Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Special offer: Receive 12 issues for just £12!
Subscribe today
Politics

Carol Vorderman on voting Tory in 2010 – and regretting it: 'I hadn't got a clue what was coming'

Vorderman talks ‘leading the opposition’ against the Tories over the summer – and how she intends to oppose Labour, too

Image: Dan Kennedy

Carol Vorderman had one mission in the summer of 2024: reducing the Tory party to rubble.

The Countdown legend turned political pundit spearheaded a prominent tactical voting campaign that proved highly effective – with Labour and the Liberal Democrats sniping the safest of Conservative seats, resulting in the party’s worst defeat in its history. Vorderman cackled with delight live on Channel 4 as the exit poll lay bare the worst nightmares of Conservatives up and down the country.

But for someone so vocally pursuing Tory defeat, it may surprise people to know that Vorderman voted for the party in the past – most recently for David Cameron’s government in 2010, as she reveals exclusively in this week’s Big Issue.

“There was this murkiness [to Labour in 2010],” she reflects. “We’d had MPs expenses, the honours scandal – do you remember when Tony Blair was interviewed by the police?

“Obviously I hadn’t got a clue what was coming, did I? I mean, I had no idea what David Cameron would be introducing a matter of months later. But that was probably it. It was a bit like a load of people loaned their vote to Labour this time, because half of them were just pissed off at the Tories. So I think it was a similar thing to that.”

Vorderman’s loud support for Labour in recent years hasn’t gone unnoticed, but she’s not eyeing up a place inside government now Keir Starmer has the keys to No 10. “I have spoken to many of them over the years, got actively involved in some of the issues. I have met a number of them, it would be wrong to say anything was offered. 

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

“I have made it abundantly clear I don’t want to be offered anything. The answer would always be no, because I want to do things from the outside. I want to remain independent, and like having a voice and being able to criticise the current government as well.” 

Despite her determination to challenge the government of the day, Carol Vorderman wishes them well. “I hope Labour do well. I hope to god they do well, because otherwise you’re looking in the potential of hell in five years time. You worry about rights now, and corruption now?

“I don’t want my daughter and eventual grandchildren, or nieces and nephews, or great nieces and great nephews and all that, to live through a terrible time. That’s why 2029 is critically important for all of us. I want mandatory voting for that reason, whether people are homeless, not homeless. Because everyone should vote.”

For Carol Vorderman, it was ex-home secretary Suella Braverman’s description of homelessness as a “lifestyle choice” that set a flame under her that still burns brightly today. “The contempt that the government felt for the public. I still can’t get over it, and I won’t get over it. Because now I’m hugely focused on the next election, which will come in the blink of an eye. I’ll be knocking 70 then, but believe me the energy will still be there.”

Would she ever vote for the Tories again? “I can’t see it in my lifetime,” she says.

Read the full interview with Carol Vorderman in this week’s Big Issue, out now. Find your local vendor to buy a copy, or subscribe to get the Big Issue straight to your door.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us moreBig Issue exists to give homeless and marginalised people the opportunity to earn an income. To support our work buy a copy of the magazine or get the app from the App Store or Google Play.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

View all
He’ll ‘never be prime minister’, but how will Zack Polanski’s Green Party victory change UK politics?
Zack Polanski
Politics

He’ll ‘never be prime minister’, but how will Zack Polanski’s Green Party victory change UK politics?

Asylum seekers can stay at Epping hotel after government overturns court ruling
Epping asylum hotel protesters
Asylum hotels

Asylum seekers can stay at Epping hotel after government overturns court ruling

Nigel Farage's mass deportation plan would make life worse for every single Brit
Nigel Farage

Nigel Farage's mass deportation plan would make life worse for every single Brit

What the Epping asylum seeker hotel ruling means for Britain
Asylum hotels

What the Epping asylum seeker hotel ruling means for Britain

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue