Even after their landslide defeat, four in ten Britons still feel the Tories have too much influence
Concluding this year’s party conference season are the Conservatives, whose gathering in Birmingham this week will likely be a more downbeat affair than those that have preceded it, given the party’s recent electoral drubbing. The focus among the party faithful will be on the ongoing leadership election, with the four remaining candidates each giving a speech to set out their vision of the future of the party.
Whoever ends up as leader, turning around the fortunes of the party will be an uphill battle. At present, seven in ten Britons (69%) hold an unfavourable view of the Conservatives, with only 22% of the public seeing the party in a favourable light. This represents no progress since the aftermath of their landslide defeat in July.
It’s also notable how deep the negativity is. A majority of pretty much every key social and political group has a negative opinion of the Tories, including 55% of over 65s and 56% of Leave voters, who would have been viewed as dependable Conservative voters just a few years ago. The sole exception are Conservative voters themselves, but even then, one in six (17%) have an unfavourable view of a party they voted for just three months ago.
Returning to power will require changing the minds of some of those who voted for other parties, only a small minority of whom are amenable to the Conservatives at the moment. Only a quarter of Reform UK voters (26%), one in nine Lib Dems (11%) and just 4% of Labour voters currently say they see the Tories positively.
How do Britons see the Conservative Party?
One of the key factors holding the Conservatives back is their party image. When asked which of a set of two dozen common political descriptions apply to the Tories, the ten terms Britons were most likely to choose were all ones typically used pejoratively.
The most apt description in the minds of Britons is that the Tories are ‘only interested in themselves’, which 56% of the public see as applying, notably including one in six of those who voted Conservative in July (18%). Half of Britons (50%) would call the party ‘dishonest’, with ‘divided’ the pick of 44% of the public, ‘unprofessional’ favoured by one in three Britons (33%) and 30% of the view that the Tories ‘should not be near power’. Around a quarter of Britons (24-26%) also see the party as ‘weak’ and ‘nasty’.
The positive term most associated with the Conservatives is that the party ‘has sensible policies’, which one in ten Britons (10%) feel applies.
For most of these descriptions, there’s a clear partisan component – for instance, eight in ten Labour voters (78%), six in ten Lib Dems (61%) and nearly half of Reform UK supporters (46%) see the Tories as ‘dishonest’, compared to only one in nine (11%) of those who voted Tory.
The clearest exception is ‘divided’, a trait recognised in the Tories by half of voters for all the main parties, including 55% of Labour voters, 50% of Reform UK backers and 45% of Conservatives. Indeed, it is the most chosen description of the party among Conservative voters, with their criticism of the party they voted for not stopping there. A quarter (26%) describe the Tories as ‘the same as the rest’ and one in five (20%) view them as ‘weak’.
Who do Britons think the Conservatives care about?
Another key issue for the Conservatives going forwards is a perception that they don’t care about many groups in society.
Despite the attempts in recent years to move the Conservatives more towards the working classes, particularly those in the so-called ‘red wall’, the traditional class perception of the Conservatives remains. Nine in ten Britons (88%) see the party as caring about ‘rich people’, and most likewise see them as caring about the middle class (58%), while just one in five (19%) who see the Tories as bothered by the interests of the working class.
Other traditional perceptions of the Tories similarly linger. Seven in ten Britons (71%) view the party as caring about the interests of businesses, against only one in six (17%) who disagree; while two-thirds of the public (65%) see the party as bothered about people in the South, compared to only 22% who see the party as caring about those outside the South of England.
Damningly for the Conservatives, after 14 years in government only one in five Britons (21%) perceive the party as caring about ‘people like you’, compared to seven in ten (69%) who feel the Tories don’t care about their interests. Even among Conservative voters, only two-thirds (66%) see the party as being concerned about people like them, with nearly three in ten (28%) feeling the Tories don’t look out for them.
Also notably seen as being ignored by the Conservatives are women, people with families and ethnic minorities, which only around one in three Britons (30-33%) see the party as caring about, with around half of the public (50-54%) feeling the Tories aren’t interested in those groups.
How much influence do Britons think the Conservatives should have?
Even after losing power, one in eight Britons (13%) still feel the Conservatives wield a lot of influence over British politics, with a further quarter (24%) believing the Tories still hold at least a little influence. Half of Britons (50%) are more sceptical about the degree of power that the party retains, seeing them as having not much influence or even none at all.
The more important question, though, is whether Britons feel that the level of influence the party retains is appropriate. Only one in seven (14%) see the Tories’ current level of influence as about right, with four in ten (41%) wanting them to have less influence than they currently hold, suggesting they don’t think the record election defeat was punishment enough.
Nonetheless, three in ten Britons (29%) do think the party deserves a greater level of influence over British politics. Unsurprisingly, this includes most Conservative voters (83%), but nearly half of those who voted for Reform UK (46%) would also like to see the Tories have more power.
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Photo: Getty
