trump was a key factor in the former president’s successful bid to return to the White House. With 210 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), not to mention his ownership of the platform, he wields huge influence over public discourse and enjoys particular support among young men.
But despite his reach, pollster Luke Tryl, UK director of the More in Common think tank, has said Mr Musk’s approval rating is “underwater”.
More in Common polling shows Reform UK voters are the only people who have a positive view of Mr Musk, with Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Green supporters all opposing the billionaire.
4 January 2025
Full list of areas Reform UK would gain seats at a general election as Labour slumps
More in Common released its first MRP of the new Parliament, which revealed a "dramatic shift in Britain’s electoral dynamics".
The model estimated that an election on December 28 would have produced a "highly fragmented and unstable" House of Commons, with five parties holding more than 30 seats.
While Labour would still emerge on top, experts said, Sir Keir Starmer's party would have barely a third of the total number of seats that they won in July, and a lead of just six seats over the Conservatives.
31 December 2024
Labour ‘lacks coherent story’ and is leaving door open to Nigel Farage’s Reform, warn top pollsters
Pollster Luke Tryl, UK director of More in Common, also said there “has not been a good enough story”, adding that voters in focus groups see Labour as “going after pensioners, farmers and small businesses”.
He told The Independent that it is unclear what Sir Keir is trying to achieve, and that it appears he is just making “quite mean decisions on groups the public quite like”.
“We know people elected Labour because they were sick of the Tories and wanted to fix the country, and yet there has not been enough of what the fixing looks like,”
28 December 2024
Half of Britons believe next year will be worse than this year against only 23 per cent who believe it will be better, according to the survey of more than 2,400 people by pollsters More in Common.
28 December 2024
The first significant seat-by-seat analysis since the general election forecasts that, if another poll were held today, Labour would lose its majority and nearly 200 of the seats it won in July.
Luke Tryl, executive director of More in Common UK, said: “With potentially four and a half years to go, this model is not a prediction of what would happen at the next general election. Instead it confirms the fragmentation of British politics that we saw in July’s election has only accelerated in Labour’s six months in office."
17 December 2024
Christmas can’t save the high street
Retailers have historically relied upon December takings to make up for poor revenues earlier in the year. But polling by More In Common, commissioned by think tank Power to Change, found that, while 37 per cent of people normally do their shopping in their local town centre, it now declines to a quarter around Christmas.
Although elaborate Christmas displays in department stores once attracted crowds each December, this year just 7 per cent of people this year said they planned to do their shopping in one; 44 per cent planned to do it online. “It seems that even Christmas cannot save the department store,” the report concluded grimly.