Parliamentary Candidates Could Have More Data Than Ever Before

Candidates standing for Parliament could have access to more data about their constituency than ever before, a pollster has suggested.

Parties are currently making decisions about where to expend their resources ahead of the election, with Labour fighting to make gains across the country, while the Conservatives try to hang on in previously safe seats, amid consistently low polling numbers. Data will be key to the choices both make.

Adam Drummond, head of political and social research at Opinium, told The House that the amount of publicly available polling, plus other forms of data, could arm candidates with more information than before about their constituency, and potentially give them a greater case to push for campaigning resources. 

“Over the last [...] year or two you’ve seen MRP results come out from all sorts of different companies,” he explained. 

“Actually, if you’re a PPC, there’s the resource and projections that you get from your party’s data team, but also you can just look [at all] of the different models that get published and you can collate all of this stuff together about what they say about your constituency, which is more than I think they would have had in any previous [election].” 

Drummond said there is possibly “potential for a little bit more dissent when decisions get made about which resources get put where”.  

He added: “One of the things is that parties need to make decisions about where they put resources: which seats they decide ‘you’re really not worth it”, and which ones are. 

“I wonder if from a party perspective that could be a little more difficult to manage [different models showing how things are doing] if you’re a PPC the party has decided it hasn’t got the resources to properly back, but