Nearly half of Oxford finalists will vote Labour

In 2010 you liked the Tories


Left-leaning Oxford finalists are ditching the Tories and flocking to vote red.

With just days until the election, 42% of finalists are vowing to support Labour according to a Student Politics Survey.

Obviously, barely anyone’s voting for the Lib Dems.

In 2010 when the Conservative party was the most popular party among Oxford University students with Labour coming second.

Other beneficiaries of this switch include the Green party as finalists flock to the left.

At the last election, the Green party had roughly 2% of the vote in Oxford but is predicted to have 8.9% of the vote in Oxford West and 13% in Oxford East.

Labour could win an even greater share of the Oxford East vote at the forthcoming election.

With the switch in support among Oxford students to Labour, it is expected to increase its majority to 25.6% with a 96% chance of winning the seat.

The growth in support for Labour will also be down to the dwindling support for the Liberal Democrats who are predicted to lose nearly 15% of the vote in Oxford West, despite only missing out on gaining the seat by 176 seats in 2010.

The move to the left among Oxford finalists could be be bad news for Oxford West MP, Nicola Blackwood who’s share of the votes is predicted to fall from 42.3% to 38.4%.

Despite this, she still has an 83% chance of winning with a predicted 10.2% majority.

This could be largely thanks to the Liberal Democrats who have seen the issue of tuition fees come back to haunt them.

Nicola Blackwood could benefit from the collapse of the Liberal Democrat vote

UKIP, not normally popular among Oxford students, is also set to grow in both constituencies, but more so in Oxford West where there is a smaller proportion of students than Oxford East.

The UKIP vote is predicted to reach 10.6% in Oxford West, up from 2.7% in 2010, whilst it will only reach 5.2% in Oxford East.

This is a far greater proportion than other universities where the proportion stands out at just 1%. So whilst the majority of finalists are moving out to the left, a small proportion seem to be flocking to the far right.

How Final Year Students Plan to Vote in the forthcoming General Election

Our switch from favouring the Conservatives to favouring Labour puts us in the minority according to the Student Politics 2015 survey. Whilst 11 of the 30 universities studied favoured Labour, the Conservatives were still the most popular in 14 universities despite the two being neck and neck in the national student vote share at 31%.

Polls are open between 7am-10pm on 7th May.