Where is the Left? A look into British “Gen-Z Socialism”
Half of Gen-Z voters who identify as left-wing would vote for the Greens
The economic beliefs of Gen-Z socialism are as prevalent among Gen-Z Left as among the older Left
Gen-Z Left is also relatively more economically right-wing and socially liberal than their more senior counterparts
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The Left is splintering. Nowhere was this made more apparent than the May local elections, where Labour lost 10 councils to the Greens including former Labour strongholds. So concerned by this collapse in popularity that this split even catalysed the downfall of Keir Starmer, and parted the seas for Andy Burnham to return to Westminster.
Indeed, in our poll of 2,000 UK adults (17-21 Jun 2026), we find that 19% of the public would vote for Labour and 12% for the Greens if there was an election tomorrow. As many as 12% of former 2024 Labour voters say they would vote for the Greens.
Our latest MRP (13 July 2026) below shows that the Greens would only win 11 constituencies in a showdown. Having said that, precisely because both the Greens and Labour draw from a similar ideological pool of voters, the Greens need only gain 9% more votes to displace Labour (click to see chart on right). It is no wonder the party in power is so worried about Zack Polanski.
The Economist explains that this fracturing is caused, in part, by the rise of a new form of socialism – Gen-Z Socialism – a principally “me-first” doctrine that calls for “price controls, hefty wealth taxes and a spree of nationalisations” to alleviate the problems of today. In the UK, we can see this in Zack Polanski’s proposals on how to fix Britain, and the Green Party’s growing popularity among young voters.
Indeed, both the young and old of the Left diverge sharply in which party they would vote for in a general election. As many as half of Gen-Z voters who identify as left-wing would vote for the Greens and only 19% for Labour, compared to 20% and 35% respectively for the older Left. Deeply troubling this is for Labour, as it could lose even more seats to the Greens if the voting age is lowered, or even simply through the natural passage of time.
And, if a general election was called tomorrow, which party would you vote for?
Source: Public First, online nationally representative survey (GB), 17–21 June 2026, n=2,003.
THREE CORE BELIEFS
The real question presented before us is whether Labour can win back the Gen-Z Left. For the Economist, the wedge is beliefs about economic policy. If this is true, and Gen-Z socialists hold systematically different preferences from the older Left, then winning back this generation of voters would require a full-scale revamp of economic policy; something that could potentially alienate other key voter groups. Alternatively, if preferences differ little, then it may suggest that the answer lies elsewhere, whether it be in social policy (e.g., Israel and Palestine) or messaging.
Helpfully, the Economist has already outlined the tenets of Gen-Z socialism for us. The first is as follows:
Claim #1: First, that growth does little to help ordinary people. Theirs is a zero-sum mindset, where a better outcome comes not from creating but from taking—as they fear AI barons will soon do on a vast scale.
To test this claim, we directly examined whether the public shares this belief. Quite quickly we can see that the proportion who do not think growth helps everybody is quite consistent across groups, with the exception of the Conservatives. More than half (54%) of the Gen-Z Left say that economic growth helps some or a small number of people; fairly unsurprising given that they are likely highly cynical of trickle-down economics. Yet, what is rather eye-opening is that among Reform UK voters, this figure is 52%, and this rises to 62% among the older Left.
It appears that Gen-Z socialists are no different from the wider public and the populist-right in their scepticism towards economic growth. So what about their attitudes towards taxes?
To what extent do you believe economic growth helps people?
Source: Public First, online nationally representative survey (GB), 17–21 June 2026, n=2,003.
Claim #2: Second, that spending can be paid for by the richest. Once the left wanted higher taxes for everyone; Gen-Z socialists demand handouts funded by billionaires.
For the second claim, we polled the public about taxes on everyone and the rich separately. Looking at the chart below, we see once more left-wing Gen-Z does not appear to stand out. 78% are supportive of taxes on the rich to redistribute income, and 48% similarly so for taxes on everyone for the same end. But among the older Left, the proportion supporting is 86% and 44% respectively. Interestingly, no substantial differences emerge between Green and Labour voters, even given that taxing the rich is more a policy of the Greens than Labour.
It thus seems that preferences for taxation policy do not differ between our key left-wing demographic groups.
Claim #3: The third tenet is a remarkable hostility to private enterprise. Gen-Z socialists are uninterested in letting the market rip and redistributing the proceeds. They would have chunks of everyday life, from housing to groceries, governed by state diktat.
Now for the third claim – what does the Left think about the government’s role in markets and the economy? As we can see from the chart below, yet again, we find that the Gen-Z Left are not unique in their views towards government control over markets and the economy. A majority approve of increased government control over private enterprise (60%), government role in directing the economy (65%), and ownership over key infrastructure (74%). Nevertheless, and just like earlier, this level of support is quite similar among the older Left as well: 55%, 65%, and 80% for each of the previous policies respectively. Perhaps most interestingly, support for greater government involvement in the economy is higher among Labour voters (75%) than Green voters (59%).
So what our data shows us is that The Economist isn’t wrong, in fact we can see that the principles of “Gen-Z socialism” are generally popular among the Left. But what it also demonstrates is that these are not the policies or beliefs that are dividing the left-wing young from the old, nor Green voters from Labour voters. This is not to suggest that Gen-Z socialism does not exist at the elite level – in the debates between the Greens and Labour – but that this distinction does not manifest itself on the public level.
To what extent would you approve the following government policies?
Source: Public First, online nationally representative survey (GB), 17–21 June 2026, n=2,003.
WHERE NOW?
If you measure where on an ideological continuum Gen-Z Left place themselves, we find in the chart below that they sit further to the right than their older left-wing counterparts and are also more culturally liberal, though Gen-Z in general is more liberal than older generations. Interestingly, the older Left are ideologically closer to Green voters on both economic and social dimensions, than Labour voters who neighbour the average British voter.
This does not directly tell us why Gen-Z socialists are voting for the Greens over Labour, but provides some preliminary evidence that suggests that their value system is different from the rest of the Left.
Unfortunately, this leaves us with more questions than answers. Just what exactly defines Gen-Z socialism? Could it be that the Left is split on social policy rather than economic policy (e.g., Gaza and Israel, colonialism)? Or could it be driven by perceived competence to govern and deliver a left-wing agenda? Or, in fact, does it just come down to communication: something unique in the Polanski messaging that is able to capture the support of this demographic far better than Labour can?
While there is much more research to be done, Labour can breathe a (small) sigh of relief knowing that winning over the Gen-Z Left will probably not demand a radical overhaul of economic policy, at least with regards to broad principles of taxation and government involvement in the economy. Instead, social policy and communication strategy would be good places to consider rethinking, if Labour fully intends to win back Gen-Z ahead of the next general election.
The ideological continuum chart is created using the left–right and libertarian–authoritarian question batteries asked in the British Social Attitudes survey. We also found that based on these questions most of the public (including Conservative/Reform voters) lean towards the Left of the scale, which is consistent with some recent research into the Leftward shift of public sentiment. See here and here. As our poll was of UK adults, our Gen-Z sample only comprises adults aged 18–29, though the Gen-Z we did not poll here would not be eligible to vote. Left-wing is defined as those who placed themselves between 0 and 4 on the following 11-point scale question: “In politics, people sometimes talk of left and right. Where would you place yourself on the following scale?”
