Voting Behaviour and the Media - Topic 4.1.1

Question 1

What is the social class composition in the UK?

Answer 1

• A - Higher managerial, professional workers - Higher middle class
• B - Middle managers, professionals - Middle class
• C1 - Clerical workers, junior managerial roles, shop owners - Lower middle class
• C2 - Skilled workers - Aspirational working class
• D - Semi-skilled, unskilled factory workers - Working class
• E - Casuals, long-term unemployed, those relying on state pension - Working class

Question 2

How does class-based dealignment affect voting?

With examples from 1979, 1997 and 2017

Answer 2

• Conservatives typically did better with A, B and C1 voters while Labour typically did better with C2, D and E
• Following Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, significant numbers of the white working class felt that immigration would be more tightly controlled by the Tories
• Margaret Thatcher launched the Conservative campaign in 1979 in Labour-supporting Cardiff. It was a clever attempt to disassociate the party from being too middle class
• The campaign’s focus on defeating the ‘Winter of Discontent’ made Thatcher so popular that there was an 11% swing to the Tories by C2 voters and a 9% swing for DE voters
• Blair was highly successful at broadening his party’s appeal beyond its core. He increased Labour’s share of the vote in all social categories and won a majority of support in all age groups with the progressive appeal of New Labour
• In the 2017 Election, Corbyn gained further support from the AB social category gained further support from AB voters, while May made striking gains among DE voters

Question 3

How does someone’s region affect their voting habits?

Answer 3

The South East is the most prosperous region in the UK, with high levels of home ownership and little tradition of heavy industrial trade unionism. The Conservatives do disproportionately well there. Ethnically white rural parts of the UK, such as East Anglia and the South Coast, are also classic Tory territories. Labour, meanwhile, has dominated ethnically diverse big cities with large working-class populations, and major centres of industrial production such as South Wales, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Tyne and Wear. As a rule, the industrial North of England has been more likely to vote Labour and the South of England Conservative.

Question 4

How does someone’s age affecting their voting habits?

Answer 4

Tories typically do better with older voters while Labour and Lib Dems generally do better with younger voters. This is because the Tories traditionally emphasised policies such as lower taxation, strong national defence, law and order, and, in recent years, has been significantly more Eurosceptic than Labour and the Lib Dems.

Question 5

How does someone’s ethnicity affect their voting behaviour?

Answer 5

Historically, Commonwealth immigrant communities were more likely to vote Labour because of its high spending on the welfare state and close association with the trade union movement. Labour has consistently been committed to multiculturalism and introduced the first Race Relations Acts in the 1960s to outlaw discrimination. Since then, the Johnson, Truss and Starmer cabinets were the most ethnically diverse in UK history. The Tories have recently taken a more diverse approach in their party to appeal to these voters that often stuck with Labour.

Question 6

How does someone’s level of education affect their voting habits?

With examples from 2017 and 2019

Answer 6

Those with higher educational qualifications comprise the top social brackets and have traditionally been more likely to vote Tory. In 2017, the Tories increased their support among those with fewest educational qualifications and Labour achieved higher levels of support among those with degrees in the top brackets. In 2019, it suggested that this was part of a long-term trend.

Question 7

How does someone’s gender impact their voting behaviour?

With examples from 1959, 1970 and 1979

Answer 7

The influence of gender in determining the result of general elections has changed since WWII. Labour’s old close association with male-dominated trade unionism and its reputation for allowing inflation to spiral, so hitting family finances, provided the Tories with a powerful opportunity to appeal to the housewives’ vote. In 1959, Macmillan associated Tory prosperity with a happy family life. Heath pledged to reduce the cost of living, thereby winning significant support among housewives in 1970. The 1979 Election similarly articulated women’s concerns that Labour governments had allowed inflation to undermine family finances and that irresponsible trade unionism was pulling society apart. However, the Tories’ traditional lead among female voters has been challenged by Labour. This is perhaps because the Tories emphasis on strong national defence and its growing association with euroscepticism may have contrasted unfavourably for some women with Labour’s focus on education, social care and the NHS.