Rebuilding the Rural Vote

The Conservative Party’s collapse in rural Britain during the 2024 General Election marked a historic political shift, but it is not irreversible. Conservatives Together has produced this report to begin the urgent task of rebuilding the Party’s presence and operations across rural constituencies. Whilst policy evolution will play a vital role, key failures in 2024 were both ideological and organisational.

The 2024 General Election marked the most significant erosion of Conservative support in rural Britain for a generation. A swing of over 14.5% from the Conservatives to Labour in rural seats – 3% greater than the national average shattered the long-standing belief that rural constituencies are inherently safe for the Party. The result was not simply a rejection of policy; it was a rejection of complacency.

At the centre of this report is a detailed analysis of 130 rural constituencies identified using a rigorous population density-based methodology. These are the seats where campaigning becomes significantly harder due to dispersed settlement patterns and limited infrastructure. Of these, 70 have been identified as critical to Conservative success at the next election, collectively representing 11% of the UK electorate.

Download the report here:

CTog Rural Report.pdf

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