‘Moderate’ Labour’s reliance on focus groups has turned MPs into a laughing stock

Last Updated: December 24, 2016By

MPs must develop a strategy for ‘isolating from Jeremy without increasing perception of division’, the report says [Image: Jonathan Brady/PA].

Let’s get this straight: “Moderate” Labour researchers have used focus groups to claim that “moderate” Labour MPs need to distance themselves from Jeremy Corbyn – something they’re keen to do in any case.

And the Guardian‘s Jessica Elgot is using Jamie Reed’s resignation and the by-election it has triggered as a reason for them to do so?

Do none of them realise that Labour’s low majority in Copeland is most likely precisely because Mr Reed was a so-called “moderate”?

Put a candidate up who actually supports traditional Labour values – the kind of values northern voters appreciate – and matters are likely to be very different indeed.

These focus groups won’t have picked up on that because they deal with UKIP-leaning Labour voters – in other words, voters who are themselves likely to be very much on the right-wing of Labour politics.

This is a transparent attempt to scaremonger by leaking ‘fake news’ – information that contains only part of the facts, or a skewed version of them. Pathetic.

Damning research [by members of Labour’s right-wing “moderate” wing] reveals swing voters believe the party lacks leadership, direction or any strong message under Jeremy Corbyn, prompting calls for moderate Labour MPs in the north to be offered a “lifeboat strategy” to protect them from association with the leader.

The research seen by the Guardian, which has been circulated among a selected group of moderate MPs, includes a string of highly damaging focus-group results and says Ukip-leaning Labour voters have “no reason to vote Labour beyond habit and social norm”.

It suggests MPs must develop their own electoral strategy of “how to run locally in a challenging context and isolate from Jeremy without increasing perception of division”.

The party is facing a tough byelection challenge in Copeland, Cumbria, after the resignation of Labour’s Jamie Reed earlier this week. Though Labour has held the seat for decades, the party was only 2,560 votes ahead of the Conservatives at the last election and the majority of voters in the constituency voted to leave the EU in the July referendum.

The December report was written by James Morris, formerly the top polling adviser to Ed Miliband, and based on the findings from focus groups with Ukip-leaning Labour voters held over a number of months.

Source: Labour MPs must isolate themselves from Jeremy Corbyn, says report | Politics | The Guardian

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7 Comments

  1. David Woods December 24, 2016 at 9:55 pm - Reply

    The betrayal of Labour continues by these ‘moderates’; So much for getting behind your democratically elected leader!

    But these moderates learned from Blair, the only time you stand behind someone is to stab them in the back!

  2. Jeffrey Davies December 25, 2016 at 7:43 am - Reply

    they really dont want corbyn in oh dear oh dear its the peasants voices that want him but those peskie papers who print their truth cannot see that oh dear oh dear

  3. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl) December 25, 2016 at 9:11 am - Reply

    All these so-called right-wing labour dissenters are deliberately trying to poison uneducated minds against Jeremy Corbyn in the vain hope of furthering their own selfish gains. The outcome is doing the true Labour party great damage and the Conservative party a great favour which is exactly why these people should be dismissed for the Labour party and a new clean movement strongly pursued if we are ever to have a government for all the people rather than the few selfish billionaire types. Jeremy Corbyn has the kindness, education, and strength to get us all a better deal so please don’t let those with other interests spoil our chances of a better future.

  4. Barry Davies December 25, 2016 at 2:23 pm - Reply

    If they think that it is right wing labour supporters who support UKIP they are completely wrong it is the left wingers who are more likely to vote for UKIP the right of the labour party is staunchly pro eu.

    • Mike Sivier December 26, 2016 at 12:33 pm - Reply

      Nonsense.
      UKIP is a right-wing, single-issue party whose philosophy is diametrically opposed to that of the left-wing of the Labour Party.

  5. James Kemp December 25, 2016 at 2:26 pm - Reply

    Well is it a bad thing if they isolate themselves out the door? Then see if the people of this country whould like a moderate left wing MP in there place, I bet they whould not like to get off the gravy train.

  6. Florence December 26, 2016 at 11:55 pm - Reply

    More irrelevant, election losing “triangulation” on a relatively small number of right wing voters who it is deemed important to attract and woo, despite alienating core voters by throwing out traditional values and policies. They really should go and form their own Lemming Party.

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