UCL Public Policy Supports Parliamentary Candidates Project Ahead of General Election

UCL Public Policy is supporting the Parliamentary Candidates UK project in its work to track who is selected and who is elected to the UK House of Commons

Many in the British public believe the political class to be increasingly out of touch, insular and unable to understand the lives and concerns of ordinary citizens. And recent evidence suggests that politicians are increasingly drawn from a narrowing middle class—a privileged class—despite significant efforts at increasing the descriptive representation of elected representatives.

To find out more, UCL Public Policy is supporting the Parliamentary Candidates UK project in its work to track who is selected and who is elected to the UK House of Commons. 

In particular, the PCUK project, led by Dr Jennifer vanHeerde-Hudson, Associate Professor in Political Behaviour and Director, UCL Q-Step Centre at the Dept of Political Science, focuses on how the social profile of parliamentary candidates in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, education and occupational background has change over time and whether Parliament is truly representative of the population it serves. 

PCUK also examines candidates’ experiences of the selection and the campaign. We compare the extent to which candidates’ attitudes and voters’ attitudes align or converge on key policy issues – such as immigration, the economy and Brexit.