Focus on NHS and cost of living or lose former Tory voters, Labour told

Keir Starmer on the campaign trail in May. The report found it was a desire for change in ‘Middle Britain’ that mattered most in the election. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Keir Starmer won the election because of a ruthless focus on winning over people who voted Conservative in 2019, but the party has been left with a “fragile coalition” of supporters who will abandon it if it fails to deal with the cost of living crisis and the NHS, a thinktank has said.

In a report by Labour Together, an influential Starmerite thinktank, researchers concluded voters had “cautiously hired” the prime minister “on a trial basis”, and he was “liable to prompt dismissal” if his government deviated even slightly from focusing on voters’ priorities.