Who should the lonely dwellers of the socially right, economically left political quadrant vote for in Britain 2024?

They are culturally and socially conservative and economically egalitarian

They are a self-consciously strange tribe. They go by many names. They borrow the titles of political parties who do not represent them, append an adjective, and call it an identity: blue Labour, red tory, old Labour, high tory. They are culturally and socially conservative and economically egalitarian. They blend left and right. And many of them have no idea who to vote for. 

The other day, I took one of those political compass quizzes. It plotted not only me, but many of the parties on this year’s political menu. There were Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens in the socially and economically left quadrant. There were the Conservatives and Reform in the socially and economically right quadrant. And there was me, billy no mates, socially right and economically left. The lonely quadrant.

But not that lonely. I posted my results into my social media echo chamber, and was surprised to find I was very much not alone. Many were similarly positioned, yet baffled over where to place their lonely quadrant cross when they reach the ballot box on Thursday. Yet others were far more certain, confident they had found the party to carry their left/right convictions into Parliament.

Neither the Tories nor Labour are prominent in the responses. Overwhelmingly, three parties were proposed: SDP, Reform and George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain.

So who is right? Who owns the lonely quadrant and can lay claim to its voters? The SDP is perhaps the obvious answer. Their delightful party political broadcast, a sort of amateur Little Britain gone door knocking, highlighted their right wing attack on Labour and their left wing retort to the Tories. Therein, a bewildered resident of the lonely quadrant tells her Conservative candidate she wants affordable homes and nationalised utilities and is condemned as far-right by her Labour candidate for opposing open borders. The Lib Dems, cheekily, are “Winning Here” but not actually present.

Theirs is the most obvious pitch for the socially right, economically left voter. But Reform? Worker’s Party of Britain? These are parties of the hard right and the hard left, surely? As Freddie Sayers put it to me on X, Farage is “a Thatcherite who wants to cut inheritance tax and rethink NHS funding from scratch.” Yet when I polled fellow lonely quadrant dwellers (I won’t be showing my tables), 49 per cent opted for Reform UK.

Culturally, we have learned during this campaign that Reform sits somewhere to the right of the average Question Time audience. Economically, it was the open-minded and insightful left-wing commentator Aaron Bastani who best summarised the pro-worker appeal of Farage and co. Contra Sayers, Bastani writes that this new Faragist iteration has ditched the Thatcherite re-enactment society in favour of “welfarist nationalism”. Their tax plans are not just pro-business, they are pro-small business. They have a plan to eliminate student debt for NHS medical staff, front load child benefits to allow parents to stay at home with their young children and partially nationalise utilities. 

Where Reform advance the importance of national unity and British values, what makes the Worker’s Party a lonely quadrant candidate is that most politically verboten subject: religion. The social conservative is not the most obvious friend of the pro-Palestine campaign, which is at the heart of George Galloway’s radical platform. Yet a good many of the politically homeless are religious, and many lonely quadrant dwellers would recognise themselves in Dr Rakib Ehsan’s description of “economically left leaning religious social conservatives” (although I prefer the catchier acronym ELLRSCs even if I haven’t worked out how to say it out loud). 

Galloway is not “left-leaning”, he is left-leaping. He is a classic radical firebrand; on foreign affairs and the economy you couldn’t get a fag paper between him and Jeremy Corbyn. His Workers’ Party is proudly socialist. They want to raise the tax free allowance, lower the retirement age to 60, expand council housing, scrap Britain’s nuclear arsenal and withdraw from NATO. Yet Galloway and his party are widely motivated by deeply conservative religion. A good number of the Workers’ Party candidates are practicing Muslims, while Galloway himself is Catholic. 

When I asked him about his faith and his politics, he replied plainly: “I am a member of the One Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is why I fight the money-changers, the Pharisees, the Roman Occupation.” He recently met the Pope and asked for prayers for both Rochdale and the unborn. He upset the aforementioned Aaron Bastani with his conservative views on abortion,  gender and LGBTQ issues. He told Tim Stanley that Corbyn would be appalled at the Workers’ Party’s “culture war conservatism” and that like all our lonely quadrant candidates, he too rejects mass immigration.

Can either Galloway or Farage genuinely claim the lonely quadrant crown? Unsurprisingly their SDP opposite number William Clouston says not.

“Given the fondness for Thatcherism among its leaders and its members, it’s clear that Reform UK cannot occupy the post liberal quadrant,” he told me. “George Galloway’s Worker’s Party comes closer but its focus on Middle East politics is niche and narrows its appeal. Only the SDP has the capacity to represent what David Goodhart calls this ‘hidden majority.’”

The next five years will be decisive for the lonely quadrant voter

Those are fair challenges. The Workers’ Party emphasis on radical foreign policy does feel limiting, but Galloway’s religious conservatism is clearly heartfelt. Can the same be said of Reform’s appeal to the economic left? Or are we just witnessing a populist in pursuit of their audience? A revolutionary spying the crowd and crying “there go my people, I must find where they are heading so I may lead them!” Only time will tell. Galloway may win Rochdale, the polls suggest he will, and go on to build an Old Labour party of the socially conservative left. Reform may grow their tent to enfold their true blue ukipper base and their new red wall constituency. Or the SDP, perhaps the only party to have consciously rebuilt its foundations in the lonely quadrant, will push on and return as a force in British politics. 

For now, many economically left and socially right voters will find few of these options on their ballot. Perhaps in 2029, they might find all three. Across Europe, culturally conservative parties are embracing state power; perhaps even the big old beasts of Labour and the Tories might make a play for this political terrain. The next five years will be decisive for the lonely quadrant voter.