Party Members Project Survey, 2019

Bale, Timothy and Webb, Paul (2021). Party Members Project Survey, 2019. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854799

Members are a vital resource for political parties - particularly at election time. By surveying members of six political parties we explore just what they do for their parties during campaigns and whether that is changing over time, particularly as new forms (often online forms) of campaigning replace (or at least supplement) the old way of doing things. We also find out how members feel about something that has proved particularly controversial at this election owing to story-upon-story of parties having to suspend people from standing - namely the selection (and vetting) of candidates. And we look at the demographic characteristics and attitudes of party members: how much do they vary and change over time, and how representative (or unrepresentative) are members of their parties' voters? Finally, we investigate whether there has been much movement of members between parties, and in particular whether 'Remainers' have moved from the Tories and Labour to parties like the Lib Dems and whether Leavers who might previously have belonged to UKIP (and perhaps support the Brexit Party) have switched to membership of the Conservatives.

Data description (abstract)

This survey was conducted shortly after the UK general election of December 2019. The survey is the sequel to the Party Members in the UK 2015-2018 study. It covers samples of members of 6 British political parties and the Brexit Party, including 1179 Conservatives, 1357 Labour members, 1028 Liberal Democrats, 1158 Brexit Party supporters and UKIP members, 1023 Green Party, and 1026 SNP members. It includes 166 variables relating to demographics, political attitudes, voting behaviour, campaign activity, and the timing and duration of party membership. It is the first known survey to assess the movement of people between political party memberships in the UK.

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