Voters Are Warning Wannabe MPs That They're In No Mood For Westminster

Leading pollster Scarlett Maguire has said that the recent local elections could serve as a “warning” to prospective MPs for major political parties that there is an “anti-Westminster mood” among the public who feel that politicians are “not serving their interests”.

The local elections earlier this month saw the Conservatives lose close to 500 seats, as well as their mayor in the West Midlands, Andy Street, who was defeated by the Labour candidate Richard Parker. The Liberal Democrats and Green Party made significant gains, and Reform UK posed a challenge to the Conservative candidates in the seats where they stood. 

Maguire, a director at JL Partners Polling, told PoliticsHome that "people are more willing to vote for smaller parties and then sometimes their vote for small parties is to protest what's happening in Westminster”. 

“Reform did do well where they stood, the Green Party again did do well where they stood and I think there is a warning there to both the Conservative and Labour prospective parliamentary candidates," she said. 

“There’s an anti-Westminster mood. There’s a real sense that politicians in Westminster aren’t serving people in the way that they should be and they’re not serving their interests and this seems to be filtering down.” 

Maguire believed that because the sentiment towards Westminster could mean that many people "stay home" during the general election, national candidates will be “campaigning against quite a different backdrop” to try to appeal to voters who remain engaged enough to turn out.  

At the local elections, the Green Party won 181 seats, an increase of 74 compared to the last time they were up. Labour made 186 gains, winning 1,158 seats overall. The Liberal Democrats won 522 seats, a