It also puts Labour firmly on the side of public opinion, which as always through the pandemic supports restrictions to combat an emerging threat. Con rebels are adopting a position most of their voters - and in particular their older voters - reject.
https://twitter.com/lukemcgee/status/1470808798919020548
The broader problem for Cons this reflects is that many of the strongest ideological convictions of their more vocal & rebellious backbenchers - small state market liberalism, libertarian opposition to COVID restrictions - don't really have any electoral market at all.
These positions are also particularly toxic with the Leave voting (once UKIP voting) "red wall" type supporters Cons picked up in 2017-19, who tend to have exactly the opposite combination of views - favouring big state interventionism and authoritarianism on most things
What's particularly odd is most Con MPs seem to instinctively get this on issues like crime, imm etc where they gravitate to the authoritarian stance favoured by their core vote. But some sort of fuse goes in their brains when it comes to some issues - COVID passes, ID cards etc
The same thing happened with UKIP & more recently with its successor ReformUK - both parties have attracted an activist base whose views on economic issues and some symbolic civil liberties issues are a million miles away from their natural electorate of authoritarian pensioners
Here’s an eg latest polling on restrictions - theres plenty more
https://twitter.com/phillipdyte/status/1470816068906237953
And yes, before you ask/share your unrepresentative anecdote, Con voters are just as supportive:
https://twitter.com/phillipdyte/status/1470818830343716865
Your daily reminder that restrictions to mitigate a pandemic have always been popular and continue to be popular
https://twitter.com/johnrentoul/status/1471119144372342784
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