People who are currently planning to vote for Reform opt for Jeremy Corbyn over Keir Starmer in almost every category.
A better way to defeat Reform
Merlin Strategy polling seen by Novara Media shows that 67% of voters for Nigel Farage’s party believe that Corbyn is “for working people”, compared to 33% who think that about Starmer.
A further 69% believe the MP for Islington “represents change”, while just 31% think Starmer does so. And 64% opt for Corbyn as “honest”, leaving 36% for Starmer.
Independent MP Zarah Sultana, who recently left the Labour Party and is co-founding a new left party with Corbyn, told Novara:
This polling blows a hole in Starmer’s strategy. He’s spent years chasing Reform voters, echoing their rhetoric, even mimicking Enoch Powell. And for what? They still prefer Jeremy Corbyn.
Starmer has long been aping Farage on immigration, casting it as entirely negative. And in May, the Labour leader faced accusations of following in Enoch Powell’s footsteps with a soundbite about an “island of strangers”.
The thing is, Farage voters have long preferred Corbyn over other figures in Labour. In 2015, polling showed that Corbyn was the most popular Labour leadership candidate among UKIP voters. They also ranked him highest for taking Labour in the right direction, being the most caring about the electorate, being the best leader and for having the greatest ideas about the UK’s future.
In the Merlin Strategy polling, 62% of Reform voters chose Corbyn as “strong”, compared to 38% for Starmer. And 61% said Corbyn “understands people like me”, while 39% opted for Starmer within that metric.
“Rigged economic system”
Corbyn told Novara:
The Labour government is here to appease Reform. We are here to defeat Reform… People have lost faith in a political system that shuts them out of the decisions that affect their daily lives. The great dividers want you to think that migrants and minorities are responsible for the problems in our society. They’re not. Those problems are caused by a rigged economic system that protects the interests of billionaires and corporations.
Corbyn and Sultana’s new party has already received around 600,000 sign ups in a matter of days. Shortly before, polling by Find Out Now revealed that the new party, which doesn’t even have a name currently (it will be decided by supporters), is polling neck and neck with Labour. Both parties are on 15%.
At the same time, Farage has been widely mocked for stating that he would fill a Reform cabinet with unelected corporate leaders should he become prime minister. He said the fact that MPs oversee departments is “ridiculous” because they do not have expertise. But people compared Farage’s assertion to his longstanding complaints about ‘unelected bureaucrats’ in the EU. Oh the irony.
On top of that, how would a Reform cabinet be held accountable if the people within it can’t be individually voted out?
It seems like Farage wants to complete neoliberalism and remove any difference between Big Business and government. That’s more of the same, not change. Meanwhile, Corbyn wants to put neoliberalism in a museum.
Featured image via the Canary
