social factors

• Social group


  Influence on voting behaviour
• Gender


  • Historically, the tory party got most of its voters from female supporters since 1974, with the exception of 2005 and 2010
  • This could be due to the fact that until the last few decades, women were less likely to be in paid employment than men, so less likely to be members of trade unions that supported labour. This distinction has faded due to more woman in employment, particularly in public sector jobs
  • New labour also place emphasis on education which could increase female support
  • The labour party tends to amass more support from male voters, similarly changing in the last 2 elections
• Ethnicity


  • In the 97 election, the conservatives got most of their support from white voters, whereas labour had much stronger support in non white voters, as well as white voters
  • Labour could win more support from non-whiter voters due to their history of supporting and advancing rights for ethnic minorities (they enacted the race relations acts of 65, 68 and 76, the Race Relations Amendment act of 2000, as well as racial and religious hatred act of 2006). However in recent elections it has been the tory party who are more vocal in opposing migration levels issues currently
  • Ethnic minority voters were shown to show much stronger support for labour after the 2005 election, with a slight decrease potentially due to the beginning of the Iraq war under Blair in 2003, shown by increased % again in 2010 and 2015
• Age


  • The 97 general election was a landslide labour victory, meaning it showed support for labour across all ages
  • By 2005 however, generally the tory support received stronger numbers among the old, versus the labour and lib dem's getting support among the younger voters
  • In 2010, tories got strong results among all age groups, the best still being among older voters
  • Younger voters could be more egalitarian with economic policies (want more equal wealth distribution), and also social equality, such as gay marriage
  • Older voters are more sceptical of an equal society and more protective of their own property. Older voters are more conservative, more religious and less in favour of new, subversive positions on social issues in general
• Region


  • Shown in 1997 that as you move down the country, labour support drops and conservative support increases, with the exception of london which is a labour stronghold, and this is repeated precisely in the 2005 election
  • In 2010, the conservatives managed to perform better in the midlands, but there was still a clear divide
  • This is due to NS divide, N used to be home to working class industries like mining, and cities or towns in the north have also become safe labour seats with large working class populations
  • The South tends to be wealthier and more rural, these constituencies are safe conservative seats
  • Voting behaviour differs in Scotland, Wales and ireland
  • In wales, nationalist parties have been gaining support such as Plaid cymru, but prior to this labour would outperform conservatives
  • Similarly, the SNP has been growing in support in Scotland, they achieved 50% in the 2015 election, and labour support dropped significantly
  • In NI, there are a completely different set of parties, each with varying levels of support from different classes, making it incomparable
• Why is difficult to make assumptions about the votes of all young voters, or all female voters?
• Group membership may influence voting behaviour, but it doesn't determine it, as a youth may have different experiences dependant on the other factors