You hear it every time the Conservatives or Labour lose a swath of seats. Whether farmers, ex-miners or even Scots, the accusation is always the same: the party took the voters for granted. The fact that this is often true misses a quite fundamental point about politics. Parties ought to take voters for granted. Or at least some voters. They would be mad not to.
Labour did it to Remainers in 2017 and consequently almost won the general election. This was made possible by Remain voters happily supporting a party led by a dyed-in-the-wool Eurosceptic who explicitly stated that the referendum result must be respected. Thanks to their insouciance, Labour was able to turn that campaign into one about public services, thereby keeping its coalition together.
