Rishi Sunak struggling to maintain voter coalition that delivered 2019 victory, according to Sky News voter panel

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1 year ago

February 27, 2024

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Rishi Sunak is failing to hold together the voting coalition that delivered Boris Johnson a decisive victory in the 2019 general election, according to The Voters Panel on Sky News – launched today.

A profound unhappiness with the state of the country and exhaustion at years of Tory chaos means 2019 Tory voters will flock to at least four rival parties or stay at home at the next election.

Some describe themselves as swing voters, while others say they have backed the Tories all their lives, and this is the group Conservative headquarters and campaign chief Isaac Levido believes is key to the next election.

We found just over a fifth of Tory voters will switch directly to Labour and there is a grasp of what Labour stands for among participants in The Voters Panel, the Sky News-YouGov digital community group launched today reveals.

However, the depth of despair in the governing party means the relationship between the party and many voters has shattered and they are looking for a new home.

For the next two weeks, including through the budget next Wednesday, Sky News will be regularly interrogating The Voters Panel – an online group of at least 33 people from all corners of Great Britain.

Of the 33 submitting answers so far, nine say they will likely stick with the Conservatives, seven will go to Labour, five to Reform, two to the Lib Dems and one to Green.

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Eight say they aren’t sure, although three of these rule out voting Conservative. This echoes the latest polls.

The last YouGov voting poll suggested of those who voted Tory in 2019, 33% would stick with the party, 20% would switch to Reform, 13% to Labour, 3% to Lib Dem and 1% would go to the Green Party.

Some 29% say they don’t know or would not vote. This suggests that The Voters Panel looks very reflective of the national picture and will be used in the coming days to dig much deeper into voters’ views.

The headlines, drawn from dozens of videos and written exercises by the panel of 2019 Tory voters since Friday, include:

• A despair at the state of public services. Katrin, who will vote anyone but Tory next time, says schools are “struggling”, the NHS is “underfunded” and needs a cash injection and the economy is “failing”.

Helen, who is unsure where to take her vote now, says: “I am quite worried about the state of the country at the moment. It’s not just me that I need to think about, I’ve also got two young children.”

Michael, who will stick with the Tories, says: “The government doesn’t seem willing to back down to the doctors to give them a decent pay rise.”

• Concern about the cost of living isn’t matched by demands for tax cuts. Several of The Voters Panel have brought up the cost of living, and the pressures this brings, although there is an appreciation this is in part the consequence of COVID and the war in Ukraine – both out of the government’s control. However, this does not translate into spontaneous demands for tax cuts, beyond a tiny number of people already sticking with the Tories.

• There is a desire to punish the Tories. The anger felt towards the political chaos of recent years does not appear to have softened and was brought up spontaneously by a majority of panellists. Snezzana says the party she voted for in the last election is “destroying the country and the economy” and she will switch to Labour.

Paul, who will switch to the Greens, won’t back the Tories again after the “chaos since Boris was in charge”. Jyoti will not vote Tory again “because Brexit and COVID were all disasters” and while more recently unlikely to back Labour, could go to either end of the political spectrum and back Reform or Lib Dem.

• There is uncertainty about Sir Keir Starmer and Labour. Emma, who doesn’t know how to vote next time, says: “Starmer is someone that sits on the fence quite a lot.” Tom – who says he will vote Labour – says Sir Keir has moved Labour to the centre but “is not a 100% sure on what their manifesto will contain”, adding: “Is he a capable leader? I don’t know, we’ll find out.”

• Sir Keir is “indecisive” and “unbelievable”. Mr Sunak “rich” “unelected and “untrustworthy”. The words used to describe the leaders of the two main parties are largely unforgiving by our participants. Mr Sunak is also weak, disconnected; though seen as competent and intelligent. Sir Keir is known to be a lawyer but “hypocrite” looms large.

• Some, but not many, key messages from the parties, are getting through. David, who is switching to Labour, is one of the few to acknowledge Sir Keir “from a not-as-well-off background. He’s had family problems”.

Paul, who is sticking with the Tories, mimicked Mr Sunak’s slogan by saying “My worry is now…. the Labour Party will get in and we’ll be back to square one” and says “we need to stick with them, see this plan through”.

• Not everybody thinks it’s ‘time for a change’. After 14 years, a minority think that it is not time for a change. All three who suggest this are sticking with the Tories.

• Cut-through moments matter. Widely shared moments on social media are shaping perceptions. Paul, who will vote for the Greens, referenced the bet between Mr Sunak and Piers Morgan as evidence of Mr Sunak’s wealth, suggesting it means he is “obviously rich and I think that puts him a bit out of touch with people. The recent interview where he bet the interviewer a thousand pounds, was a bit not nice to see. Makes him out of touch, especially when people are going paycheck to paycheck”.

The results of this community group – with so few directly switching Tory to Labour – may lead some Tory supporters to conclude that the next election is not lost, arguing Labour has not sealed the deal with the electorate. There are some glimmers of hope for the Tories. However, direct Tory-to-Labour switching may not be the decisive factor in the result.

The 1997 Labour landslide was driven, in part, by Tories staying at home rather than a surge of enthusiasm for Tony Blair.

In 1992, John Major got more votes than any leader at any election ever and a big drop in turnout – from 77.7% to 71.3% in 1997 – was a big part of Blair’s 179 majority. Jeremy Corbyn lost almost 3 million votes between 2017 and 2019, and that was instrumental in the Tory majority of 80.

This community group still suggests less than a third of Conservative voters would stick with the Tories in an upcoming election. This remains an existential challenge for the prime minister.

Politics

ZKPs can prove I’m old enough without telling you my age

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1 hour ago

May 27, 2025

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<div>ZKPs can prove I'm old enough without telling you my age</div>

Opinion by: Andre Omietanski, General Counsel, and Amal Ibraymi, Legal Counsel at Aztec Labs

What if you could prove you’re over 18, without revealing your birthday, name, or anything else at all? Zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) make this hypothetical a reality and solve one of the key challenges online: verifying age without sacrificing privacy.

The need for better age verification today

We’re witnessing an uptick in laws being proposed restricting minors’ access to social media and the internet, including in Australia, Florida, and China. To protect minors from inappropriate adult content, platform owners and governments often walk a tightrope between inaction and overreach.

For example, the state of Louisiana in the US recently enacted a law meant to block minors from viewing porn. Sites required users to upload an ID before viewing content. The Free Speech Coalition challenged the law as unconstitutional, making the case that it infringed on First Amendment rights.

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed on procedural grounds. The reaction, however, highlights the dilemma facing policymakers and platforms: how to block minors without violating adults’ rights or creating new privacy risks.

Traditional age verification fails

Current age verification tools are either ineffective or invasive. Self-declaration is meaningless, since users can simply lie about their age. ID-based verification is overly invasive. No one should be required to upload their most sensitive documents, putting themselves at risk of data breaches and identity theft.

Biometric solutions like fingerprints and face scans are convenient for users but raise important ethical, privacy, and security concerns. Biometric systems are not always accurate and may generate false positives and negatives. The irreversible nature of the data, which can’t be changed like a regular password can, is also less than ideal.

Other methods, like behavioral tracking and AI-driven verification of browser patterns, are also problematic, using machine learning to analyze user interactions and identify patterns and anomalies, raising concerns of a surveillance culture.

ZKPs as the privacy-preserving solution

Zero-knowledge proofs present a compelling solution. Like a government ID provider, a trusted entity verifies the user’s age and generates a cryptographic proof confirming they are over the required age.

Websites only need to check the proof, not the excess personal data, ensuring privacy while keeping minors at the gates. No centralized data storage is required, alleviating the burden on platforms such as Google, Meta, and WhatsApp and eliminating the risk of data breaches.

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Adopting and enforcing ZKPs at scale

ZKPs aren’t a silver bullet. They can be complex to implement. The notion of “don’t trust, verify,” proven by indisputable mathematics, may cause some regulatory skepticism. Policymakers may hesitate to trust cryptographic proofs over visible ID verification.

There are occasions when companies may need to disclose personal information to authorities, such as during an investigation into financial crimes or government inquiries. This would challenge ZKPs, whose very intention is for platforms not to hold this data in the first place.

ZKPs also struggle with scalability and performance, being somewhat computationally intensive and tricky to program. Efficient implementation techniques are being explored, and breakthroughs, such as the Noir programming language, are making ZKPs more accessible to developers, driving the adoption of secure, privacy-first solutions.

A safer, smarter future for age verification

Google’s move to adopt ZKPs for age verification is a promising signal that mainstream platforms are beginning to embrace privacy-preserving technologies. But to fully realize the potential of ZKPs, we need more than isolated solutions locked into proprietary ecosystems.

Crypto-native wallets can go further. Open-source and permissionless blockchain-based systems offer interoperability, composability, and programmable identity. With a single proof, users can access a range of services across the open web — no need to start from scratch every time, or trust a single provider (Google) with their credentials.

ZKPs flip the script on online identity — proving what matters, without exposing anything else. They protect user privacy, help platforms stay compliant, and block minors from restricted content, all without creating new honeypots of sensitive data.

Google’s adoption of ZKPs shows mainstream momentum is building. But to truly transform digital identity, we must embrace crypto-native, decentralized systems that give users control over what they share and who they are online.

In an era defined by surveillance, ZKPs offer a better path forward — one that’s secure, private, and built for the future.

Opinion by: Andre Omietanski, General Counsel, and Amal Ibraymi, Legal Counsel at Aztec Labs.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Politics

Gisele Pelicot’s daughter says chemical castration ‘could be part of the solution’ for sex offenders

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1 hour ago

May 27, 2025

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Gisele Pelicot's daughter says chemical castration 'could be part of the solution' for sex offenders

The daughter of Gisele Pelicot has suggested chemical castration could be “one part of the solution” when there is “nothing else you can do” for sex offenders – like her father.

Caroline Darian’s father Dominique Pelicot admitted repeatedly drugging and raping his wife Gisele between 2011 and 2020, and inviting dozens of other men to their home in southern France to do the same.

Gisele decided to waive her right to anonymity to hold the trial of her husband and 50 other men in public, saying: “It is not for us to be ashamed, but for those men.”

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Speaking to Ali Fortescue on The Politics Hub, Ms Darian said the UK government’s plans to consider mandatory chemical castration could be “one part of the solution” for men like her father.

She said: “It’s probably one part of the solution because you know when you’re at that level of crime, that level of criminal, there is nothing else you can do.”

Asked if she believed “men like your father” could be rehabilitated, Ms Darian said “no” and “never”.

For ten years, Pelicot repeatedly sedated his wife and invited strangers to abuse her after advertising sex with her on a French swinging website.

Some denied the rape charges, claiming they believed Gisele had agreed to be drugged and was a willing participant in a sex game between the couple.

But all the men charged were found guilty of at least one offence, with nearly all convicted of rape, after a trial that shocked France and made headlines around the world.

The defendants were sentenced to a total of more than 400 years, with Pelicot being sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Pelicot also took photos of his daughter Caroline semi-naked while she was asleep.

Ms Darian is pressing charges against her father, having accused him of drugging and raping her. Pelicot has denied this.

Speaking to French media, Beatrice Zavarro, Pelicot’s lawyer, said Ms Darian’s decision to press charges was “unsurprising”.

She added that prosecutors had said there were insufficient “objective elements” to accuse Pelicot of raping and using chemical submission on Ms Darian.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said last week that she will pursue “a nationwide rollout” of a scheme being piloted in southwest England to use medication to suppress the sexual drive of sex offenders.

It came after an independent review, led by the former justice secretary David Gauke, was commissioned by the government amid an overcrowding crisis in prisons in England and Wales.

The review recommended that chemical castration “may assist in management of suitable sex offenders both in prison and in the community”.

Ms Mahmood said she is “exploring whether mandating the approach is possible”. The trial is currently voluntary.

Politics

Russian national arrested in South Korea for attempted crypto robbery

Published

5 hours ago

May 27, 2025

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Russian national arrested in South Korea for attempted crypto robbery

South Korean authorities have arrested one of three Russian nationals accused of an attempted robbery during a fake crypto deal in Seoul. The suspects allegedly lured Korean investors to a hotel, where they tried to steal 1 billion won (approximately $730,000) in cash.

The Gangseo Police Precinct in Seoul detained a man in his 20s in Busan on May 27, according to a report by local news outlet JoongAng Daily. The suspect faces charges of assault and attempted robbery. The other two suspects reportedly fled South Korea shortly after the incident.

According to investigators, the robbery attempt occurred on May 21 at a hotel in Seoul’s Gangseo District. The suspects posed as participants in a peer-to-peer crypto transaction and invited 10 Korean men to the hotel.

Two were called to the room while the others waited in the lobby. Inside the room, the suspects — wearing protective vests — ambushed the victims with a replica handgun and a telescopic baton, tying their hands with cable ties.

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Per the report, one of the victims managed to escape and raise the alarm, prompting the suspects to flee without the cash. Police responded to an emergency call and found one man bleeding in the lobby.

Officers discovered a cache of equipment in the suspects’ hotel room, including a replica firearm, batons, vests and a money counter. Police suspect the robbery had been carefully planned.

A request to prevent the suspects from leaving the country was filed the next morning, but two had already departed. “We have requested assistance from Interpol to track down the suspects who fled overseas,” a police official reportedly said.

Authorities are now questioning the detained suspect and preparing to seek a pretrial detention warrant.

Rise in crypto crime incidents

The incident comes amid a recent uptick in crypto-related violent crimes, including kidnapping and ransom cases.

A Manhattan crypto investor faces serious charges after allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian man in a bid to extract access to digital assets.

On May 13, the family of Pierre Noizat, the co-founder and CEO of French crypto exchange Paymium, was targeted in an attempted kidnapping.

In response, executives and investors in the crypto industry are increasingly seeking personal security services. On May 18, private firm Infinite Risks International reported a rise in requests for bodyguards and protection contracts from high-profile figures in the crypto space.

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