After a month-and-a-half of electioneering, C+D’s sixth and final election sentiment tracker closed as the real-life polls opened this morning (July 4).
As with each previous iteration of our 2024 election tracker, the Labour Party came out on top, securing 36% of the 261 responses to our three-day LinkedIn poll, the same share as last week.
Read more: It's Election Day - so what's coming next for pharmacy and politics?
Just three percentage points behind Labour were “other” political parties, which secured 33% of responses again this week.
And it was the Conservative Party that brought up the rear again, supported by 14% of C+D’s readers, as undecided voters accounted for 16% of respondents.
Over the last six weeks, C+D’s election sentiment polls have received a total of 1,780 responses, averaging 297 responses each week.
Over the weeks, Labour’s mighty lead dwindled from 43% to settle at 36%, with an average of 39% support.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives saw their support bounce between lows of 9% and highs of 14%, with an average of 12% support among respondents over the weeks of polling.
Other political parties won more and more support as the weeks went on, from 16% on week one to 33% this week. The average support for “other” parties over the six weeks of election tracking was 25%.
Read more: Political Pills: What awaits the new pharmacy minister?
C+D’s special poll of support for “other” parties, revealed on June 24, showed a largely even split between the Liberal Democrats, Green and Reform - each accounting for about 30% of votes - while SNP and Plaid Cymru were supported by roughly one in ten “other” party supporters.
And a reminder that in 2015 - before the funding cuts were revealed - 45% of C+D’s readers supported the Conservatives, 29% supported Labour and 26% supported other parties.
Voting season
For the 16% of C+D readers who are still undecided but plan to vote today, here’s a run-down of C+D’s coverage on the pharmacy lines in each major political party’s manifesto:
- The Tories promised more Pharmacy First
- Labour pledged more prescribing power
- The Lib Dems said funding would be fairer
- Greens offered to provide PrEP in pharmacies
- Reform trumpeted “tax incentives”
- And Plaid Cymru said it would reform the medicines supply chain
C+D published an exclusive opinion piece from Rishi Sunak on June 18, in which the Prime Minister claimed that “Labour has no plan” for community pharmacy.
Read more: Xrayser: We’re at risk of not spending £645m investment
But in a rebuttal on June 28, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said that Sunak had “left the sector to rot” as he outlined a proposal to increase pharmacy’s role in primary care.
Whichever way the UK votes today, we will have a new minister in charge of the sector. Former pharmacy minister and health committee chair Steve Brine mapped out what the person in the hot seat could expect to face in the first weeks on the job.
With the results expected tomorrow morning, let us know what you think on social media or at CDnewsdesk@norstella.com
