A survey led by Professor Chris Hanretty and polling agency Survation classifies every MP in Britain as economically left or right-wing.
A survey conducted by Royal Holloway, University of London and and Survation found that Green Party Member of Parliament Caroline Lucas is the most left-wing MP in Britain, along with SNPs Steven Bonnar, and Labour Party’s John McDonnell. John Redwood, Mark Jenkinson and Suella Braverman – all of the Conservative Party - were found to be Britain’s most right-wing MPs.
Determining an MPs left or right-wing tendencies from government websites can be tricky and voting records aren’t always a clear indicator. The survey set out to analyse the economic policy of all MPs in a way that hadn’t been attempted previously.
The research was based on a survey conducted by polling and market research agency Survation, who surveyed 1,486 local councillors across England, Wales and Scotland, between 7 August and 3 September 2023.
Councillors were presented with pairs of MPs drawn from their local area, together with the leaders of the two largest parties – Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer – and were asked to choose the most left or right-wing MP out of each pair.
Researchers at Royal Holloway then modelled councillor’s choices to work out which MPs were more likely to be picked as left-wing, given their own position and the likely positions of the MPs they were compared to.
This modelling gives a single number for each MP, where smaller numbers indicate more left-wing MPs and larger numbers more right-wing MPs.
The research is part of ongoing collaborative work by Survation and Royal Holloway using data collected by Survation to better understand opinion in small areas and sub-groups within Britain. The results of this analysis can be found at the website www.mpsleftright.co.uk. (Website launches on Tuesday 31 October). Users can compare a chosen MP to another named MP, all other MPs, or all other MPs from their party.
Lead researcher Professor Chris Hanretty, from the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy at Royal Holloway, said: "Lots of us who follow politics obsessively know which MPs are more left- or right-wing. But we might struggle to rank all MPs, and we'd find it hard to communicate those results to voters.
“At a time when elections are looming, we hope this research enables voters to better understand the position of their local representative on the economy."
