Labour failing to attract rural dwellers warns report
Leaked documents from a Labour party-commissioned report show that many new Labour members are "high-status city dwellers" and that the rural community, the elderly and those struggling to make ends meet make up a far smaller proportion of membership
The Labour party is failing to appeal to those living in rural communities
Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance commented on Twitter:
Hope Labour reacts to this by increasing engagement with rural people, not ignoring them https://t.co/is3d3XCtBO pic.twitter.com/QiAMdrOvXK
— Tim Bonner (@CA_TimB) January 21, 2016
In a further statement to Shooting UK, Tim Bonner added:
“The last election saw the countryside turn largely into a one party state. This is not helpful for the countryside nor any of the opposition parties in the long term and we hope that the Labour Party reacts, not by ignoring issues that are of importance to rural communities but by engaging with them by putting forward a positive agenda for the countryside.”
An official internal analysis
Labour states that it does not comment on leaked documents but the data is part of an official internal analysis of Labour party membership following Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
The document advises that “high-status city dwellers living in central locations and pursuing careers with high rewards are highly over-represented”.
“As a group they make up 4% of the general population in contrast to 11.2% of party membership.”
The Labour-commissioned report’s summary concludes: “Groups which are over-represented as Labour party members tend to be long-term homeowners from urban areas.
“Those who are under-represented tend to be either young singles/families who rent properties on a short-term basis and require financial assistance or those who live in rural communities.”
Eating croissants
Lord Watts, the former Chair of the Labour Party, spoke in the House of Lords last week:
“My advice to my own party leadership is that they should take less notice of the London-centric, hard-left polictical class who sit around in their £1m mansions, eating their croissants at breakfast and seeking to lay the foundations for a socialist revolution.”
