Tories winning student vote: poll

The Conservatives are winning the student vote on the UK's university campuses, a poll suggests.

Tories winning vote among students according to poll Tories winning vote among students, according to poll [PA]

Three in 10 (30%) are planning to vote Tory in the upcoming election, compared with just over one in five (21%) who are backing Labour.

The Liberal Democrats are just behind, with 19% of students planning to give them their vote.

The poll, by High Fliers Research, questioned almost 14,000 final year university students - the majority of whom have grown up under a Labour government and are voting for the first time.

The findings show the Tories are the front runners at 20 of the 30 universities surveyed, with support greatest at Durham University (46% of those surveyed there said they would be voting Conservative).

Labour is the top choice for students at seven institutions, with support greatest at the London School of Economics (32%). The Liberal Democrats are most popular at two universities - Leeds (26%) and Warwick (24%).

Sinn Fein is the most popular at Queen's University Belfast (22%). The Student Politics 2010 survey did find that overall, nearly one in five students (18%) remain undecided about who to vote for.

Nearly two thirds of the students questioned (63%) said they intend to vote based on policies, while 14% said they will vote for the most convincing leader. Some 13% said they will support the party their parents back.

But despite the majority saying they will vote on policies, a quarter (26%) said they don't believe it will make much difference to them who wins the election. Those choosing to vote Tory were most likely to have attended private school, while Labour-supporting students were largely from state schools or colleges, the poll found.

A similar poll conducted by High Fliers in 1997 found Labour was in front - with 29% of students planning to back them in that year's election, compared to 18% voting Tory and 10% backing the Lib Dems.

Comments Unavailable

Sorry, we are unable to accept comments about this article at the moment. However, you will find some great articles which you can comment on right now in our Comment section.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?