What are the major obstacles?

At a local level, Independent politicians have been electorally very successful in recent years. A high proportion of the directly elected mayors, and around 10% of all councillors are Independent (approximately 2,100 of them).

That success has not been emulated on the national stage. There have been only a handful of MPs elected as Independents since the Second World War, which has made it something of a self-fulfilling prophecy that Independents don’t stand a chance except in exceptional circumstances.

The Jury Team commissioned a poll from the online pollster YouGov back in late January, to try and understand the attitudes of the electorate to Independent candidates and political parties. The fieldwork took place 30th Jan - 2nd Feb, and 2,161 adults were included in the sample (weighted).

Their first question was designed to assess whether the dissatisfaction with partisan/selfish politics was as broad as we suspected.

When acting in a political capacity which ONE of the following BEST describes whose interests you think politicians generally put first?
Their own: 42%
Their party’s: 44%
The country’s: 8%
Their constituents’: 5%

They also asked if people agreed with the following statement: “I would consider voting for an Independent candidate if they stood a reasonably good chance of being elected”

Strongly agree: 17%
Agree: 38%
Neither agree or disagree: 21%
Disagree: 13%
Strongly disagree: 6%
Don’t Know: 6%

When asked why people hadn’t voted for Independent candidates in the past, the main reason was that people didn’t think they stood a chance. This is a fair observation, which is why the Jury Team was launched - to give Independents support in running their campaigns, as party’s do, but without expecting the loyalty to the party whip if they get elected. This question showed that if the Jury Team could find a way to make Independent candidates viable, that very many people would be prepared to elect them.

One of the other questions asked was whether people liked the idea of being able to demand a referendum, if say a million people signed a petition demanding one. Consistent with previous results for this question, 70% thought it was a good idea, against 15% who said a bad idea (7% Neither, 8 Don’t Know).

I think that there is a groundswell of disillusionment concerning what people think of their politicians, and who they think they are really representing. This problem of accountability needs addressing.

I believe there is an appetite for more direct democracy in the UK - for the public to be able to call Referendums would stop politicians from being able to ignore the views of the people they represent.

There is clearly still a place for political parties, and they continue to hold the support of a sizeable minority of the population. But there are clearly a large number of people who want viable Independent candidates. I think democracy demands that their desire for Independent representation is catered for at election time.