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Oliver Heath

@olliheath.bsky.social
713 followers 246 following 1 posts

Professor of politics

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Reposted by Oliver Heath
Rosie Campbell @profrosiecamp.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I’m so excited to be working with a wonderful team led by @olliheath.bsky.social to run the next British Election Study. I’ve been using the data for 25 years now I can help produce it! www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/new...
royalholloway.ac.uk
New team, led by Royal Holloway, awarded leadership of the British Election Study to understand British democracy
Royal Holloway, King's College London and the University of Manchester have been awarded £4.9 million by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to lead the British Election Study (BES).
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Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Finally able to share a bit of exciting professional news - I will be one small part of a big new team headed up by @olliheath.bsky.social taking over the @britishelectionstudy.com from next year. Lots of exciting stuff to come soon! www.royalholloway.ac.uk/about-us/new...
royalholloway.ac.uk
New team, led by Royal Holloway, awarded leadership of the British Election Study to understand British democracy
Royal Holloway, King's College London and the University of Manchester have been awarded £4.9 million by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to lead the British Election Study (BES).
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Chris Prosser @caprosser.com · 02/10/2026
Excited to help run the BES for the next 5-10 years, this time alongside @olliheath.bsky.social, @chanret.bsky.social, Kaat Smets, @profrosiecamp.bsky.social, @bobbyduffy.bsky.social, @maxfalken.bsky.social, and @profsob.bsky.social, @jack-bailey.co.uk, Alex Cernat, and @robfordmancs.bsky.social!
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Oliver Heath @olliheath.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Very excited to share this news! Cant wait to get started
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Today's absolute must-read for anyone studying/interested in British electoral and party politics over the long term. (Oh, and I'm pretty sure this is indeed a British street despite the classic Citroen in the foreground)!
theconversation.com
The class divide in British politics didn’t erode slowly – it collapsed under New Labour
But the shift has more to do with how parties behave than any changes in the class system.
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Reposted by Oliver Heath
Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Why did class voting in Britain rise, then decline? @olliheath.bsky.social, Humphrey Southall, Paula Aucott & @caprosser.com examine elections from 1885-2024, arguing political agency explains class dealignment better than social change. OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/klGDUJz @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social
Abstract
Understanding when and why social cleavages shape electoral behaviour is a central concern in the study of democratic politics. While many accounts emphasise the long-term social changes, others point to the role of party strategy. We contribute to this debate by analysing the political evolution of one of the central cleavages of the twentieth century—class—in one of the world’s longest-standing democracies—Britain. Analysing a unique new dataset combining constituency-level results across 37 general elections from 1885 to 2024 with data from eight censuses, applying geospatial redistricting methods, we describe the rise, stability and eventual decline of class-based voting, showing that a strong class cleavage emerged in the early twentieth century, remained stable for decades, but then unravelled rapidly after the 1990s. These patterns are difficult to reconcile with theories that emphasise gradual social change and are more consistent with accounts that stress political agency and representation.
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Chris Prosser @caprosser.com · 19/06/2026
New paper from me, Olli Heath, Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott, just out in @polstudies.bsky.social: The rise and fall of class voting in Britain, 1885–2024 We link ~140 years of census and election data to map the relationship between class and vote in Britain doi.org/10.1177/0032...
doi.org
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Lawrence McKay @lawrencemckay.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Out now (OA) in @electoralstudies.bsky.social. Do people in rural areas want politicians offering stronger representation to rural areas - as opposed to just their local area? Yes - based an original conjoint experiment in the UK (1/5) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Laura Serra @lauraserra.bsky.social · 24/03/2025
I’m just a girl standing in front of a boy telling him it’s not true he has become more right-wing… it is me who has become more left-wing 🫠
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Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Has Britain's Eurosceptic and anti-immigration movement broadened its social appeal? @olliheath.bsky.social, Christopher Prosser, Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott look at the rise of Reform UK politicalquarterly.org.uk/blog/the-202...
politicalquarterly.org.uk
The 2024 General Election and the Rise of Reform UK
Has Britain's Eurosceptic and anti-immigration movement broadened its social appeal?
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Reposted by Oliver Heath
Peter Egge Langsæther @peterla.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
Very happy to share our new article in JoP @thejop.bsky.social, where we explore how parties forge links with social groups (here: social classes) through different appeals and how citizens respond to such appeals. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....
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Anja Neundorf @anjaneundorf.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
The most striking result from yesterday’s German election #btw2025 🇩🇪: 🔹 35 years after reunification: The GDR is redrawn on this map. 🔹 The AfD won 45 out of 48 electoral districts in the East. 🔹 In some parts of Saxony, they came close to 50%! Why is this happening? Here’s my take 👇
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Electoral Studies @electoralstudies.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
As Germany heads to the polls on Sunday, here are some articles we have published on German elections that can guide you through what to expect… 🗳️ 📊
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Political Quarterly @politicalquarterly.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Our SI on the 2024 UK General Election is out now! Eds @pjsloman.bsky.social @colmpm.bsky.social with @profdaverichards.bsky.social @profrosiecamp.bsky.social @aduggan.bsky.social @kitkowol.bsky.social @mathewlawrence.bsky.social @olliheath.bsky.social politicalquarterly.org.uk/collections/...
politicalquarterly.org.uk
The 2024 UK General Election
The 2024 general election was a landslide in the true sense of the word, as the collapse in Conservative and SNP support allowed Sir Keir Starmer to take power with a large parliamentary majority. Thi...
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Electoral Studies @electoralstudies.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
🚨 New report! 📊 Last week we published our 2024 annual journal summary with data on acceptance rates and average review and publication timings. Here are some highlights.
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Chris Prosser @caprosser.com · 02/12/2024
New from @olliheath.bsky.social, me, Humphrey Southall and Paula Aucott in @politicalquarterly.bsky.social: The 2024 General Election and the Rise of Reform UK onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The 2024 General Election and the Rise of Reform UK
This article examines the social base of support for Reform UK. Did Nigel Farage's new party depend on the same types of ‘left behind’ voters who had previously backed UKIP? Do the results of the 202...
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Daniela Lai @danielalai.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Applicants are invited to contact potential supervisors (soon!)
jobs.ac.uk
PhD Studentship in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London
Explore the PhD Studentship in Politics and International Relations on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for higher education. Apply now.
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Peter Allen @peterallen.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Myself and @ntmatthews.bsky.social have a new paper out in the Journal of Political Ideologies titled “New Labour and political myth”. It is available open access — www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Abstract for journal article titled New Labour and political myth — The 1997 UK General Election preceded 13 years of New Labour 
government. It would be a further 14 years until the Labour Party 
next held office. Following the initial disavowal of New Labour by 
many in the wake of the 2010 General Election, these 14 years saw 
the emergence of a positive narrative regarding New Labour and its 
time in office – in addition to the reestablishment of what can be 
seen as ‘New Labour people’ reproducing this narrative – in the 
mainstream of British political life. In this paper, we use the concept 
of political myth to explore the persistence of the ideas, strategy, 
and personnel of New Labour. We begin by defining the concept of 
political myth in greater detail, drawing out its key features as 
outlined in the existing literature. We then introduce the case of 
New Labour, giving an account of the emergence of what we term 
the New Labour Myth. We then demonstrate how this case falls 
under the concept of political myth using evidence drawn from 
a variety of sources across the post-2010 period. Taken together, we 
argue that the New Labour Myth constitutes an important strain of 
thought in contemporary British politics.
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Ralph Scott @ralphscott.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
🚨 NEW PUBLICATION 🚨 "Does disability affect support for political parties?" Just published in Electoral Studies, co-authored with Melanie Jones. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧵 👇
The abstract of the publication, which reads:

While it is well-established that disability reduces the probability of electoral turnout, far less is known about the relationship between disability and support for particular political parties. Using nationally representative longitudinal data from Understanding Society we explore the relationship between disability and party support in England and Wales along left-right and protest dimensions. Consistent with our hypotheses, analysis of cross-sectional data suggests that, after accounting for demographic characteristics, disabled people are significantly less likely to support parties to the right and more likely to support protest parties. In contrast, however, after accounting for time invariant individual unobserved heterogeneity using panel data methods, we find no evidence of a relationship between disability and left-right party support, and far less evidence of a relationship with protest parties. We discuss and attempt to reconcile these findings.
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Laura Bronner @laurabronner.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
A thread about being wrong: 5 years ago, we wrote a paper about how how newly enfranchised 16-year-olds vote in Austria. But we were wrong. This year, @elisabethgraf.bsky.social, @schnizzl.bsky.social, Sylvia Kritzinger and I are setting the record straight: authors.elsevier.com/c/1juT5xRaZk...
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Daniel Devine @danjdevine.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Our paper on trust and trusworthiness is out, where we test a model of competence, benevolence, and integrity in 5 countries. We find these are generally consistent across people and countries, with benevolence being most important in determining trust judgements. doi.org/10.1111/1475...
doi.org
The causes of perceived government trustworthiness
This paper examines the qualities of governments that influence their perceived trustworthiness, presenting the first experimental study of the distinct roles of ‘competence’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘inte...
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Ceri Fowler @cerifowler.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
New from me, @annasanders.bsky.social , @profrosiecamp.bsky.social and Rosie Shorrocks: some first reflections on gender & the 2024 UK election @politicalquarterly.bsky.social . More to come from the same team too- watch this space! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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Philip Cowley @philipjcowley.bsky.social · 04/10/2024
A tribute to David Denver, by me and Justin Fisher. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Reposted by Oliver Heath
Joost van Spanje @joostvanspanje.bsky.social · 25/09/2024
New! The *New Parties Data Set* by Stuart Bramwell and me. 2,434 parties in 22 countries since 1945, their score in 3 elections, and their mode of establishment. Thanks to our 🇪🇺ERC Consolidator Grant project 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇯🇵🇭🇺🇲🇦🇺🇸🇮🇹🇿🇦🇳🇱team in 🇬🇧London @rhulpirp.bsky.social. See dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...
dataverse.harvard.edu
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James David Griffiths @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social · 16/09/2024
We've had a look at support for Reform UK and the potential impact of Nigel Farage's return. We find that there are a lot of similarities to UKIP in 2015! This is also the second video that I've put together for the BES, so hopefully you enjoy!
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Laura Serra @lauraserra.bsky.social · 30/04/2024
Somehow managed to summarise my entire PhD thesis on the growing UK voting age gap in 1000 words for the PSA blog. Give it a read! ⬇️ www.psa.ac.uk/psa/news/wid...
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