Populist attitudes among parliamentary candidates in Britain

Tindall, Callum; Trumm, Siim

Abstract

Rising support for populist parties and candidates has become a key story of recent decades, making headlines in Western democracies and beyond. While a growing body of populism research focuses on how parties use populist messaging and which voters are most drawn to these messages, we still know relatively little about the extent to which individual politicians hold populist views. Using data from the Representative Audit of Britain Survey, we examine populist sentiments among parliamentary candidates in Britain. Our findings show that populist attitudes among candidates remain modest, with anti-elite sentiments being the most prominent. Additionally, we find partisanship and incumbency to be the most consistent predictors of the extent to which candidates hold populist attitudes. Taken together, our findings suggest that populist sentiments are not particularly strong among parliamentary candidates in Britain and that support for different types of populist views varies in terms of strength and motivation.

Citation

Tindall, C., & Trumm, S. (2024). Populist attitudes among parliamentary candidates in Britain. British Politics, 19, 334-354. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-023-00233-2

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 14, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Apr 6, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024-09
• Deposit Date: Mar 15, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 7, 2024
• Journal: British Politics
• Print ISSN: 1746-918X
• Electronic ISSN: 1746-9198
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Pages: 334-354
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-023-00233-2
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Sociology and Political Science; History
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/18523622
• Publisher URL: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41293-023-00233-2