Does class still play a role in the ballot box?

Political Professor Peter Pulzer (1967) quoted:

“Class in the basis of British politics. All else is embellishment and detail.” (YouGov, 2014).

His thoughts were statistically evident in that time. In the late 60’s and early 70’s social class played a vast part in gaining votes for political parties.

“For the many, not the few” (Labour.org, 2017)

There has always been a larger population of the working class and less of the middle class. More than half of the turnout for votes was working class background voting for the labour party. The middle class votes only added up to 25% of the votes. The majority of the vote from the working class resulted in Labour being in power. Most of the middle class votes went towards the conservative party.

This shows a clear divide between the proletariat and bourgeoisie and how the poor united to banish policies that did not favour them.

Did 2017 blur the lines between the social classes voting turnout?

Over 50 years ago social class was based on two main groups. You would either own the means of production which meant you were grouped as middle class or you were a laborer and created the means of production. In the past the Office for National Statistics groups your socio-economic status by categorizing voters into six groups. A, B, C1 were categorized as the proletariat and C2, D, and E are considered as the bourgeoisie. In other words the first three were grouped as middle class and the next three were grouped as working class. Figure 1 provides an insight into how they are grouped considering job sectors.

Figure 2 Statistics of the Socio-economic class turnout for the labour vote from 1970 to 2010 (YouGov, 2011)

Figure 2 shows that in 1970 there was a large spilt between the working and middle class votes for labour. A, B, C1 voted far less for labour compared to C2, D, E. The majority vote for labour was from the working class.
The Labour votes also shows the timespan of the change of votes from social class. The Change in votes 40 years later, shows the drastic change and turnover in social class. In 2010 A, B, C1 votes where far more than the groups C2, D and E.
Although there was not an extreme difference between the two classes like 1970’s labour votes, the middle class did vote for labour more than the working class in 2010. In the past social class was the main target for voters, however this has changed and socio economic class in votes does not indicate why people vote. This shows a decline in the social class division.

Is labour almost in power or are independent voters in power?

Figure 3 Vote by age 2017 general elections (Yougov, 2017)

Results from a survey show a large increase in young people’s votes for the labour party. This was the year in which the most amount of young people voted. The leader of the labour party Jeremy Corbyn was seen sharing platforms with Grime artists, whose music is focused towards young people. This is one of the many reasons that suggests the labour party is no longer aimed towards a certain class but an age group.

Figure 4 Labour and Conservative class votes in 2017 (theguardian, 2017)

Figure 5 Liberal Democrats and UKIP class votes in 2017 (theguardian, 2017)

Figure 4 and 5 shows the change in vote for different classes. Middle class showed an increase of votes for labour. However, C2 showed an increase in votes for the conservative party who is usually aiming their policies at the upper class. This shows that voters may not vote for parties because of which one is favoring their social class. Political parties can no longer restrict those with different class backgrounds.

In my experience, how I engaged in politics was not because of any social class division. I have always been aware of the inequalities of social classes but I had very little say in being involved in the political side of it. Growing up in a working class background I understood the struggles but not entirely the reason of voting. My household usually voted for the councilor in the area who they placed most trust in and knew better. This did not show they were voting for a political party because of its policy but because of the people appointed in the area. As I got older and started engaging in politics, inequalities in classes seemed like less of an issue due to how political parties were aiming at different groups in society.

The 2017 outcome of different classes voting for different parties shows interesting patterns of voters engaging without feeling obliged to vote for a particular party and abolishing previous trends.

Bibliography

The changing politics of social class, You Gov (2014) https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2014/06/09/changing-politics-social-class (Accessed at: 20/3/19).

BLOG: Social Grade A, B, C1, C2, D, E (2014) https://www.ukgeographics.co.uk/blog/social-grade-a-b-c1-c2-d-e (Accessed at: 20/3/19)

Labour is not just the party of the working class, Yougov, (2011) https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2011/05/16/labour-not-just-party-working-class (Accessed at: 20/3/19)

Young voters, class and turnout: how Britain voted in 2017, Yougov, (2017) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/jun/20/young-voters-class-and-turnout-how-britain-voted-in-2017 (Accessed at: 20/3/19)

Labour.org, (2017) https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/labour-manifesto-2017.pdf Accessed at: 20/3/19)