Farage is not, in fact, popular, even with Leave voters and Tories
Well I suppose this is what they’re wargaming. A big chunk of Labour voters in the Northern Red Wall are leave voters. If they brought themselves to vote for Boris in 2019 GE and suffered the worst defeat upon Labour in a number of decades, then Labour might be worried again. I don’t think Boris was popular with Red Wall Labour voters but they voted nonetheless.
True, but Farage is both less popular (with Leave voters) and more unpopular (with everyone else) than Johnson. He has no ‘get Brexit done’ type message to unify those voters behind him. He also doesn’t have the good fortune of being up against a divisive leader like Jeremy Corbyn, who couldn’t persuade Lib Dems or even the right wing of his own party to get behind him.
There’s a reason Starmer brought Farage up at PMQs yesterday: even when Farage is not in the Conservatives, the association is damaging.
Well I suppose this is what they’re wargaming. A big chunk of Labour voters in the Northern Red Wall are leave voters. If they brought themselves to vote for Boris in 2019 GE and suffered the worst defeat upon Labour in a number of decades, then Labour might be worried again. I don’t think Boris was popular with Red Wall Labour voters but they voted nonetheless.
True, but Farage is both less popular (with Leave voters) and more unpopular (with everyone else) than Johnson. He has no ‘get Brexit done’ type message to unify those voters behind him. He also doesn’t have the good fortune of being up against a divisive leader like Jeremy Corbyn, who couldn’t persuade Lib Dems or even the right wing of his own party to get behind him.
There’s a reason Starmer brought Farage up at PMQs yesterday: even when Farage is not in the Conservatives, the association is damaging.