Financial Times readers split the vote for Labour and Conservative despite the broadsheet backing the Tories in the general election, the largest ever survey of British voting behaviour has shown.
YouGov polled more than 50,000 British adults over three days, from 9 to 13 June, to gather information on how the nation voted in last week’s snap election.
Among the questions asked of voters, alongside how they voted, was which newspaper they read most often.
The breakdown shows, somewhat predictably, that readers of right-leaning titles the Telegraph, Mail, Express and Sun voted in vast majority for the Conservatives, while readers of left-leaning titles the Guardian, Mirror and Independent voted overwhelmingly for Labour.
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Voting largely follows political endorsements by each title ahead of the election, which were as follows:
- Telegraph – Tory
- Daily Mail – Tory
- Daily Express – Tory
- Sun – Tory
- Times – Tory
- FT – Tory
- Daily Star – Undeclared
- Daily Mirror – Labour
- Guardian – Labour
- Independent – Undeclared
The Financial Times saw 40 per cent of readers voting blue and 39 per cent red, despite endorsing the Conservative Party.
The Independent, while not declaring for any party, had the largest number of highly shared articles across social media relating to the general election throughout the campaign, according to data from Buzzsumo. Press Gazette analysis deemed the stories to have been overwhelmingly pro-Labour/anti-Tory.
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Source: YouGov
Despite making the case for its readers to vote Tory, still 30 per cent of the Sun’s readers chose Labour in the polling booth.
The Times saw 58 per cent of its readers plum for the Tories, while 24 per cent voted for Labour.
Of the 52,615 Brits polled by YouGov, the Daily Mail was the most-read newspaper at 6,887 followed by the Guardian at 5,105 and the Sun – the UK’s most widely read newspaper by circulation – at 3,835 (weighted sample figures).
Of those polled, 31 per cent said they did not turn out to vote versus 61 per cent who voted.
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