Only 7% of left-wing voters in working-class jobs like building and factory work
Only 7% of left-wing voters in working-class jobs like building and factory work
Posted by ThatchersDirtyTaint
Only 7% of left-wing voters in working-class jobs like building and factory work
Only 7% of left-wing voters in working-class jobs like building and factory work
Posted by ThatchersDirtyTaint
39 Comments
That statistic is completely meaningless without the base rate of people in these jobs.
Industry and manual labour has been on the decline for decades, so you would naturally expect the proportion in each voter base to fall.
Lets be realistic – it’s because there has been 0 government representation for them since Thatcher.
Why would you be a Labour / Green / Lib Dem voter when they offer you **nothing** at elections, and haven’t done since the 70’s?
That’s certainly a way of saying “unskilled”. 99% of jobs are working-class jobs, they just differ in the amount of skills, qualifications, or certifications needed for the job.
Isn’t that because there’s relatively few factory/heavy industry jobs left, more than anything else?
I’m surprised it’s that many, having worked as a labourer for 5 years on countless building sites I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone on a building site that wasn’t completely right wing.
Neither has Nigel Farage, which is why I’m confused he is on the image posing as one.
That’s a bit of a pointless statistic as it’s not normalised against the rest of the workforce.
Without trying to sound classist or elitist, people doing manual labour type jobs are typically the kind of people that populists and right-wingers pander to, the left isn’t really ever going to do that, morally scapegoating people or groups isn’t part of the left’s ideology, where it is aboslutely core to populists.
If you’re illequiped educationally to take on and understand that propaganda then you’re going to end up believing it, even if you *are* equipped to take it on then you’re likely to fall for it anyway thanks to peer pressure.
Its not the 1970s anymore.
The bulk of the working class in 2025 are people working minimum wage gigs in offices, retail etc. “The working man” conjuring up images of a quasi cartoon character in overalls and a flat cap on a production line is completely out of date.
The working class people that need a voice are the people that serve you your food, ring your purchases through tills, stack shelves, cook your takeaway and deliver your justeats, work in call centres and entry level office and clerical work, etc. If this isn’t the lefts voting base in the 2020s then they’re doing something very wrong as these are the people that the right, quite frankly, don’t give a solitary shit about. Of course this 7% are part of this too, but this idea that this is Labours core vote is an old pastiche.
As I’ve been saying for a while ‘the Left’ no longer represents the **traditional** working classes. Starmer’s Labour with anti-immigrant rhetoric and things like chemical castration for sex offenders is probably more in-tune with the traditional working classes than ‘the Left’ would care to admit.
That said Starmer’s winter fuel payment cut will have been seen by the traditional working classes as an attack on them. Their nan or mam isn’t rich, had £300 taken off them, read about the psychology of loss to understand the problem.
Working class is such a meaningless phrase these days.
Everyone has their own definition and even the “official” definitions (abc1 c2de social grades) are incoherent.
Building is hard, physical labour on the body in largely our door conditions. Who wants to do that unless they truly have a passion for building?
Factory work is miserable.
I would say I’m right leaning but this article just from the headline seems to want to imply the left don’t want hardworking jobs which I think is unfair and a bit bullshit.
Another smear piece to try and divide everyone again
This doesn’t seem that surprising given that most working class jobs are likely service sector, since that’s much bigger than manufacturing or construction
I bet if they paid well then plenty more would like it.
>Only 7% of left wing voters in working-class jobs like building and factory work
>Just 7 per cent of left-wing voters are in working-class jobs, according to new research seen by the i Paper
Well, which is it? Are they lacking support among the working class, or among the working class *in certain industries*? Because those are two very different statements
It’s a means to an end. Ask how many people like their retail job.
Jobs generally such, if you want to love your work you need to build a career and not everyone has that chance right off the bat.
I think we need to redefine the class system, the type of job is irrelevant. Do you have an inheritance, yes you are middle class, no you may be working class. Can you afford to own a house and and not be homeless in 6 months time if you lose/quit your job, yes then you are middle class. No, then you are working class. Ect
Perfect example of using statistics to create a narrative
My rough take working in trades environments is that reform would likely come out on top. Balanced reasoned conversations while welcomed wither in the face of Media reinforced popularism.
Centres round immigration again, the working class hate invigorating, the left are generally in favour. There’s no real party that caters to the working class whoch is a travesty. The needs to be party in place who are for the benefit of anyone on paye
Considering the left wing are supposed to be about workers rights and unions, home building, good access to healthcare and wealth tax. I don’t think there has been a left wing in my 34 years of life. Just workers of the overlords of the same ideology swapping shirts every couple of seasons.
So what? Your occupation is not a requirement for thinking that we should all contribute to a common good or that the state should act in the interest of all its citizens. Being a banker doesn’t mean you can’t think that essential infrastructure such as water should be state owned rather than run into the ground, saddled with high debt whilst doing a shit job in the private sector.
The only people who equate left wing and factory workers are the critics
We need to stop using meaningless unnecessarily divisive terms left and right wing. They mean next to nothing. They were originally meant to describe your position on a singular political topic, not your position on an infinite number of topics
You can have any opinion anymore call yourself either. The Americans obsess about this, let’s not be like the Americans
Very few want to work in a factory. It’s about how much someone can tolerate it.
I don’t think this is helpful at all. The term working class is much broader in today’s post-industrial world. Most teachers, historically a middle class profession, are now working class. There’s many more examples. Hardly anyone in the working class work in factories or in the building sector anymore. since these jobs have declined significantly.
That ‘Working Class’ = ‘Manual Labour’ is a fallacy. This isn’t the 70’s anymore.
A person who works in an office, retail or any other similar environment who works for a living is allowed consider themselves a worker.
I mean, that makes tons of sense when part of it is “pay should reflect effort” while more conservative types take pride in working more in general, especially when there’s no pay because the universe™ will pay it forward eventually
This is one of those moments when “such as” would be better than “like”.
Quite an incorrect stat. Most of them vote labour but it doesn’t mean they are left wing. They are socially conservative
7% is really high considering the hundreds of professions going
As someone who worked on building sites, can confirm. That’s why I got into football, so I could change the conversation anytime they go on a rant about migrants or trans people.
Wasn’t it Labour who told people, “if you think you are middle class, you are”?
Then 51% of the youth went into higher education (38% graduating) so those class identity labels will be skewed.
But perhaps not this far?
Reminder that the Independent and by extent I news is owned by Russian oligarch Evgeny Lebedev who has direct ties to the kremlin and a Saudi investor named Sultan Muhammad Abuljadayel. This is a piece specifically written to divide and conquer the working class in order to boost votes for Farage who is in the pocket of the Russians.
The Independent and i News stopped being independent years ago.
Fun fact, Evgeny is in the house of fucking lords. Have fun with that.
What is ironic about this is that Neoliberalism really started in the UK under Thatcher (right-wing) government. And most of the problems we see today are a result of Neoliberalism. For example, allowing people to buy social housing, which then in turn leads to Privatisation.
So if you are someone thinking about voting for reform and your currently struggling to get a house just remember that Reform believe in the same type of politics that lead to this mess in the first place.
That’s because the left wing abandoned the white working class it’s not new news
About 2% of the UK population worked in manufacturing in 2023 (2mil out of 68.3mil). Can’t find any stats for construction.
Anyway, it’s not 1965 any more. The working class are working in retail, public transport (bar *maybe* the most experienced of train drivers), deliveries, social care, health, admin, nonmanagerial professional roles, the car industry, warehouses, I could go on.
Almost anyone not making at least double the local median, who hasn’t been handed a lump of cash, is probably working class.
OP let me hold your hand while I say this: **if you need to have a job in order to provide food and shelter for yourself and your loved ones, then you are a member of the working class.**
It doesn’t matter what that job is: you might work in an office, you might be a doctor, you might work on an oil rig. If you need to sell your labour in order to survive then :
1) You are probably working class
2) You should probably join a union
3) You should probably vote Labour, or at least recognise that they are the party that represents you as a worker.
The “left” abandoned the working classes quite some time ago.