General Election 2019: Labour has designers’ vote

A snap Design Week survey of 335 respondents suggests designers will mainly be voting for Labour when the UK takes to the polls next Thursday.

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The majority of designers will be voting for a Labour government in the UK’s general election scheduled for 12 December, a Design Week poll shows.

Over the course of four days, readers were asked to anonymously share their voting intentions with us, with 335 responding to the call. The results suggest that Labour, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, has won the vote of the industry, with an overwhelming 55% of designers intending to vote red next week.

 

Majority of designers for Labour

The prospective share of designers’ votes for Labour is considerably higher than any other party in the running. Trailing on relatively equal footing are the Conservative Party, led by prime minister Boris Johnson, and the Liberal Democrats, led by Jo Swinson, with 13% and 11% of designers intending to vote for them, respectively.

These results appear marginally different to those collected by Design Week in the run up to the 2017 election, where still Labour came out on top with designers, but with 46%. Conversely, numbers for designers voting Tory and LibDem seem to have dropped slightly.

Following the front runners, 8% of designers intend to vote Green; 2% for the SNP; 1% for Plaid Cymru; and 1% for the Brexit Party. The snap poll also revealed that with less than a week to go until polling day, 7% of designers do not know who they will be voting for.

Despite being a clear favourite among designers, Labour’s success is currently not predicted in the wider national vote. Data from this week’s opinion polls suggest 42% of the electorate intend to vote for the Conservatives, with Labour support between 32-35% (ComRes, YouGov, ICM).

 

Differing focuses on UK creative industry

As expected, the contending parties have all placed differing emphasis on issues important to voting designers. Labour’s Charter for the Arts promises a £160 million arts pupil premium for schoolchildren, fairly distributed lottery grants, a strengthening of workers’ rights in creative industries and free full-fibre broadband to all, which it believes will greatly impact the growing digital creative industry.

Meanwhile, the Conservative Party also claims it will introduce an arts premium for schools, though for an unspecified amount. The manifesto also suggests the Tories will place a sharper focus on innovation and science.

 

The Brexit effect

While the Conservative manifesto suggests the UK’s position on the global creative stage will be strengthened by Brexit, others are less convinced. Back in September, outgoing deputy Labour leader Tom Watson addressed the Creative Industries Federation, saying a no-deal Brexit in particular would be “disastrous”.

The Creative Industries Federation’s own 10-point manifesto says a dedicated freelance visa should be introduced for international workers to avoid Brexit negatively impacting the UK creative industry. It also states a touring visa must be negotiated with the European Union, which would allow UK creatives to work abroad.

The vote will take place on 12 December between 7am and 10pm.

Results in full:

Labour: 55 %

Tories: 13%

LibDems: 11%

Green: 8%

Unsure: 7%

SNP: 2%

Plaid Cymru: 1%

Brexit: 1%

Not planning: 1%

Other: 1%

UKIP & DUP: 0%

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