Voter apathy proved to be an “enemy” for the Tories in the General Election, according to pollster Matt Goodwin, who explained how low turnout helped Labour romp to victory.
“It’s around 2005 levels, so it’s about 60-odd per cent”, he said on GB News.
“There are two interesting things about this election that I think we’re going to reflect more on in the coming week.
“One is turnout being sharply down, especially in lots of those traditionally safe Labour seats.
Matt Goodwin says low turnout was a key factor at this election
PA / GB NEWS
“Secondly, this is one of the lowest combined shares of the vote for the two big parties we’ve had since the emergence of the two-party system.
“You’ve got another symptom there of voters being very frustrated and fed up with politics. It’s a punishment election. Voters punished the SNP by voting in Labour in Scotland and they punished the Conservatives by voting Labour through much of England.
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“They punished Labour in Wales because the vote share went down in Wales.”
Asked by Andrew Pierce how much of the low turnout can be attributed to disillusioned Tories, Goodwin said political apathy is turning out to be an “enemy” to the party.
“It’s not that people have just flipped to Nigel Farage”, he said.
“But people have also stayed at home and not voted at all. That also raises the question, why didn’t Labour win them over?
Matt Goodwin reacted to Labour's landslide win
GB NEWS
“But as I said before, Labour’s vote share went down 0.6 per cent. Take away London, and I bet the share went down.”
Rishi Sunak delivered a sombre speech outside Downing Street this morning after conceding defeat in a bruising election.
He said: “I will shortly be seeing His Majesty the King to offer my resignation as Prime Minister.
“To the country, I would like to say first and foremost, I am sorry.
Sunak has been turfed out of Number 10 after a crushing defeat
PA“I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the Government of the United Kingdom must change. And yours is the only judgment that matters.
“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.”
After 648 of the 650 Commons seats had been declared, Labour had a majority of 176.
Labour had 412 seats and the Tories 121.