(factor) is the main influence on voting behaviour at elections

Question 1

issue based voting

Answer 1

-2019 election, Conservative gains were at the expense of Labour the the stronghold of Northern England (Red Wall)
-Leigh,Labour safe seat,had a strong Leave vote 2016,2019 GE,56% of electorate saw Brexit as salient
-tory ‘oven ready’ Brexit was much more preferable to Labour’s plans for a second referendum
-tories also won over many voters by pledging to end austerity,NHS is more salient than Brexit (60%) with plans to increase public spending by £13bn a year

Question 2

valence

Answer 2

-1979 election,1976 saw economy be so low had to be bailed out by IMF,WOD saw widespread strikes and anger too
-before the election,inflation was high,GDP had shrunk and there was little evidence it could be solved
-‘sunny jim’ was unable to unite his party or to prevent a vote of no confidence,ISPOS-MORI poll showed 53% of the electorate believed the economy would ‘get worse’

Question 3

campaign techniques

Answer 3

-1997 election:
-tories:attack ads portraying Blair as a ‘spin doctor’ making him seem untrustworthy, and they tried to contrast Blair’s privileged upbringing with Major’s, but this fell flat
-labour:influence of ‘spin’ grew with Campbell and Mandelson steering the campaign, slogan ‘New Labour’,Blair portrayed as young,dynamic,charismatic compared to Major, polls 23% believed Major doing a good job, compared to 62% for Blair
-Labour successfully managed their image and campaign

Question 4

leadership voting

Answer 4

-1979 election, ‘Sunny Jim’ was perceived as weak, despite being well liked he was unable to control the unions and his party
-Thatcher used Saatchi & Saatchi, to project steeliness towards the unions, and for the first time the campaign really utilised TV,Thatcher was great at utilising photo opportunities and she projected her strong vision

Question 5

class based voting

Answer 5

-1979:tories performed well with working class, 11% swing among C2 and Thatcher gained 9% swing among D/E (well above 5.2% national average), partly attributed to class dealignment
-1997:New Labour proved popular among all parts of the electorate, won C2 voters by 23% and D/E by 38%, tories only won A/B & C1 by 5%
-2019:tories won C2&D/E voters by a significant margin 48-33% mainly due to socially conservative position on Brexit

Question 6

demographic voting

Answer 6

-women: 1979 Thatcher won by 12% (47-35) well above Conservative voteshare of 43%, female voters tended to be more socially conservative, but Thatcher’s gender played a key role in attracting these votes
-age: 1997 Blair secured 49% of votes in the 18-24 category
-ethnicity: 1997, multiculturalism proved popular amongst BAME voters winning 70-18