In a couple of recent posts I have touched on the topic of election turnouts and what they mean for Labour in terms of planning campaigns. I am a lifetime 'under the radar' campaigner; someone who likes to fight elections slowly and over a long period of time and in the process identifying Labour's core vote. Low turnouts are to Labour's advantage and always have been. The House of Commons Library has lots of reports on the topic, including one on the 2019 General Election turnouts(follow this link to find it).
Here is a table from the report which should be of interest (click on tables to enlarge):
The table below is from the Library's 2017 report:
Finally, two tables tracing turnout in the last six general elections in Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. I have collated the data for Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Birmingham. Seats with high turnouts (Broxtowe and Sherwood) were the first to go and the only three seats Labour continues to hold are low turnout Nottingham seats and this pattern is replicated across the other counties as well. Staffordshire is included because I have friends in the county. These facts should influence how Labour organises and campaigns, but I see no evidence that it does. Here are the tables (again' click on images to enlarge):
I will leave it, as there is plenty to think about. In all the talk about Labour and Keir Starmer developing policies and a strategy the importance of election turnouts is the elephant sitting in the corner unnoticed.
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