The scale of the challenge facing Theresa May’s Conservatives has been laid bare, with scores of voters strongly backing radical policies in a new poll for HuffPost UK.
The Prime Minister will use the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week to freeze student fees and pump more money into the Help To Buy scheme in a bid to claw back young voters who threw their weight behind Jeremy Corbyn at the General Election.
But a BMG poll, commissioned by HuffPost UK, adds to growing evidence the electorate – including its Tory faithful - is hungry for something different, with support growing for the requisitioning of empty homes, a universal basic income (UBI) and free sanitary products for all women.
Almost half (47%) is in favour of a UBI, with age or income level having little bearing on their view. A huge chunk of Conservative supporters – 42% - backed the policy, while the figure was higher still for Labour voters (59%).
Almost a quarter of women think the Government should give out free tampons (23%), with this figure rising to 35% among 18 to 34-year-olds.
Two thirds of Conservative voters, meanwhile, think tampons should be VAT free products.
A staggering two thirds of the public (64%) say they support the idea that homes empty for more than a year should be requisitioned by the state to house homeless people. Just 15% said they oppose this idea. Almost three in five Conservative voters (59%) support the idea and three quarters of Labour supporters (74%) back it.
How can the Tories win back voters?
The Tories must become the party of the NHS to win votes from their rivals.
Most people say investing more in the NHS would make them more likely to consider voting Conservative (33%). Almost half (42%) of undecided voters said investing more in the NHS would make them more likely to vote Conservative, compared with 27% of Labour supporters and 29% of Lib Dems.
A whopping 44% of voters say that no policy changes would make them consider voting Tory. Three in five Labour supporters say that they would not consider voting Conservative (57%), compared to 41% of Lib Dems.
The Conservatives also have a mountain to climb among Remain voters, with 52% not already a Tory voter declaring no policy change would make them reconsider.