Podcast: Will Tories or Ukip profit from abandoned Labour voters?

The Copeland by-election will be a fascinating test of whether Brexit can open up more votes for the Tories in the north – the topic of my Daily Telegraph column today. Labour is slowly abandoning its working class voters, with their unfashionable views on human rights and immigration. This was happening under Ed Miliband, and the forces wresting traditional Labour voters away from the Labour Party were laid out in detail by a strikingly prescient report by the Fabian Society entitled ‘Revolt on the Left‘. It identified the various groups of voters moving away from Labour: typically the low-waged and less prosperous pensioners. Those in work tended to resent those who were not. They resented Labour for losing control of immigration and the abuse of welfare. And they saw, in the Labour leadership, socially-liberal do-gooders who did not care about them and condescended towards them.

One of the authors of the report, Marcus Roberts, joined Isabel Hardman and I for a Coffee House Shots podcast on the Copeland by-election.