Starmer nightmare as anxious middle-aged voters abandon Labour

MIDDLE aged voters are abandoning Labour because they are worried about paying their bills and getting into debt, a major new study has found.

It comes as energy watchdog Ofgem prepares to announce an increase in household gas and electricity prices.

A report by Nuffield Political Research Centre at Oxford University found voters who are anxious about making ends meet are most likely to switch parties, and this explains why four in ten voters who backed Labour at the last election have said they are considering switching.

Mid-life voters aged 35 to 59, who should feel in control of their lives, are the most likely to worry about their finances.

The study, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said older voters tend to have less money but also fewer debts, while many younger voters are able to rely on their families for support.

Professor Jane Green said: “Never has the support of the major parties in British politics appeared more uncertain. Financially insecure voters are the ones looking for political alternatives because they can’t see things getting better for themselves or their children.”

Ofgem will today announce a new energy price cap which experts have warned could push bills up by £85 for the average household. The price cap is already up by £170 since Labour came to power.

The Labour Party had already lost 40% of the voters who put them into power by October 2024 to other parties or an undecided vote, and their support continues to fall in opinion polls.

Researchers found people felt economically insecure because of the combination of household economic difficulties and the associated level of financial worries resulting from job prospects, low levels of savings, low levels of disposable income, costs or other debts. People may feel one or all these things if they said they felt economically insecure.

This is far more important han

Prof Green said: “The fragility of people’s finances, especially in mid-life, is matched with an increasingly fragile electoral landscape. With voters wavering in their party choices in mid-life, and feeling financially insecure, parties need to urgently focus on helping people have economic confidence looking ahead to the next election.

“Financially insecure voters are the ones looking for political alternatives because they can’t see things getting better for themselves or their children. All the talk of culture wars and immigration misses their primary experience. A party that delivers on economic security – supporting people by bringing down costs and giving people a chance to restock their savings safety net – can feel much more secure in their electoral prospects too. Without it we’re likely to see much more political volatility and further electoral fragmentation.”

Geoffrey Evans, Professor of the Sociology of Politics at the University of Oxford, said: “In our low growth and economically uncertain society, high anxiety mid-lifers are experiencing the worst of it. There is an opportunity available to any party that can soothe the financial fears of people in mid-life as they are more politically available than the young and the old.

“These are the people the Chancellor needs to keep in mind when devising her next budget. Economic insecurity may well prove more damaging to Labour’s electoral prospects than immigration, as it hits home, in the home.”