Election 2017: Silicon Readers Switch Allegiance And Back Labour

Readers of Silicon are most likely to vote Labour in today’s General Election, two years after backing the Conservative party.

Polls in the final week of the campaign have been wildly inconsistent but there is a general belief that Theresa May will still be Prime Minister tomorrow.

Our poll is of course not representative of the UK as a whole, but it does offer an insight into how the UK technology community has felt about the past two years of government and leaving the European Union (EU).

General Election 2017

Traditionally, the Conservatives have been seen as the party of business but the majority of tech firms were against Brexit. Add in to the fact that technology has largely been absent from this year’s campaign and the ingredients are there for a shift in view.

In 2015, 32 percent of our readers backed the Tories, ahead of Labour on 26.8 percent and UKIP on 16.7 percent.

This time, Labour secured 43.2 percent of the vote, ahead of the Conservative’s 29 percent and the Liberal Democrat’s 14.8 percent, up from just 3 percent last time. The SNP’s support has fallen to 5.2 percent, while UKIP was the favoured party of just 3,9 percent.

‘Other’ candidates were supported by 2.6 percent, perhaps including Plaid Cymru in Wales, Northern Irish parties and the Monster Raving Loony Party. The Green Party came last with 1.3 percent.

The results of the election will be known early tomorrow morning and the polls are still open at the time of writing. So if you haven’t voted, why not read our handy guide to each party’s tech policies?

Quiz: What do you know about public sector IT?