The Conservatives are the most popular party with Britain’s students, according to a new survey. The research by the Tab says that 33 percent of students support the Conservatives, three points ahead of the Labour Party.
The results will surprise some, as students are often perceived as the most left wing and rebellious members of society.
The Green Party are in third place with 12 percent, ahead of the Liberal Democrats who have just 10 percent. The UK Independence Party have 6 percent.
The results are particularly concerning for the Liberal Democrats, who have previously courted the student vote in university cities across the UK, famously promising not to raise tuition fees at the last election and opposing the Iraq war in the election before.
They currently hold the seat of Cambridge, which they first won in 2005, thanks in part to the city’s large student population. They also narrowly missed out on taking the City of Durham from Labour at the last election, another city with a substantial number of students.
Their popularity with the student body has plummeted since the last election, however, after they entered into the coalition government with the Conservatives and broke their promise on tuition fees.
The revelation that six percent of students support the UK Independence Party comes as the Labour-dominated National Union of Students voted to openly oppose UKIP.
Thirty-five percent of respondents said that they felt the NUS could do a better job, 23 percent said they were “useless”, and another 35 percent said they had no idea what they even do. Just seven percent said they were happy with the support they receive from the NUS.
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