Britain’s Labour Party is backed by a pro-growth coalition

British politics is on the cusp of a generational shift. To feel it, head to Milton Keynes, a city just north of London. Chris Curtis, the Labour candidate for Milton Keynes North, is relatively young at 29. So are the locals, with an average age of 37. The city as a whole is a sprightly 57. Founded by Harold Wilson’s Labour government, it was dubbed a “Los Angeles in Buckinghamshire” for its grid-patterned roads and optimistic spirit. Sitting by the watersports lake where his parents met, Mr Curtis is evangelistic about the opportunities that post-war “new towns” granted working-class families like his. Britain, he says, should build more of them.The Labour Party’s electoral coalition is also young, to an extent remarkable in history. Britons once voted by class, but a decade ago they polarised around age. A skew to the young that started when Ed Miliband led the party (2010-15) has persisted, even as Sir Keir Starmer lifts the party’s fortunes across the board. If today’s polls were replicated at a general election, Labour would form a government with the support of 57% of voters under 24, a bigger share than any winning party since at least 1987, and possibly ever. But it would have only 30% of the over-64s, the lowest over the same period. The median Labour voter is aged 43, against 57 for the Tories, who now lag in every cohort below 65. Sir Keir boasts that Labour is the “party of working people”. In age, true enough.