To what extent does (X) influence voting behaviour (30)

based on the voting behaviour section of UK politics

Media

Influence:

-Newspapers have a large impact e.g. the sun backed Major in 1992. 

-In the 2019 general election, ITV decided to restrict the leaders' debate to Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn – the only leaders assumed to able to form a government. This meant that they were discriminating against leaders of small parties.  

No influence:

-Jeremy Corbyn garnered 9.6% increase of the vote in the 2017 election but received no support from the media. This suggests that the media does not influence voters very much, as people were willing to vote for him, regardless of his bad image in the press.  

-More recently newspapers have dropped in the number people who have read them.  

Campaigns

Influence:

-John Major speaking to voters from a soapbox for the 1992. Reinforced voter beliefs about an 'honest john'. 

-In the electoral system report 55% of people said they got their information from leaflets/flyers for the 2019.

No influence:

-In the 2019 election, 58% of people agreed with the statement that in general “campaigning online is untrue or misleading”.

-In the 2001 election, campaigns aroused less interest among voters which was reflected in the poor turnout (59.4%).

Leaders

Influence:

Winston Churchill – he was a good public speaker and campaigned his manifesto pledge to 'set the people free'. He was also understanding towards the needs of the people at the time. 

Neil Kinnock – he was not a charismatic leader and people clashed with the way he ran his campaign. Also, his optimism after the Sheffield rally was poorly received by voters. 

 No Influence:

Opinion polls

Social class

Influence:

The wealthiest households tend to be located in the south of England. These areas are more likely to support conservatives.  

In the 1992 election voters from classes C2-DE voted Labour.

No influence:

Not all constituencies are voting for the parties that most follow their class status. For example, labour did very badly in the red wall constituencies in the north in 2019, despite them being the party one would expect those constituencies to vote for.

Social factors

Influence:

In 2015 64% of black ethnic minority voters are more likely to vote Labour because they appealed to their mostly working class background.

No influence:

In the 2019 election, most northern constituencies like Blyth Valley and Redcar voted conservative when tradtioanlly they have voted Labour.