VOTING BEHAVIOUR AND THE MEDIA

• Long term factors: age

  • In 2017 General election: 64% of 18-24 year olds voted for the Labour Party 
  • 61% of 65+ voted for the Conservative Party 2017
  • 2019- 56% of 18-24 year olds voted labour- supported from all ages under 39 
  • 2019-57% of 60-69 y olds votes conservative in 2019 
• Long term factors: age

  • In the EU referendum: 
  • 64% of voters aged 18-24 years old voted to remain in the EU 
  • 61% of voters aged 65+ voted to leave the EU 
• Long term factors: Social class

  • In 1979- 41% of C2 (skilled manual) voted for the conservatives 
  • 1979- C2 workers abandoned labour
  • Thatcher in 1979 worked hard to get vote of housewives
  • 1997 Blair increased his vote share in all class categories 
  • 1997-37% of AB voters voted Labour 
• Long term factors: Social class

  • In 2017- 48% of voters in the AB voted conservative 
  • In 2017-32% of AB voters voted labour 
  • In 2015- 36% of AB voters voted labour 
  • In 2019- 36% of AB voters voted labour 
  • In 2019- C2 voters were most likely to vote conservative (49%) DE (47%) AB (42%) 
  • In 2019- 43% of those with higher education voted labour
• Long term factors: region


  2019 GE

  • 57.4% of people in south east of England voted for the Conservative Party 
  • Wales- typical labour stronghold- but in 2019 Labour lost 6 seats in wales 
  • North East- 48.2% voted Labour 
  • SNP won 48 seats
  • Labour- 202 seats
  • Cons 365
• 2019 General Election

  • Conservative vote share was highest in the East of England (57.2%)
  • Labour vote share was highest in London (48.1%).
  • Lib Dems won their highest vote share in the South East (18.2%) same as Greens (4.0%).
  • The Brexit Party highest vote share in the North East (8.1%), but they did not win any seats.
• Short term factors: Media

  • The Sun has backed every winner since 1979 
  • In 1997- The Sun backed the Labour Party 
  • 1992- "It's The Sun Wot Won It"- allowed for unexpected Conservative victory 
• Short term factors: Media

  • Blair made use of "spinning" in 1997 
  • 1997 saw first use of TV debates 
  • Opinion polls showed Callaghan was popular candidate in 1979 
  • Conservatives divided over EU in 1997 whilst labour were united around Blair's third way 
• Short term factors: Media

  • 2017 General Election- Increased use in social media as a campaign tool
  • 2017-Labour still scored highly despite constant negative press about Corbyn 
  • 2017- May still won despite being seen as "may bot" with a lack of TV presence
• short term factors: Salient issues

  • Conservatives made use of the deteriorating economic situation- strikes, inflation etc "crisis what crisis" 
  • Labor made use of conservatives failing economic policies after black Wednesday in 1997 
  • Brexit was a divisive issue- Conservatives lost votes by AB voters who wanted to punish them for leaving the EU 
  • 2017- Cons had to U turn on "dementia tax" 
  • 2019-Labours copious manifesto pledges led to questions on affordability 
  • 2019-43% of former labour supporters based vote on leadership 
• Short term factors: the Campaign

  • 1997- Tony Blair- charismatic, young and enthusiastic 
  • 2017-Corbyn took advantage of media and in person events to win the votes of younger people 
  • 2017 Labour Manifesto- appealing to younger voters+dropped socialist policies such as nationalisation 
  • 2017 Conservative Manifesto- devised by policy advisors and lacked an enthusiastic response 
  • 2017- Conservative Campaign- uninspiring 
  • 1979- Thatcher softened her voice+appealed to stay at home mums 
  • "Labour isn't working" slogans- appealed to working class struggling with economic situation. 
• Social media campaigning 2017:

  • Conservatives spent over 2 million pounds on Facebook advertising, 100k per month
  • Labour reached out to voters on snapchat- Jeremy Corbyn Snapchat filter had over a million uses
• 2015 election survey found that 79% of young people (18-24) relied on social media for their news
• The 2017 general election saw a record number of tweets sent during the campaign period.
• In 2016, 50% of adults used social media as their main source of information
• A 2017 report from Ofcom found that 45% of adults get most of their news from social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
• As of March 2023, Reform UK was found to be more popular among male voters than the Conservatives
• Televised debates-four debates:

  1. Cameron and miliband- of com reported bias towards labour
  2. Between 7 party leaders
  3. between opposition parties bar Lib Dems, Nigel Farage accused the BBC of a left-wing bias in the audience
  4. Cameron, Miliband and Clegg
• The Sun- 2015 election

  • headline picture of Miliband eating a bacon sandwich 'Save our bacon' - 'don't swallow his porkies and keep him OUT!'
• 2015 election

  daily mail- headline, 'for sanity's sake don't let a class war zealot and the SNP destroy our economy - and our very nation
• Social grades


  A: High managerial, administrative or professional - 4%

  B: intermediate managerial, administrative or professional- 23%

  C1: Supervisory, clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional - 29%

  C2: Skilled manual workers - 21%

  D: semi and unskilled manual worker - 15%

  E: non working, unskilled manual workers, lowest grade occupations - 8%