Pragmaticus - A Brexit-Dominated Agenda: The 2019 General Election

A Brexit-Dominated Agenda: The 2019 General Election

11/07/25

BORIS JOHNSON SIGNS BREXIT WITHDRAWL AGREEMENT, IMAGE: U.K. PRIME MINISTER

Dominated by Brexit, the 2019 General Election merited the Conservative Party its largest Parliamentary majority since Thatcher. Led by Boris Johnson, the Conservatives won 365 seats.

Brexit

The 2019 General Election was one dominated by discussion of the best way to resolve the Brexit issue. In general, the public was getting frustrated with the inability of the major parties to find a solution to the EU withdrawal after years of attempts. With Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister in July, the newly elected Prime Minister used his “Get Brexit Done” pledge to gain notable approval. Johnson promised to make sure Brexit was completed by the end of January 2020, a promise he met, and the UK left on the 31st of January in a lasting transition period until the end of the year.

The Corbyn-led Labour Party promised a second referendum on Brexit and the creation of a new Labour-designed deal if Leave were to win again. The Liberal Democrats, however, pledged to scrap Brexit altogether. Neither policy proved electorally successful.

PRO BREXIT BANNERS OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT, IMAGE: CHIRALJON

Wider Campaigning and Policy

The Tory campaign was one led by the Brexit issue, with Johnson making minimal public appearances for a serving leader. The objective was to leverage the Brexit issue to convince voters by promising to finally get it done after years of discussion and minimal action, which the electorate was tired of. Minimal appearances in the media also painted Johnson as focused, more determined, and clearer than Corbyn in his policymaking.

Labour made significant attempts to attack Johnson’s lack of public appearances, amongst other perceived Tory failings, through social media, with Corbyn’s campaign investing lots into advertisements. 2019 marked a new turn in British general elections, as social media ads became more prevalent than in any election before.

Alongside their Brexit pledge, the Tory manifesto promised an increase in the number of nurses by 50,000, pension rises of at least 2.5% per year, £6.3bn in expenditure on 2.2 million disadvantaged homes, and the introduction of a points-based immigration system.

Corbynite Labour promises focused on boosting public services and improving living standards for the disadvantaged. This included healthcare growth, with the pledge to increase the health budget by 4.3%, and the introduction of a national care service. Raising the minimum wage to £10 and constructing 100,000 more council homes were additional promises made to benefit working people, alongside the nationalisation of key industries such as the National Grid, the water industry, railways, as well as the big six energy firms.

Corbyn himself, however, was troubled with the label of antisemite, with the Labour leader eventually being suspended by the Party a year later because of his reaction to the human rights watchdog’s report finding that Labour was responsible for ‘unlawful’ harassment and discrimination during Corbyn’s tenure.

The highly unsuccessful Liberal Democrats promised the recruitment of 20,000 teachers and increased reliance on renewable energy. Childcare and healthcare pledges included a penny income tax rise for NHS spending, which they stated would raise £7 billion over five years, and free childcare for all children aged two to four, up to 35 hours a week. Those on zero-hour contracts supported the Liberal Democrat promise to give zero-hour workers a 20% income rise, and many supported the construction of 300,000 new homes each year, also promised by the Party.

LABOUR'S LEADER IN 2019 ELECTION, JEREMY CORBYN, IMAGE: JESSICA TAYLOR

Voting

Result

The Conservative Party dominated the 2019 General Election, winning 365 seats with 44% of the vote share. The Labour Party won 32% of the vote and 203 seats, whereas the Liberal Democrats amassed a mere 11 seats, although this was heavily disproportionate (they won 12% of the vote share). The overall turnout was 67%. The full results are available here.

Age

For age, this article uses the YouGov numbers as their categories are preferred; however, you can find Ipsos’ version of the data with slightly different categories here. I have used only the 18-24, 40-49 and 60-69 age categories because these three show the widest spread of voting behaviour across the generations, while minimising the numerical overload.

47% of 18-24 year olds turned out, with this age range overwhelmingly opting to vote Labour (56%). 21% of this age range voted Conservative and 11% Liberal Democrat. 18-24 year olds are the only age category where the Conservatives didn’t win, with them claiming 41% of 40-49 votes, and 57% of 60-69 ballots. In these same categories, respectively, Labour won 35% and 22%, while the Liberal Democrats won 13% and 11%. Turnout was highest amongst 60-69 year olds, with a 74% turnout, compared to 63% for the 40-49 bracket.

This data suggests that, as a person ages, they become considerably more likely to vote Conservative, and much less likely to vote Labour, whilst Liberal Democrat voting remains very similar throughout the different age groups. Additionally, as a person ages, they become much more likely to vote, with more than 25% more people voting in the 60-69 category than in 18-24 year olds.

Ethnicity

Only 20% of the BAME community voted Conservative. 64% voted Labour, and 12% Liberal Democrat. As is the norm for UK elections, BAME individuals vote for the Labour Party far more than the Conservatives (over three times more in this case). Interestingly, BAME voting for the three largest parties was at 96%, compared to 88% overall.

Gender

Men voted Conservative 46% of the time, 31% voted Labour, and 12% went with the Liberal Democrats. The results were very similar among women, with 43% of women voting Conservative, 34% voting Labour, and once again 12% voting Liberal Democrat. There is a clear similarity in voting between genders. Gender is a weaker factor to use in a question on voting behaviour, unless you are trying to demonstrate the very little difference between genders itself.

Class

The main trends across class in the 2019 General Election were that although lower classes were less likely to vote than higher classes, the distribution of votes across the Parties remained fairly similar throughout. The lowest class, DE voters, were more likely to vote Labour than anyone else, yet, the most common Conservative voters were only the class above - the C2 class.