James David Griffiths

James David Griffiths

@jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social

Research Fellow at the British Election Study, Wrexham and Wales fan

575 Followers 214 Following 89 Posts Joined Nov 2023
2 days ago
Graph showing the percentage of people who like a party who said that they did (in 2024) or would (in 2025) vote for that specific party. Greens convert the fewest people who strongly like them into voters, even in 2025 (when their vote share has increased).

Greens have particularly struggled to convert *liking* into *voting*.

Looking at GB-wide parties, the Greens were the least successful at turning people who strongly liked them into actual voters. Expect this has changed now!

Labour convert at a similar rate in 2025 v 2024- but fewer like them!

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2 days ago

That's cool! Will be interesting to see if that's changed over the past year, as the Greens have become more viable.

Reform's trajectory suggests the answer is "probably" ?

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3 days ago

The comments from Labour figures since Gorton and Denton suggest that they still don't see losses to the left as a risk (or don't want to admit it publicly). Doesn't bode well for them in the upcoming devolved/local elections...

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3 days ago

No worries! I'll add it to the codebook too and reupload on Monday

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3 days ago
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Here you go! Sorry for the photo, it was too long to post here.

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5 days ago

Could I ask which version are you using please? I just checked v30.1 (the most recent on our website) and they should be there. If not, I'll need to do some digging to check what's gone wrong.

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5 days ago

In Wave 30 (May 2025), the variables are named "generalElectionRanked_1" to generalElectionRanked_12"

We also have generalElectionVote, which is regular vote intention!

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5 days ago

Morning Ewan, I've just checked, and we have a ranked voting Q in Wave 30 if that helps you?

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1 week ago
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Late deciders, higher turnout: what the Gorton and Denton byelection taught us about voters High numbers of undecideds may partially explain the late swing to the Greens.

New piece from w/ @hannahbunting.bsky.social & @jess-smith.bsky.social on the Gorton & Denton byelection, and what it might tell us about British politics.

We cover turnout, late-deciding voters, gender gaps & the continuing fragmentation of the party system 🧵

theconversation.com/late-decider...

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1 week ago
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Things continue to go badly for Labour By Stephen Fisher, 27 February 2026 Yesterday Labour lost the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election. This was a constituency were they took 50.8% of the vote at the 2024 general ele…

New post by me on how and why support for Labour has dropped since the general election, and how the Green by-election win yesterday increases the chances of a Reform majority at the next GE because tactical coordination failure on the left is now more likely.

electionsetc.com/2026/02/27/t...

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1 week ago

Thanks Dan!

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1 week ago
Submit your questionnaire proposals - The British Election Study

You can submit your proposal here!

www.britishelectionstudy.com/submit-your-...

We also have relative propensity to vote/like scores, which might help in the meantime?

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1 week ago
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Great to speak with @meganekenyon.bsky.social of @newstatesman1913.bsky.social on location about the result in Gorton and Denton, including the role of party blocs!

Clipped my bit below, but you can watch the whole video here (bonus, there is a cat!):
youtu.be/dUh_1XuAg-g?...

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1 week ago
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Here's a table in the new @britishelectionstudy.com book (forthcoming). We calculated 'second preferences' - here Labour voters after elections 2015 to 2024.

50% of Labour's 2024 voters had Greens as second preference. 42% the Lib Dems. The left bloc is coalescing behind the most viable left party!

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1 month ago
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🚨New article in @electoralstudies.bsky.social🚨

New method using open-text survey, parliament speech analysis & conjoint experiment to detect policies/issues where all of:
1) bottom-up public demand
2) elites are neglecting it
3) would motivate vote choice if party adopt it

tinyurl.com/44ryyybc

🧵

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1 month ago
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'Avoiding the iceberg' - LabourList Labour’s polling crisis isn’t about Reform voters but losing progressives. To avoid electoral collapse, the party must clarify its values and unite its bloc.

Good to see Labour politicians talking about blocs!

labourlist.org/2026/01/avoi...

If you want to know more, you can read our article introducing the idea in Britain here: academic.oup.com/pa/article/7...

Also Green and Miori's excellent work here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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2 months ago

Reform are still toxic to many voters in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Too right-wing for most Labour voters, too British for most SNP voters

That leaves them just taking votes off Tories, who already get fewer votes in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 than 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 or 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Scotland isn't a "no-go" zone, but Reform's voters will mostly be from the British/Right

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2 months ago

This graph from @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social et al's paper (free to read!) academic.oup.com/pa/article/7... - shows within bloc switching was higher than across bloc switching in 2015, 2017 and 2024:

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2 months ago
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🧵 Thread on new research on gender gaps in “don’t know” responses

Some of you will know that my stellar coauthors @hannahbunting.bsky.social @cerifowler.bsky.social @jess-smith.bsky.social @annasanders.bsky.social & I have been working on a large-scale project on “don’t know” responses in surveys.

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2 months ago

For those interested, raw data download is here along with some basic cross tabs: github.com/jaclarner/Ca...

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2 months ago
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Right let's breakdown this new poll for Wales because there is a lot going on below the headline figures.

[Thread]

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2 months ago

In England, the Lib Dems and Greens are absolutely benefiting from the same trend.

The Lib Dems don't really have a big presence in Wales, but the Greens are also growing in Wales (to a lesser extent that Plaid, but more so among the fewer left/British people I think)

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2 months ago
GitHub - jaclarner/Cardiff-YouGov_Dec25: Repository for simple cross tabs and raw data (.csv) for Cardiff University/YouGov December 2025 Data Repository for simple cross tabs and raw data (.csv) for Cardiff University/YouGov December 2025 Data - jaclarner/Cardiff-YouGov_Dec25

Raw data here!

github.com/jaclarner/Ca...

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2 months ago
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Consolidation, Not Conversion: Understanding Wales’s Ongoing Realignment Showcasing current research, comments and analysis on the law, politics, history, culture, government and political economy of Wales from the Wales Governance Centre.

👇👇Upcoming Senedd elections look set to break the mould of Welsh party politics and rock UK Labour. To understand the ‘made in Wales’ and UK influences on this ‘within bloc’ realignment read @jaclarner.bsky.social & @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social 👇👇

blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...

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2 months ago

In short, Labour is on track for a historic loss, but this is happening because of movement *within* Wales's electoral blocs, not *between* them.

Labour's biggest losses are to Plaid Cymru, not Reform (who are growing from Tory losses).

Long way to go, but Labour are in a really tough place in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

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2 months ago

The most common reasons that Lab > Plaid switchers give for their switch concern the ability to stand up for Wales and beating Reform.

Labour’s strategy has alienated its core voters, and unlike at UK level it can’t rely on “stop Reform” messaging: many now see Plaid as the better option for that.

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2 months ago

Similarly, Reform UK has consolidated the British/right vote

Reform's rise is at the expense of the Conservatives, not Labour!

These trends are similar to the rest of GB, as Labour are mostly losing voters on their left flank - what's specific to Wales is that Plaid is now seen as the best option

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2 months ago
Graph showing support for the Welsh/left bloc and British/right bloc by national identity in 2021 and 2025. Labour has lost basically all support among Welsh identifiers to Plaid, whereas the Tories have lost the support of British identifiers to Reform

Welsh elections have long been structured into a Welsh/left bloc and a British/right bloc.

Despite the huge changes in 2021, most switching is within (not between) blocs

Labour previously got the most support from the Welsh/left, but since 2025 they've lost lots of these voters to Plaid Cymru.

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2 months ago
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Consolidation, Not Conversion: Understanding Wales’s Ongoing Realignment Showcasing current research, comments and analysis on the law, politics, history, culture, government and political economy of Wales from the Wales Governance Centre.

🚨 NEW BLOG

Labour have won every election in Wales for 100 years, but they are on track to (badly) lose the 2026 Senedd election - why?

@jaclarner.bsky.social and I have looked at new data, which shows how support is shifting within (not between) Wales's blocs!

blogs.cardiff.ac.uk/thinking-wal...

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2 months ago
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Considering Reform’s Potential ‘Ceiling’ - Nuffield Politics Research Centre

Are Reform at their ceiling?

@martamiori.bsky.social and I explored @britishelectionstudy.com data and found a high % of May 2025 Con voters could switch.

We think it depends on intensity of preference and right-bloc party viability.

Link here:

politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/opinion/cons...

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