Voters not yet fully convinced by Labour: Lord Kinnock

Lord Kinnock feels that since Britain follows a first-past-the-post system, the election results can sometimes be “very capricious”

• Shajil Kumar
• 11 May, 2024

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By: Shajil Kumar

Former Labour leader Lord Neil Kinnock has warned that though the voters are upset with the Tories, they are not yet in love with Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.

He told BBC Radio Four’s Week that it was “fair” to say that voters were not fully convinced by his party, and a majority in the House of Commons was not guaranteed.

Interestingly, Lord Kinnock was heading the Labour when it suffered a shock defeat during the 1992 general election. Opinion polls and political commentators had expected the party to win, but the Conservatives under Sir John Major pulled off a surprise victory.

He told BBC Radio Four, “Expressing enthusiasm is different from expressing desperation. People will say ‘let’s get the bloody Tories out’, but they won’t say ‘Hurrah hurrah, marvellous, freedom, liberation is with us because of Keir Starmer.’ They are entirely different departments of human sentiment.”

He said since Britain follows a first-past-the-post system the election results can sometimes be “very capricious”. However, he conceded that Labour was in a favourable position, and certainly not going to lose.

Like Kinnock, some other Labour insiders have warned against complacency over favourable opinion poll ratings and the recent victory in local elections.

Labour party chief Anneliese Dodds told The Telegraph, “We can be very good at losing elections people thought we would win. Think of 1992.”

Pat McFadden, Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator has been reminding colleagues that not a single vote has yet been cast for the general election.

Kinnock’s remarks come shortly after Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defected to Labour. Many Labour leaders had criticised Starmer for allowing her to join the party.

The news of the UK coming out of recession is expected to provide some fillip to the Conservatives in the general election.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak and finance secretary Jeremy Hunt have tried to project this as proof that the economy has turned a corner.