Boris Johnson to the rescue? How the Conservatives won the radical right vote in the 2019 General Election

Journal article

How can centre–right parties in majoritarian systems adapt to threats from the radical right? Using a long-term inter-election panel study, we identify a remarkably stable constituency of support for Britain’s recent radical-right parties – the UK Independence Party and the Brexit Party. We show also how these same voters defected from the Conservatives across elections. In response, the government used a combination of the election of a new leader, Boris Johnson, and a hardline position on Brexit to reincorporate these voters into its support base, helping to lead to a large Conservative majority in 2019. Cross-party evaluations of Johnson were even more important in influencing this success than the issue of Brexit itself. Effective centre–right adaption to radical-right challenges is not simply about strategic issue positioning, it can also derive from centre–right leaders with populist appeal.

Authors: Evans, G; de Geus, R; Green, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Journal: Political Studies
• Volume: 71
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 984-1005
• Publication date: 2021-10-28
• Acceptance date: 2021-09-17
• DOI: 10.1177/00323217211051191
• EISSN: 1467-9248
• ISSN: 0032-3217
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR