18% of Britons say they are open to considering voting for a left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn at a future election
Last week, ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana said she was founding a new left-wing party, which she would co-lead with Jeremy Corbyn. While this followed months of speculation about a new Corbyn-led party, there was confusion about whether the former Labour leader was actually involved, with him since saying that discussions about a new party are ongoing.
Regardless, it does appear that a new party is on the horizon, but how much appetite is there for it?
One in six Britons (18%) say they are likely to consider voting for a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn. This is, though, less than for the existing major parties, with 30% saying they are likely to consider voting Labour at the next election, 28% saying so of each of the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and Greens, and 24% similarly open to considering the Conservatives.
The greatest willingness to consider voting for this new party comes among those who backed the Greens at the last general election, 58% of whom say they are open to backing a Corbyn-led project. This is also true of 31% of 2024 Labour voters and 21% of those who backed the Lib Dems last July.
But a key problem for the new party is that considering voting for a party is not necessarily the same as voting for it, especially when your supporters are open to voting for other, more established parties as well.
Indeed, just 9% of those who are open to considering voting for Corbyn’s new party (amounting to 2% of all Britons) are not willing to consider voting for any of the five existing significant national parties. However, a greater 32% (amounting to 6% of the public as a whole) give the proposed party a higher likelihood to consider score than any other party.
One in seven of those who voted Green last year (15%) give Corbyn’s party a higher consideration score than any other party, as do 9% of 2024 Labour voters and 4% of 2024 Lib Dem voters. But just 1-2% of each party’s 2024 voters say the ‘Corbyn party’ is the only one they would now consider backing.
Of course, this leaves 91% of those likely to consider voting for a new left-wing party led by Jeremy Corbyn who are also open to voting for other parties. The greatest overlap is with the Greens, with 70% of Corbyn considerers also open to backing the environmentalist party at the next election, while around half (48-51%) say the same of Labour or the Lib Dems. Additionally, 11% of those likely to consider a Corbyn-led party are also open to voting for Reform UK.
What do Corbyn’s voters look like?
The appeal of this potential new party is higher among younger Britons. More than a third of 18-24 year olds (36%) say they are likely to consider voting for such a party in future, compared to 23% of 25-49 year olds, 13% of 50-64 year olds and 10% of over 65s.
Support for such a party may also end up concentrated in London, with 29% of Londoners willing to consider voting for the as yet unlaunched party, compared to 15-19% in other regions of Great Britain.
Perhaps surprisingly, willingness to consider a left-wing Corbyn-led party is higher among those classed as living in middle-class households (21%), than those classed as living in working-class households (16%) - known in the parlance as ABC1s and C2DEs, respectively.
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Photo: Getty
