Strong, stable, meaningless words. A win for the young voter.
The United Kingdom went to the polls after PM Theresa May called a surprising snap election in order to bolster her majority in Parliament in the wake of triggering Article 50 and the looming Brexit negotiations set to begin in mid June. In the end the UK ended up with a hung parliament with the Conservatives losing their majority from the 2015 election with the Young vote coming out in force, flexing it’s muscles and demanding change.
The proof is in the data
Looking at the data we can easily distinguish what went wrong for the Conservative party, high youth voter turnout, like, really high.
First lets compare youth turnout to previous elections.
Looking at the data, you can see from 1997 until 2010 there was a stark decrease in youth voter turnout, it increased and stabilised in the 2010 election and remained the same in the 2015 election. The 2017 election sees a massive increase in turnout for the youth. The massive increase can be attributed in part thanks to the huge list celebrity endorsements of the Labour party who in turn pleaded on social media for the youth to turn out to vote. The shock Brexit vote can be considered a decisive role in bringing out the young vote as well. The youth seems to have learned to not throw away their vote.
Where did the young votes go? Sure as hell not to the Tories.
Much of the youth vote unsurprisingly went to Labour, who campaigned on liberal issues the youth can relate to, such as the NHS, social equality, free education and negotiating a softer Brexit.
The data, sourced from SkyData shows voter preference especially in the 18–24 region was heavily in support of Labour. The next region of 35–54 is surprising, it shows an equal share between Tories and Labour with both getting a 43% share of the votes. The last region is expected, 55+ gave their votes to the Tories with 59% going to the Tories and only 23% going to Labour.
The Conservative party only managed to receive a majority of voter preferences in one region, the 55+. This should be a wake up call for the Conservative party, they are clearly not connecting with the young voter. The Conservatives steady descent into further right wing politics is not resonating with the youth who value liberal policies.
Labours policies:
If the conservatives want to win a majority in the next election, reconnecting with the young voter needs to be one of their top priorities.
What were the Issues?
There is a plethora of issues that influence votes in UK with some of the biggest issues namely being the NHS, Immigration, Security and the Economy.
Much of the Conservatives campaign hard lines revolved around securing the UK from further terrorist attacks, however as Data proves Health, most notably securing the NHS remains the top priority for voters. Labour championed the cause of the NHS by promising increased staff wages, increased NHS budget and ensuring it stays in the public domain.
What happens now?
Theresa May has said she will form a Government with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, who of which received 10 seats in the election, enough to give May a majority in votes.
The DUP are an anti LGBT, anti Abortion, climate change denying party. A party that has already angered much of the younger voters. Many voters are emailing their conservative representative begging them to stand up to May and refuse any form of coalition with the DUP.
This decision looks set to further distance the conservatives and the young voter.
