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Polling the political centre
To find out the state of the centre ground today we worked with Millbank Think Tank on a poll to understand which words people associate with their political views. The paper also proposes ways the political centre can increase its support.
Polling the political centre: Polling centrism and the UK political landscape.
To find out the state of the centre ground today we worked with Millbank Think Tank on a poll to understand which words people associate with their political views. The paper also proposes ways the political centre can increase its support.
Quick summary
- This paper includes polling produced by Opinium for Millbank Think Tank. It shows that the centre ground of UK politics, which we defined as Liberals and Social Democrats, represents 13% of the UK population.
- More broadly, the poll also explored other political viewpoints on both the left and the right. Right wing respondents, which we categorised as Conservative, right-wing or Libertarian, received 27% of the total weighted responses. The left, made up of socialists and left-wing supporters, only received 14%.
- It’s clear from this polling that centrist politicians need to reach out to those on the soft left and the soft right. It is also the case that politicians on the left and right need to reach out to those in the middle ground. In short, coalition building is key.
Author
Torrin Wilkins
Director and Founder
Torrin founded Centre in 2020. In the role has written numerous papers including one backed by the Gaps in Support APPG which contained 260 MPs. He has also written policies for political parties and appeared on a wide range of media including TV and radio. He has a Political Studies degree from Aberystwyth University.
Editor
Joe Gellman
Head of Reaserch
Joe is studying for a Masters in Philosophy at Durham University.