‘Dear Boris, Please Don’t Privatise The NHS’: Undecided Voters In Key Marginal Back Corbyn

The group was asked to send Johnson a message for if he won the election. 

There were some heartfelt responses, including: “Please give us a realistic solution to mending the NHS that we love,” and: “Dear Boris, please do not privatise the NHS.”

Another read: “Dear Boris, get on the people’s level and show that you are for this country and not just fulfilling your dream of being prime minister.” 

Others were less forgiving, saying: “It’s a shame we have been landed with you as prime minister. Stop lying,” and: “Bring a bit more equality between us all.” 

Nicola said: “Please remember you have a whole country to lead. Please remember the poor, the ill and the old. Stop punishing the poor. Stop the children having no home.” 

There was strong evidence that Labour’s NHS message had cut through and that voters found it difficult to trust Johnson. 

Nicola said: “[Johnson] wants to privatise the NHS, much as he says he doesn’t. He has already started to do it.

“He is blatantly lying – there is already bits of it that he has put out on to tender.” 

Emma added: “People on the lower wage bracket will not be able to afford private healthcare.” 

“Boris, he lies,” said another participant, adding: “If you have five or six children, how are you going to pay for them to have medicine and care?” 

They described Johnson as “a character, and not a particularly good one,” adding he sought “what’s best for him” while the “people at the bottom of the pile have nothing”.

Asked what Johnson’s best traits were, one response was that “he’s a good liar”.

Joanne added: “All of these promises. They say they’re going to deliver on this and that. Brexit is a fine example. Absolutely nothing has happened.”

Amy was prepared to back Johnson, and said: “I would like to actually see them finish what they have started. We’re in a bit of a mess and maybe, maybe, they could finish things off.”

Others raised Labour’s policy of restoring Sure Start centres as a positive thing, but described the plan for free broadband as “a bit desperate”.

Members of the group also questioned the credibility of all of Labour’s manifesto, saying they did not think five years of a Corbyn-led government would change the country, adding that taxpayers could be hit.

‘Jeremy seems a lot more composed’  

Asked who they would vote for, the vast majority of the group said Labour, picking out childcare, and investment in education and the NHS as top reasons.  

Nicola said austerity was her reason, adding: “I’ve voted Conservative in the past. They’ve ruined too many lives and they’ve not followed through on what they said they were going to do, and really, since Brexit, the party is in disarray.” 

Another said: “Jeremy seems a lot more composed.” One woman added: “I’m unsure on [Corbyn] as a person,” but said she backed Labour “on the whole”.

“I’ve got more confidence that Labour will get things done,” added another voter.  

Ferzana picked out cutbacks, and said: “I’d like us to go back and rectify what we’ve lost already.” 

Others were undecided, however,  and said Johnson “might do something, he might surprise us”. 

Positive comments for Corbyn’s leadership were thin on the ground, however. 

Comments included “Jeremy Corbyn is not very likeable”, that he was “very guarded”, he “doesn’t come across as a strong leader” and that “with Brexit, [Labour] sat on the fence quite a bit”.

Note: the focus group participants were from social classes ‘C1/C2’, all women, vote Labour in 2017, and undecided about who to vote for in the general election.

The People’s Election is a HuffPost UK series aimed at getting beyond the politicians’ agendas for the 2019 election, trying to find out what really matters to the public.