Thread by @anandMenon1

Well knock me over with a feather, but those good folk at @UKandEU have produced *yet another* report for your delectation 😳This is one on social and economic values in politics THREAD ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…

And by politics, I mean not only MPs but party members and voters. The work was carried out by @proftimbale, @philipjcowley, @dralanwager and @aroncheung but they let me put my name on it too. And, it's a cracker 🎉

We asked MPs and members a series of questions (see the picture I've rather cleverly inserted below) about their economic and social values, a set of questions drawn up by the British Election Study (thanks @BESResearch!)

We were then able to analyse the ideological position of:

- MPs
- Party activists who campaigned in 2019
- Inactive party members
- Those who have run for office for the parties
- Labour and Tory voters in 2019
- And ‘switchers' from Lab 2017 ➡Con 2019

On the economy, we found a chasm between the Tory Party and the country: the Parl Party is significantly more right wing than party members let alone Tory voters. In terms of views of economic justice and inequality, Tory MPs are on a different planet to the country

The idea that ‘there is one law for the rich and one law for the poor’ (a version of a line we’ve heard from @keirstarmer) is a view held by 73% of voters and 84% of those who moved from backing Corbyn in 207 to Johnson in 2019. But just 5% of Conservative MPs.

HOWEVER, when it comes to social values Labour has a real electoral weak-spot: the Conservative Party is closer to voters on all the questions we asked which tap into social values (or, that zeitgeisty word, the ‘culture wars’, which I've included for the benefit of @drjennings)

Tory MPs are more liberal than the public, as are Tory members. 44% of Tory MPs agree ‘young people don’t have enough respect for traditional British values’. That’s a view held by 88% of those who switched from Corbyn in 2017 to Johnson in 2019.

Drilling down into those ‘switchers’ shows they were significantly more left wing on the economy than most voters (see also the work of @paulasurridge)…

But when it comes to the liberal-authoritarian axis – where the Leave/Remain polarisation has happened - these voters are more authoritarian than the average Tory voter

For Labour and @keirstarmer, this is evidence they will benefit if they can make the debate about the economy.
The Tories can further benefit from the values divides that underpinned Brexit.But This is just a summary. Read the whole (short) report here ukandeu.ac.uk/wp-content/upl…