The Greying Gap: How Age and Delayed Adulthood Are Redefining British Politics

​Join us for the next entry in the Campaign Lab Academic series delivered by Dr Laura Serra.

Age has emerged as a primary predictor of voting behavior in the UK, creating a historic divide where older voters lean toward the Conservative Party while younger cohorts disproportionately support Labour and the Liberal Democrats. This gap is driven by a combination of intergenerational value changes with younger people being more socially liberal and delayed life-cycle transitions, such as home ownership and parenthood, which traditionally move voters toward right-leaning parties. While socioeconomic factors like education and income explain much of this effect, the increasing relevance of sociocultural attitudes has further amplified these generational differences in recent years.

​The future of this divide depends heavily on party strategy and voter mobilization, as younger citizens traditionally participate at lower rates. Research indicates that young voters respond strongly to economic policies tailored to their interests, such as housing and the cost of living, regardless of their partisan leanings. Unlike some trends in continental Europe, British youth have shown little affinity for populist-right parties like Reform UK, largely because their core platforms do not align with the economic priorities of younger Britons. However, emerging gender gaps and widening differences within age cohorts suggest that future political competition may become increasingly complex, cutting across education and life stage rather than age alone.

Speaker Biography Laura Serra is a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Electoral Psychology Observatory within the LSE Department of Government. Her award-winning research focuses on how age and party programs influence political behavior, and her PhD dissertation on the British voting age gap received the 2024 McDougall Trust Prize.