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1997 General Election - Coggle Diagram
1997 General Election
Voting
Class-based voting:
41% of ABs voted conservative compared with 31% Labour
50% of C2s and 59% of De's voted labour, compared with 27% and 21% for the tories
Among ABs, the conservative vote had gone down by 15% and Labours had gone up by 12. The same change happened among the C1s (leaving the parties completely even on each side - 37%)
The had also been a significant shift to Labour among the C2's and DE's but not as quite dramatic as amongst those on higher incomes
The general trend of a large swing from conservative to labour is consistent with the overall trend of the election, the swing was stronger amongst the better off.
Overall, the Conservatives were down 12 points, and labour was up by 9
Gender: The was a swing to Labour in both genders (Labour: Men 45% Women 44%, Cons Men 31%, Women 32%.
The larger increase in the labour vote was among women increased by 10 points rather than 8 - partly because there had been a trend for women to vote conservative in the past
Age: The labour vote increased among all age groups - much larger increase in younger voters.
The Labour vote increased by 12 points for 25-34 and 35-44 y/o, it only increased by 4 points for 55-64 y/o
Region: 62% of Labour's votes came from the North which was their highest proportion. The highest proportion for the conservative came from the south east 41%
Ethnicity: Labour led in all ethnic categories - a 10-point lead for white voters, it was much larger among minority-ethnic groups. 82% of black voters voted labour (12% for conservatives)
There are many reasons for this:
socio-economic background of some minority ethnic groups
Parties attitude to race
immigration and race equality legislation
Partisanship: The labour party had been out of power of 18 years, and there was a strong sense among many voters that it was time for a chance. This sentiment combined with the popularity of the new labour leader, helped too swing many of the voters who were previously loyal to the conservative party to vote for Labour.
Voting attachment: In the election, there was a high level of voter turnout, with 71.4% of eligible voters casting a ballot. This may have been influenced by a sense of enthusiasm and engagement among voters especially after the work that Tony Blair took to modernize the party. His charismatic personality and his promises under ‘New Labour’ resonated with many young people which in turn reflected the high levels of support the party had received.
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