Mind the values gap - The social and economic values of MPs, party members and voters

For all the recent attention to social values as the dividing lines between the parties, debates over the role and scope of the state can hardly be said to have disappeared and may yet come more to the fore in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. [...] By contrast, Labour people’s views on fundamental questions about the economy – and this is true of all levels of the party in the figure – are significantly more in tune with the instincts of both their voters and the general public than are those of the Conservative Party. [...] For the Conservatives, there is the same pattern on all five questions: MPs sit to the right of the rest of the party, which in turn is to the right of the voters. [...] 8 The social and economic values of MPs, party members and voters It is only on the principle of income redistribution where a large gap exists between the Labour Party and the country, with Labour members and MPs being more to the left – and this anyway is a question where there is a similar gap between the Conservatives and the country, this time on the right. [...] For Labour, there is the same pattern, but with a bigger gap between the voters and the party, and with a smaller gap between the MPs and the rest of the party.