Best for Britain have analysed the 2017 General Election voting results, and the data reveals the very real impact of tactical voting.
This research follows Best for Britain's tactical voting campaign in the 2017 UK General Election which advised voters which candidate to vote for to get as many pro-EU MPs elected. The 2017 general election resulted in Theresa May losing her Parliamentary majority.
Download the report as a PDF here.
Our report concludes:
"With the evidence from our previous studies, the BES and Ipsos Mori post-election polls, we can say with some confidence that the grassroots anti-Brexit tactical vote denied Theresa May her majority. While the Labour Party’s own campaign was more successful than expected, its impact was often localised and was helped by a general anti-Conservative tactical vote across the country which often backed the same candidates as the anti-Brexit vote and Best for Britain. Our model helps us identify the anti-Brexit part of the tactical vote.
The model is also helpful to evaluate which seats did better or worse than expected. Some of these results are surprising, with some of Labour’s biggest majorities fitting perfectly with our model, while some Labour gains still did less well for Labour than the model expected. The Conservatives gambled by backing the leave voters exclusively and still came up short. They were punished by remain voters and stand to be punished further if they back an uncompromising Brexit."