Great Britain 2017

Abstract

The 2017 election in the UK was unusual for a variety of reasons. Preceded by the Brexit referendum in the summer of 2016, the election demonstrated a new movement of antistatus-quo sentiments and, despite the lack of success of UKIP within the actual race, echoed rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the mainstream of British party competition. While right-wing extremist parties are more ambiguous in the UK than in France or Germany, with no one party dominating this side of the political spectrum long-term, the presence of UKIP and the Brexit referendum allows for similar comparisons to these other contexts. When anti-immigrant sentiments are not included, voting for UKIP (or being a “Leave” voter who voted Conservative) is positively affected by being more nativist; being more populist, however, negatively affects one’s likelihood of voting either UKIP or Brexit-Conservative (as does being highly educated, being unemployed, and being part of the working class). When anti-immigrant sentiments are included, they become the strongest predictor of a UKIP/Brexit-Conservative vote, with all other results persisting. Economic concerns and populism, then, do not function as hypothesized in the case of Great Britain.