The Representative Audit of Britain

The Representative Audit of Britain brings research on parliamentary candidates together under one umbrella, providing a unique dataset that will help us answer some of the most pressing questions about the state of contemporary British parliamentary democracy. Public discourse frequently returns to the perceived growing political class in Britain, which is seemingly removed from the mainstream of society, self-perpetuating and elitist (typified by the row about VAT on Cornish Pasties, Daily Mail 27/03/2012). However, there is little in the way of data to systematically test these claims. The Representative Audit of Britain will include comprehensive information about the backgrounds of candidates standing in the 2015 British general election, including previous occupation, political experience, biological sex, parental status, ethnicity, religion, age, local connections, education, length of party membership and where possible previous selections/elections. The information about candidates will be combined with constituency data, such as marginality, percentage vote for each party in the current and previous general elections, turnout and economic and social indicators generated from census data. This combined dataset will be a powerful tool for analysing who gets selected and who gets elected, permitting us to examine whether certain groups--e.g. working-class people, BME individuals or women--are more likely to be selected in unwinnable seats or places with large working-class or Black and Minority Ethnic communities. However, these top-line findings may mask more subtle processes that can be examined using this data. For example: Do candidates with local political or national political experience get selected for the best seats? Do these trends vary by party? Does experience as a local councillor facilitate or hinder a political career? To what extent has the rise of the MP's researcher and the special advisor taken over the processes of political recruitment and are candidates in winnable seats more likely to have this experience than others? Do the factors interact together to create a 'typical' successful candidate? Or is this stereotype over-played by the news media?

We will combine socio-demographic and electoral data with attitudinal data from a survey of 2015 candidates. In recent years there has been a sharp decline in response rates to surveys of MPs and candidates, likely due to the proliferation of surveys and advent of online survey methods. We aim to maximize response rates via a two-prong strategy. First, to gather as much information as possible from party and media websites, party informants and interviews with candidates keeping the surveys for attitudinal measures. Second, by joining forces with the Comparative Candidate Study and British Representation Study, we will reduce the number of times candidates are surveyed. Combining forces with these and the British Election Study will also allow us to consider UK candidates cross-nationally, analyse change over time and make elite-mass comparisons. The data will allow us to answer questions about the representation of ideas in politics; assessing to what extent candidates and MPs share the ideological perspectives of the electorate and whether this varies by sub-groups of the population and by political party.

The British general public will indirectly benefit from the availability of coherent, systematic information about who their representatives are. Public discourse frequently returns to the perceived growing political class in Britain, which is seemingly removed from the mainstream of society, self-perpetuating and elitist. The Representative Audit of Britain will identify who gets selected and who gets elected, permitting us to examine whether certain groups--perhaps working-class people, BME individuals or women--are more likely to be selected in unwinnable seats or places with large working-class or BME communities. The contemporary stereotype of a successful politician is perhaps a middle-class man, who attended an independent school, with an Oxbridge education, with minimal local connections, but a great deal of Westminster experience. But this portrayal may be over played by the news media and other less readily apparent factors may be equally important in explaining who gets elected. These questions are all hugely important for understanding the state of the representation of different life experiences in contemporary British Parliamentary democracy.
In order to have an impact on the British public the research findings will be disseminated and data made directly available to third sector organisations, policy makers, political parties and the media.

The direct beneficiaries of the Representative Audit of Britain include: The BBC Political Research Unit and other news media; The Campaign for Gender Balance; The Centre for Women and Democracy; The Conservative Party; The Conservative Women's Organisation; Count Women In; The Electoral Commission;The Fabian Women's Network; The Fawcett Society; The Green Party; The Hansard Society; The Labour Party; The Labour Women's Network; The Liberal Democrats; Operation Black Vote; Plaid Cymru; The SNP; Stonewall; UKIP; Women2Win.

Interested practitioners have been involved with the formation of the research proposal and will continue to be involved should our application be successful. In March 2012 we ran a workshop on the future of studies of parliamentary candidates in Britain. The event was attended by representatives from the Hansard Society, the Electoral Commission and The Study of Parliament Group. Through this scoping work we identified other potential beneficiaries and set up meetings to identify common research questions. David Cowling from the BBC Political Research Unit supports the project and believes that it will be of real interest to the BBC and other media organisations. The Hansard Society is particularly interested in the research and we will work with them to ensure that the data meets their needs. Equality groups such as the Fawcett Society, Operation Black Vote and Stonewall will also benefit from the research as it will provide them with information about when and where women, BME and LGBT candidates are selected and elected. The information will be nuanced and permit an analysis of any variations in the resources (educational, political and occupational) that these candidates have access to and whether there are variations in the career trajectories of individuals drawn from these groups. Political parties may find the information useful as they redesign selection procedures and engage with equality issues. We will invite representatives of the organisations listed above to join a limited access blog forum where we will post draft questionnaires and preliminary findings on a regular basis. Beneficiaries will be invited to comment and to provide suggestions for alternative survey instruments. Our media and public engagement strategy will include phase reports and interim findings to help us foster relationships with beneficiaries and to enhance the utility of the research. Full details in the pathways to impact document.