Older voters won Boris Johnson general election despite falling age of Tory supporters

17 December 2019, 15:51

Older voters won Boris Johnson the general election, despite the falling age of Tory voters, according to a new opinion poll.

A YouGov survey of 40,000 adults following the election on Thursday found 67 per cent of over-70s voted Conservative, compared to just 21 per cent of 18-24-year-olds.

But the tipping point at which a voter is more likely to back the Tories than Labour was down sharply to 39, compared with 47 at the last election.

Among 18 to 24-year-olds, 56 percent voted Labour, while among the 30-39 age group it was 46 per cent for Labour against 30 per cent for the Conservatives.

Support for the Tories overtook Labour in the 40-49 age group by a margin of 41 per cent to 35 per cent, while among the 70-plus group it was just 14 per cent Labour.

The election also sharpened the divisions on Brexit, with the Tories increasing their share of the Leave vote from 65 per cent in 2017 to 74 per cent this time round.

In contrast, Labour's share of the Remain vote fell from 55 per cent in 2017 to just under half at 49 per cent.

Most of their losses were as a result of people switching to the Liberal Democrats, whose share of the Remain vote rose from 12 per cent to 21 per cent.

Overall, the Conservatives retained the support of 85 per cent of voters who backed them in 2017, compared with 72 per cent of Labour voters in the last election who stuck with the party.

Labour lost roughly the same numbers to the Tories (11 per cent) as they did to the Lib Dems (9 per cent).

Nigel Farage's Brexit Party did little damage to the Conservatives, attracting just 2 per cent of their 2017 support.

Despite increasing their overall vote share from 8 per cent to 12 per cent, the Lib Dems only retained 59 per cent of their 2017 vote - with one in five moving to Labour and 14 per cent to the Tories.