Leftwing activists in Britain are less likely to work with their political opponents than other groups and more likely to think those holding different views have been misled, a study has found.
The study by the polling group More in Common finds that 8-10% of the population, whom they classify under the heading “progressive activists”, hold strikingly different views on a range of issues than the rest of Britain.
The research also shows the group is more likely to dislike and criticise those that disagree with them than other voting blocs, a trait the report’s authors argue has contributed to the repeated failure of progressive campaigns and the rise of the global far right.
Luke Tryl, an executive director at More in Common and co-author of the study, said: “Progressive activists are the backbone of many of the UK’s campaigning organisations and have often been the drivers of social change in the UK. However, their political outlook and approach to bringing about change makes them outliers from much of the wider public and those they are trying to win over.
“In particular this report finds that a tendency to impose purity tests on those they will campaign with, overestimating how many people share their views, and using language that is inaccessible to the wider public is potentially driving a backlash against progressive causes rather than helping them to win people over.
“If the liberal left are going to get back on the front foot it will require a much more deliberate approach to meeting people where they are, and engaging with the old-fashioned work of persuasion, rather than expecting people to be on board with social change from the outset.”
More in Common carried out a number of polls, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with more than 1,000 people for its deep dive into progressive activists, the most leftwing of the seven “tribes” the company has identified among British voters.
The group, which the pollsters define as young, highly educated and socially leftwing, represents about 8% of the population, but is far more represented in certain sectors such as public-sector bodies and charities.
Tryl, and his co-author Ed Hodgson, found that on a range of political and cultural issues, this group stands out from every other section of the UK electorate.
They are the only group, for example, of whom a majority believes that immigration levels should remain the same or rise, and are far more likely to argue that “woke culture” has had a benefit on British society than other groups.
The authors argue that given this divergence from the rest of the population, it is a particular problem that progressive activists are more likely to misunderstand other voters, criticise them and even refuse to campaign alongside them.
The polling showed that progressive activists on average believe that 35% of the British public agreed with abolishing the monarchy, when the real number is 18%. They thought a quarter of people would agree with letting more refugees into the country, when the actual figure is 8%.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of those polled said they would never be willing to campaign alongside someone who had voted for Reform, while 46% would not do so alongside Conservative voters.
In focus groups, the authors found that progressive activists were more likely than other voters to believe their opponents had been misled by misinformation and, possibly as a result, hold a negative view about them.
While 72% of progressive activists view leave voters negatively, the same is true of 24% of “backbone conservatives” – the furthest right of the seven tribes – towards remain voters.
