Do ‘Workington Man’ and ‘Worcester Woman’ decide elections?

National characters

How useful is it to characterise an election with a single anthropological specimen such as ‘Workington Man’? ‘Worcester Woman’ was identified by Tory strategists ahead of the 1997 election as a key voter who had helped John Major win, against expectations, in 1992. Worcester was then a Conservative seat. Has the city followed the national trend since?

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Druin Burch

Lucy Letby and the killer nurse I worked with

1992: Con 46% of Worcester vote, Lab 36%
(Nationwide, Tory majority of 21)
1997: Lab 50%, Con 36%
(Labour majority of 178 seats nationwide)
2001: Lab 49%, Con 36%
(Labour majority of 166)
2005: Lab 42%, Con 35%
(Labour majority of 65)
2010: Con 40%, Lab 33%
(Hung parliament: Con/Lib Dem coalition)
2015 : Con 45%, Lab 34%
(Conservative majority of 15)
2017: Con 48%, Lab 43%
(Hung parliament: Tory minority government)

Questions of trust