Law student undergrads are more Tory than law student postgrads

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By Legal Cheek on

But a Legal Cheek survey reveals practising lawyers would vote Liberal Democrats if an election was called tomorrow

If a snap election was called tomorrow, most law student undergraduates would vote for Theresa May’s Conservative Party.

This according to a recent survey run by Legal Cheek. In it, we asked our readers where they’d place their ballot paper cross if they had to make the decision by tomorrow. The options given were: the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, UKIP, the Green Party, or another candidate. We also gave survey respondents the opportunity to click ‘Wouldn’t vote’ or ‘Spoilt ballot’.

Overall, it was the Lib Dems which came out on top, pipping the Tories to the post with 30.8% of the vote over May’s 29.82%. Corbyn’s Labour scored 24.37%, the Greens 5.65%, UKIP 1.27% and ‘Other’ 3.31%. Some of our readers (2.63%) opted for ‘Spoilt ballot’ and 2.14% said they wouldn’t vote.

Overall results

What’s particularly illuminating, however, is seeing who voted for what.

When looking at undergraduate law students (first years to final years) in isolation, for example, it was actually May’s Conservatives that came out on top. They notched up 28.93% of the vote. Just behind was Corbyn’s Labour Party with 26.72%. Trailing in third place with law students — compared to first place among all voters — was Farron’s Lib Dems with 26.45%. Just over 6% of law undergrads went for the Greens, and 1.1% UKIP.

Undergraduate results

This result is interesting, not least because law students are typically left wing. The Lib Dems have long been a historical favourite among students (until that famous university tuition fee U-turn anyway…), yet their hopes of a second EU referendum don’t seem to have swayed our, overwhelming pro-Remain, law student readership.

However, this Tory stronghold seems to dissipate after graduation. When we looked at our law student postgrads — that’s Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) students, Legal Practice Course (LPC) students, Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) students and law masters (LLM) students — away from their undergraduate peers, the Lib Dems were the clear winners (35.32%). Corbyn and May were tied on 26.61%.

Postgraduate results

And it was the Lib Dems which came out on top among practising lawyers too, but only just. Filtering the results of our survey — in which we had over 1,000 respondents — to paralegals, trainees, solicitors, pupils, barristers and ‘other’, Farron and friends snapped up 32.6% of the vote, very closely followed by the Conservatives on 32.12%.

While readers may be surprised to know law students would vote for May over Farron and Corbyn, it’s worth noting our non-law respondents were more Tory than their law-loving peers. GDL-ers and students studying for a non-law undergraduate degrees backed May with 34.62% of the vote. Farron came in second with 28.85%, and Corbyn notched up just 23.08% of the vote.

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