Although people are moving away from voting according to their social class, it is still widely accepted that there is a link between class (manual labour /lower paid – professional/higher paid) and voting behaviour.
Geographic Region
There is a quite apparent North/South divide when it comes to voting behaviour in Britain. Southern electorate tend to vote Conservative, whereas Northern voters are more likely to vote Labour. One reason for this may be that, The Conservative Party is seen to be the party of the middle and upper class. Southern England has more middle and upper class home owners, therefore the Conservatives receive a larger percentage of their vote.
In the 2001 General Election, the majority of the Southern England electorate voted for the Conservative Party whilst Northern England, Scotland and Wales voted in favour of Labour. This pattern may be linked to the industrial past of the UK when heavy industry and links to trade unions were concentrated in Central Scotland, the North of England and Wales. Economic circumstances of areas tend to affect the regional vote. From voting history it can be seen that when an area is going through economic hardship, the vote for that area would normally be largely for Labour.
Although geographic regions do influence voting habits, there are still differences in this behaviour even when the class variable remains constant.
Age
Age is a contributing factor to the way in which people vote. It is usual that older people tend to vote Conservative, whereas younger people more often vote Labour. This is especially true of first time voters who normally give a large percentage of their vote to Labour. The writer G.B. Shaw once wrote that 'If you are not a socialist by the time you are 25, you have no heart. If you are not a Conservative by the time you are 35, you have no head'. Albeit in the 2005 General Election there was a large decline in young peoples’ votes, this election proved that no party should take the vote of younger voters for granted, as there was an increase in young peoples’ votes to the Liberal Democrats, this is said to be due to issues surrounding the Iraq War.
Gender
Before the 1997 General Election, women were considered to be more conservative than men. In 1997 this changed with an increased representation of women in The Labour Party. Also, Labour’s policy on childcare and health was said to have appeal to women. By this time there were a more equal number of women and men in paid employment. The ‘family’ policies that The Conservative Party were promoting were less appealing to women, who no longer viewed it as their role to stay at home.
This pattern has continued and in the 2005 General Election, women gave the majority of their vote to Labour.
Religion
Previously it was viewed that there were close links between religion and voting behaviour. Those connected with the Church of England tended to vote for The Conservative Party, whereas those connected to Methodist or Baptist churches were more likely to vote for The Liberal Party. Although The Churches hold a degree of ‘power’ it is now generally agreed that there are no longer links between religions and voting behaviour, however, there are some who would disagree with this.
Race
Most black and Asian people tend to vote Labour. Figures from a study by Fitzgerald in 1988 show that, in the 1987 General Election, this was likely to be due to these voters viewing themselves as being ‘working class’, and Labour was viewed as the ‘working class’ party. This study also showed that, in the 1987 General Election the Conservative Party received more votes from East African Asians than from those from the Indian Sub-Continent. A report by Saggar in 1997 suggests that, Labour have a more liberal policy on issues of race and immigration than The Conservative Party, therefore this would contribute to The Labour Party receiving a higher percentage of votes from black and Asian people.
In conclusion the entire social make-up of Great Britain and a greater public/electoral awareness of the main and minor political parties has changed and diversified. This coupled with a greater appetite for parties to challenge ‘safe seats’ has allowed for a merging of all the above factors. It is true that Bentley identified the major influential groups of the post-war to 1990’s however it is clear that information availability and the individuals desire to seek more from their ‘government’ has brought about major ‘competition’ to all political parties.
