As many as 15% of British voters are still undecided about who to vote for. How they make up their minds will have seismic consequences for the UK’s political future – so the Guardian has spoken to a range of undecided voters from across the country. In the first in this series, we hear how they are grappling with their decision, and how they’re responding to the campaign so far.
‘I can’t imagine ever voting Tory again’: Barry Long, 63, school caretaker, Hove
For most of my life, I’ve been a Conservative voter. My views most closely align with a centre-right party, but I simply no longer recognise today’s Tory party. The party has behaved disgracefully in recent years: it is now abundantly clear there is one set of rules for them, and another for the rest of us. The way they have criminalised legitimate protest in this country is disgusting. And to my mind, Conservative ministers are not fit to tie their own shoelaces, let alone run the country.
Never is a long time, but I can’t imagine ever voting Tory again – not unless they have a complete change of mindset. But where my vote will now go is another question. I can’t see myself turning red. I see Keir Starmer as a bit useless. He’s another yes man who seems to go whichever way the wind is blowing. I’m what you might call an ecowarrior – the environment is very important to me – and I was dreadfully disappointed by Labour scaling back its £28bn green pledge.
The Lib Dems should be my natural home, but who even is Ed Davey? I know nothing about his policies – the only thing I know about him is he’s not very good at paddleboarding. The Green party is looking appealing, although in a two-horse race nationally, it feels a shame to “waste” my vote. I wasn’t in favour of the Greens in my local elections – they were anti-car and I drive for work. But compromises are going to have to be made to tackle climate change.
As told to Lucy Pasha-Robinson
‘I don’t think I could support any party that said they’d raise taxes’: Rifat Mirza, 51, childminder, Galashiels, Scottish Borders
In 2019, I voted for the SNP. I liked Nicola Sturgeon, I thought she handled the Covid pandemic admirably and she was a safe pair of hands. Now I’m not sure where my vote will go. I’m not a very political person. I know in England a lot of people will be voting Labour. But I’m going to wait and see before I commit my vote to a party.
What I want is real change. The cost of living has been punishing here. I’m a childminder who looks after children under the age of three from my home. The costs of operating have gone through the roof, from food prices to heating bills to home maintenance. But there is no government help for people like me working in early years.
I’ve been doing my food shopping at Aldi, trying to budget as best I can. Healthy food has got so expensive, so I buy it reduced now. Junk food is cheap and always on offer, but not the healthy stuff. I can’t afford to go on holiday. I’m married with three grownup children and used to take two weeks off every year to spend time with family. But I don’t think I’ll be able to have a break this summer. I also worry about how my kids will be able to get on the housing ladder and hold down a mortgage in this economy.
The NHS in Scotland functions well, but we still have high waiting lists – people are just not being seen as quickly as they should, which needs to change. My husband had to go abroad for an operation after waiting for two years. But I’m not so worried about funding for public services here, because Scotland feels more sheltered than the rest of the UK.
I suppose I will choose between SNP and Labour. But none of the main parties are really speaking to me yet. People are not happy with this government, myself included. What is there to be happy about? Tax, immigration? I do feel taxes on working people are too high; we should be able to keep more of what we earn. I don’t think I could support any party that said they would raise taxes.
As told to Lucy Pasha-Robinson
‘There’s a lack of accountability in safe seats’: Alice Brown, 36, financial management, Liverpool
I live in a safe Labour seat, so it’s unlikely my vote will matter. Without any proper competition, the local Labour party has become embedded in factional politics at the expense of local people.
On a national level, while I like Keir Starmer, I’ve become concerned about his lack of commitment to the climate crisis and his weakness on Gaza. I expected a human rights lawyer to have more backbone.
In recent years, the government had to intervene at Liverpool city council by sending in civil servants from London to show them how to efficiently run a council. There seems to be a distinct a lack of accountability in areas that are “safe” seats. If I vote for a party that isn’t Labour, maybe it’ll give them a nudge to remember that Liverpool deserves better.
The watering down of climate policies is worrying – as someone who works in financial services, you only have to follow the money to understand how serious this is. Most investment decisions are now based on climate modelling to protect long-term returns. I can’t understand how it isn’t being given higher priority.
I used to think Labour would be the party of change and action, but in my experience it hasn’t been the case. I won’t be voting for the Conservatives or the Reform party as I’m ideologically opposed to both, which leaves a choice between the Greens or the Lib Dems. My current thinking is that a vote for the Greens is the best form of protest as they outperform the Lib Dems in my constituency.
‘People are voting to avoid the Tories, not to support Labour’: Anthony Cusack, 37, health service management, Cardiff
I am a married father of two, and I’ve always voted for leftwing parties – my voting record has been a combination of Labour, Green and Plaid Cymru. I’ve worked as a physio for the NHS for most of my career and have recently moved into management.
The lack of a representative system in this country makes this election so difficult. So many people seem to be voting to avoid the Tories rather than to support Labour. Nationally, the campaigning feels very much like a victory parade for Starmer. It feels as if Ed Davey is trying to channel a ziplining Boris Johnson circa 2012, and Rishi Sunak is on his own.
Disappointingly, there has been very little local campaigning in Cardiff North. I saw Labour canvassing during the school run but nothing else. For me, the big issues are public sector funding, devolution and, internationally, a party’s position on Gaza, the environment and the electoral system. I’m still undecided because I feel as if I’d only be voting to make sure the Tories don’t win, but that feels like a foregone conclusion.
I’m apprehensive about Labour. How supportive is it going to be of the Welsh administration? Wales suffers from obscure funding rules that don’t affect Scotland and Northern Ireland in the same way, HS2 being the prime example. I’m also still not convinced over its position on Gaza. There are positive noises about the authority of the international criminal court but this doesn’t feel firm enough. I’d like to hear it come down more firmly in opposition to Netanyahu.
Labour’s stance on elections has always concerned me. Its staunch opposition to electoral pacts on grounds of fairness to voters while opposing proportional representation feels contradictory. Ynys Môn is an excellent example, where a refusal to work with other leftwing parties has resulted in a predominantly leftwing constituency being represented by a Tory.
The Greens and Plaid make some good noises, and have previously allied in Cardiff. I’m not sold on full independence for Wales, although it doesn’t look like Plaid will be contesting Cardiff North. I have voted Plaid at every Senedd election since I’ve moved here, and voted Green in 2015 because of their pro-EU and environmental stance. So for me it seems to be a two-horse race: Labour or Green.
‘The issue I care about has been ignored by Sunak and Starmer’: Mary Isokariari, 40s, media, London
My voting pattern has changed over the years. At times, I’ve voted tactically to kick the main party out. Last time I voted for the Liberal Democrats but this time I don’t know where my vote will go.
I’m one of the millions of people caught up in the cladding scandal after the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It’s been nearly four years since my neighbours and I started fighting to get an ESW1 (fire safety report) carried out on our building to determine whether the cladding is combustible and if any remedial work is required. As a result, I haven’t been able to remortgage with another lender and have had to accept paying a much higher interest rate.
The Conservatives haven’t done anything to help people like me who are trapped in this situation. Rising service charges, combined with high insurance costs for buildings with cladding and increasing rents for shared owners, are financially crippling leaseholders. Property management companies are getting away with providing shoddy services.
I haven’t seen any campaigning in my area yet, but it will be interesting to see what the political parties include in their manifestos. The building safety crisis has been sidelined for so long, and I want to see this treated as a priority, but this was ignored by Sunak and Starmer in their ITV debate on Tuesday.
Ultimately, I’ve lost faith in Labour and the Conservatives, who both seem to be repeatedly getting it wrong. Sunak is out of touch and does not understand the struggles of ordinary people. In the cost of living crisis, people are struggling. The NHS is severely underresourced and under pressure.
Starmer’s stance towards the war in Gaza has resulted in a huge loss of support for Labour. His comments on Israel having the right to defend itself were shocking to me. He denounced the actions of Hamas but not the actions of Israel in Palestine. In addition, the recent treatment of Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen has caused several councillors to resign from the party. I don’t understand what Starmer is doing – he must know that all this could influence people to vote for other parties.
‘The Greens should be my natural home, but I can’t vote for them’: Jennie Brown, 56, retired, Perth
During my working life, I have been a youth worker, a community worker, a further education lecturer, a lawyer and a carer, setting up my own agency to ensure my mother, who had dementia, received decent care. All of the above has informed what I am looking for from our next government.
At the moment, I despair. I am unsure where to go with my vote. I have never voted Conservative and am unlikely to do so at the moment, given the experience of the past 14 years and their proposals for the future. In the past, I have been a Labour voter, but I don’t trust their rightward drift and political infighting.
In Scotland, there is also the independence debate to take into account. At the last election I voted SNP, as I felt it had a better perspective on the issues facing people here. I have, however, been sorely disappointed in its performance and its responses to issues related to poverty, health, education and discussions around women’s rights and gender – quite apart from the internal mudslinging.
The Green party could and should be my natural home with their focus on the climate catastrophe, but their stance on sex and gender, as well as a general lack of professionalism, means, that I cannot vote for them. The Liberal Democrats lost my trust when they went into coalition with the Tories and betrayed young people by hiking up tuition fees.
Realistically, I am somewhat stuck. I want to vote for a party that prioritises caring for those with less; that recognises that certain groups in society get a worse deal, so the focus must be on creating opportunities for change; that understands the climate catastrophe is now upon us and needs urgent action; and a leader who has the strength and concern to stand up and be counted when atrocities are committed, wherever they are. Certainly, the two main parties do not meet these requirements, and yet one of them will form the next government. Therefore, I have to focus locally on the people who are looking for my vote and ask what their positions are on all of the above.
So far I have had one leaflet through the door. I have been looking for any hustings in my area so that I can put my questions to candidates. I have found nothing. I have, however, written to potential candidates and will attend any meetings advertised. In this area, the vote is realistically between the SNP and the Liberal Democrats, so I await their responses – and will continue to monitor the national positions, too.
‘Labour won’t talk about the climate’: Ian Birch, 65, retired IT professional, Cheshire
I’m a tactical voter, in the past swinging between the Liberal Democrats and Labour. In 2019, I voted for the Lib Dems, who are more in line with my views. This time round, Labour seems to feel it has to talk about not spending money in order to get elected, which I understand – but it is not pushing what it is going to do. It won’t talk about the climate. And so I can’t give it my vote.
Since 2018, I’ve felt the climate crisis is the single most important thing we need to work on as a country, but I don’t see any of the major parties saying very much about it at all. The Tories are pretty much climate-deniers at this stage – they seem to deliberately be doing things that make things worse. There’s a great story there that Labour could be telling on the opportunities for taking a green transition seriously. It needs to acknowledge that the faster and harder we get going on this, the better. The Lib Dems have good climate policies if you seek them, out but not as good as the Greens. But it’s hard to find information about other parties.
I’m a fairly well-off pensioner, so I’m not bothered about policies aimed at my generation. But I’d support a means-tested tax break for pensioners.
The Conservatives are very hard-hearted. It’s all well and good to be economy-focused and think that growth drives everything, but it clearly doesn’t trickle down and they have no answer to that. The idea that everyone who is struggling financially is lazy is both morally and factually wrong.
I’m torn. I don’t think the country can handle another Tory government, so I know ultimately I’ll have to vote to get them out. But if I had to vote today, I don’t know what I’d do. The constituency I live in is pretty solidly Labour, so I might vote Green.
As told to Lucy Pasha-Robinson