In the aftermath of Labour’s general election defeat, a new conventional wisdom has rapidly taken hold: Labour, increasingly middle class and out of touch, has been abandoned by its traditional working class base.
This narrative is reinforced by influential academics who argue that working class support for Labour collapsed between 2010 and 2019. The claim is made forcefully in a recent paper by David Cutts, Matthew Goodwin, Oliver Heath and Paula Surridge, forthcoming in Political Quarterly, and in a presentation to the Parliamentary Labour Party by Goodwin and Heath.
A key piece of evidence presented in support of this claim is the “falling ladder” figure, which is reproduced below.
