The full extent of the exodus from the Labour and Conservative parties at last week’s European elections has been revealed in a shock new poll.
A survey by YouGov shows that 67% of Conservative party members backed another party and 41% of Labour party members voted for someone else.
The poll comes amid a huge row within Labour ranks after the party’s former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, was kicked out for admitting he voted Liberal Democrat in the European Parliament elections.
The party said voting for another party goes against the rules of its membership.
Of the 41% of Labour members who voted for another party, 19% backed the Greens, and a further 15% plumped for the Liberal Democrats. Another 7% voted for a different party and 10% did not vote at all.
The move away from the Conservative Party was even more devastating.
Just 19% of Conservative party members backed their own party last week and more than three times that number – 59% – voted for the Brexit Party.
Labour has faced an avalanche of criticism from its pro-EU membership over its Brexit policy.
Jeremy Corbyn’s position has been to push for a general election while keeping a second Brexit referendum as “an option on the table”.
Campbell, Tony Blair’s former communications director, revealed during an interview on LBC on Sunday that he backed the rival party over its support for a second Brexit referendum.
Labour emailed Campbell on Tuesday to tell him that his actions were “incompatible with party membership”.
Campbell, who has been a long-standing advocate for a so-called people’s vote on EU membership, tweeted that he was “sad and disappointed” by the news.
The Tories secured just 9.1% of the vote in the elections – their worst ever national election share – while Labour finished on 14.1%, with voters split between the clear Brexit alternatives offered by Nigel Farage’s new party and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats.
Just four Conservatives were elected in England, Scotland and Wales, while the Brexit Party had 29 seats, overtaking the 24 MEPs that Farage’s former party Ukip sent to the European Parliament in 2014.
The Lib Dems, reduced to just a single MEP in 2014, were on 16 after their best ever European results.
Labour had 10, halved from 20, the Greens – who also enjoyed a boost from pro-EU voters – were on seven, up from three in 2014.