The flaw in Corbyn’s plan to win the next election by signing up non-voters and the young
Intriguing. @jeremycorbyn plan to win next election is to change the electorate – signing up non-voters & the young. @BBCr4today
— Nick Robinson (@bbcnickrobinson) September 30, 2015
Labour risk piling up votes where they don’t need it
Mr Corbyn’s plan has the major flaw that in the 100 seats with the lowest turnout in England Labour hold 94 of them, and 95 out of the 100 seats with the lowest turnout in England and Wales. When you extend the analysis to include Scotland, a similar pattern emerges, in the 100 seats with the lowest turnout in Great Britain Labour holds 92 of them, the SNP holds 3 and the Conservatives hold 5 of them.
Boosting turnout in these seats might replicate the mistake of May where Labour piled up votes in safe seats they already hold whilst the Conservatives boosted their votes in the marginals they hold, which will ultimately improve the advantage the Conservatives hold in vote efficiency. The following tweet sums it up.
Corbyn's 1st big campaign will be registering voters. As a frontbencher says: "the thing about non voters is that they don't f-ing vote…"
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) September 29, 2015
To win in 2020 Labour needs to win the votes of people who voted Conservative and UKIP in 2015, until Mr Corbyn addresses that Labour won’t be taking power in 2020.
Thanks again to PBer Disraeli for producing the data behind this article.