News

The BES and Scottish politics 2019-2023: recent analysis and consultation
On Friday 13 September the BES will hold an overview and consultation session regarding recent BES data related to Scottish politics. The session will take place in Glasgow on 13 September from 10:00-12:00. During the session the BES team will present new analysis on questions…

British Election Study 2019-2023
We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded the next round of British Election Study funding by the Economic and Social Research Council. The 2019-2023 British Election Study, Voters and the British Political System in the Context of Brexit, will consist of a…

UK Data Service version of 2017 face-to-face released
We are pleased to announce the release of the UK Data Service (UKDS) deposited version of the 2017 BES face-to-face survey. As well as all variables released in previous versions of the 2017 face-to-face, the UKDS version contains a small number of additional variables that…

Request for feedback on suggestions for Wave 15 of the BES panel
As part of a recent BES extension provided by the ESRC, which runs to end March 2019, the BES is able to field an additional wave, which we’ll be doing soon as a pre-Brexit wave (or during, depending on fieldwork and political events). This will…

BES Internet Panel Wave 14 Data Released + MII and NS-SEC Updates
The British Election Study is pleased to announce the release of wave 14 of the British Election Study Internet Panel. Wave 14 was conducted in May 2018, after the local election. In total 31,063 respondents took wave 14 of the British Election Study. 20,393 of…

Youthquake – a reply to our critics
In the wake of the release of the 2017 BES face-to-face data, and our analysis that showed no evidence of a surge in youth turnout at the 2017 election, some commentators have challenged our findings. The key message of our original article (published on…

Women, men, and the 2017 general election. By Jane Green and Chris...
With the forthcoming centenary of the Representation of the People’s Act 1918, it is timely to ask whether women are equally engaged in voting, whether they vote differently to men, and how this might have played out in the most recent general election in June…

The myth of the 2017 youthquake election
By Chris Prosser, Ed Fieldhouse, Jane Green, Jonathan Mellon, and Geoff Evans In the wake of the surprise outcome of the 2017 election people began to look for an explanation for Labour’s unexpectedly good performance. One explanation quickly became prominent: Jeremy Corbyn had mobilised previously…

British Election Study 2017 Face-to-face survey v1.0: Release note
This note accompanies the release of the 2017 British Election Study face to face survey (version 1.0). Dataset and documentation The dataset and additional documentation are available to download here. Citation Fieldhouse, E., J. Green., G. Evans., H. Schmitt, C. van der Eijk, J. Mellon and…

Swings and roundabouts: the potential electoral consequences of Labour’s position on Europe.
In light of previous BES research which demonstrated how Labour relied on the Remain vote at the 2017 general election, it is not surprising that many regarded Labour’s rethinking on transitional arrangements for leaving the EU as electorally opportunistic. But how much difference might we…