How Age And Brexit Define The Dwindling Tory Faithful

The sheer scale of the collapse in support for the Tories in the opinion polls poses a question as the election approaches.

- ALICJA HAGOPIAN

Who are the party faithful - that is, the voters who are still willing to back Rishi Sunak?

Recent polls have the Conservatives at around 19 per cent – less than half of their 43.6 per cent vote share in 2019.

The prime minister called an election for 4 July after months of speculation about an autumn date. Since then, the campaign has been plagued by scandals, from the PM missing a D-Day ceremony to allegations of betting by politicians and campaign officials.

With a resurgent Reform UK eating into the vote share under Nigel Farage, the Conservatives look all but defeated as the race enters its final week. But while the odds are strongly against the party achieving a general election victory, one in every five voters is still planning to back the Conservatives.

The current average Tory voter is aged 62, voted for Brexit, and has voted Conservative in previous elections. Polling from More in Common shows that Conservative voters are slightly more likely to be white, and more than half are comfortable financially.

Ed Hodgson, research manager at More in Common, said many Tory voters are worried about Labour’s approach to the economy.