News

The Guardian

13 March 2025

‘People want change’: voter anger opens door for Reform in key Labour seats

“Labour used to be the party of the working class. I haven’t got a clue what it is now,” was how Richard, a retired welder, described his feelings towards Keir Starmer’s fledgling government.

That response would be sobering anywhere, but more so for the fact he was speaking as part of a focus group in Merthyr Tydfil, the parliamentary constituency of Labour’s founder and the prime minister’s namesake, Keir Hardie.

Richard wasn’t alone in his views. This week, More in Common conducted four such groups in Merthyr Tydfil and Dudley – the former held by Labour for a century, the latter a “red wall” seat Labour lost in 2019 and regained in last year’s landslide. With projections suggesting both seats could be won by Reform UK, we wanted to understand what was driving Nigel Farage’s party’s momentum and how real any surge could be.

New Statesman

8 March 2025

Keir Starmer must reassure pragmatic liberals

In this opinion piece, Marc Stears and Luke Tryl discuss new research from UCL Policy Lab and More in Common, which suggests that the British public prefers pragmatic, steady change over radical disruption.

"Keir Starmer has instinctively shown a grasp of this British commitment to change by offering pragmatism, rather than populism, over Ukraine. His long-term political success will depend on him demonstrating that at home too."

The Times

6 March 2025

Social media is too toxic and addictive, say Gen Z

The young people who grew up with smartphones say it damages mental health — and that they would keep their own children offline as long as possible.

The polling of nearly 1,700 people was conducted by The New Britain Project and More In Common think tanks on behalf of the National Education Union. It found young people strongly supportive of wider controls on social media — with 62 per cent saying it does more harm than good and only 22 per cent believing the opposite.

The viewpoint spans gender, politics and education levels. Most of this age group said they would try to keep their own children off social media as long as possible.

Financial Times

4 March 2025

Farage may have a Trump problem

In this opinion piece, Luke Tryl discusses new research from More in Common, highlighting potential liabilities associated with President Trump that Reform will need to overcome if they are to position themselves as a credible party of Government, rather than protest.

The Guardian

19 February 2025

Leftwing activists less likely to work with political rivals than other UK groups, study finds

The study by the polling group More in Common finds that 8-10% of the population, whom they classify under the heading “progressive activists”, hold strikingly different views on a range of issues than the rest of Britain.

Luke Tryl, and his co-author Ed Hodgson, found that on a range of political and cultural issues, this group stands out from every other section of the UK electorate.

The authors argue that given this divergence from the rest of the population, it is a particular problem that progressive activists are more likely to misunderstand other voters, criticise them and even refuse to campaign alongside them.

Financial Times

11 February 2025

Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer’s battle of weaknesses

Part of the Labour government’s problem is that, in the absence of a set of clear principles and aims from the centre, inevitably, what dominates is “what do voters really care about”. Most voters do not care about growth in the abstract, and do not think it will benefit them, according to this new poll by More in Common.