News

The Independent

17 May 2025

Talks over winter fuel payment U-turn ‘intensify’ as Labour bids to repair relationship with voters

The change is more widely known than any of Labour’s other policies, while around two-thirds of voters dislike it.

Luke Tryl, executive director of polling organisation More In Common, has described it as Labour’s “original sin” and said it had a major impact on the party’s disastrous performance in this month’s elections.

The Spectator

8 May 2025

Welcome to Scuzz Nation

Public anger with the visible decline has been a major factor in driving voters to Reform, according to the pollster Luke Tryl of More in Common. He argues: ‘One of people’s big frustrations is that when it comes to things like fly-tipping, vandalism and shoplifting, it feels like there’s no consequence. Those who do the right thing feel like mugs for doing so.’ In focus groups just before the elections he recorded voters across every background describing the country as ‘a shambles’, ‘effed up’ and in decline. Seven in ten voters will tell you the country is getting worse.

The Times

4 May 2025

Nigel Farage has blown apart two-party politics. Here’s what’s next

Luke Tryl of the pollsters More in Common, who ran focus groups in Runcorn on Friday night for the campaign group 38 Degrees with voters who switched from Labour to Reform, said: “We heard three things that ought to be a wake-up call for the government.

First a determination to give the government a kick up the backside. Second real anger over the decision to means-test the winter fuel allowance and restrict disability benefits. Third, a feeling in this election at least it was worth rolling the dice on Nigel Farage.”

Vicky, a supermarket assistant, was typical of those who see little change from a Labour government: “I’m getting up at half past four in the morning, going to work. I’ve got a mortgage and stuff on my own, but I don’t live now. I just survive.”

the i

2 May 2025

Four key areas on Nigel Farage's Reform UK hitlist

Pollsters have said the local elections show that Reform is a rising political power that both Labour and the Conservatives need to watch out for.

Anouschka Rajah, research and analysis manager at polling group More in Common, said Thursday’s results will give the party “the confidence to expand their horizons for where they might be able to make gains at the next general election”.

“The rulebook has been ripped up,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like Reform has to live within the box that we like to put them in.”

The Independent

29 April 2025

Voters name ‘none of the above’ as most popular candidate before local elections

The most popular political leader is “none of the above” a new poll shows just 36 hours before voters go to the polls in the local elections.

It comes amid rising concerns that Reform UK is on the cusp of a major breakthrough, following “deep disillusionment” with Labour and the Tories.

More In Common executive director UK Luke Tryl said: “The public mood going into these elections is one of deep disillusionment, voters are impatient for change but aren’t confident any party can deliver it. As results trickle in on Friday this polling suggests we will see that the fragmentation of the electorate in last year’s general election has only accelerated since then."