FAQ

Why do you show a specific date for the next general election?

We always show the date for the next general election as 5 years after the first meeting of parliament plus the 25 working day campaign period. This is defined in the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. If parliament dissolves sooner, we will update the election dates on the site accordingly.

Does the UK swingometer take GB or UK figures?

GB. Pollsters almost always produce GB figures so that is what the UK swingometer uses. We call it the UK swingometer because it takes into account the seats from Northern Ireland when calculating the majority.

Is your general election polling page a prediction of what will happen at the next general election?

The polling page is not a prediction, it is a reflection of the current state of the polls and, assuming that they are correct, public opinion. It calculates the polling average and applies the change in the share of the vote uniformly across every constituency in the United Kingdom with the exception of those in Northern Ireland. It then determines how many seats will change hands on that basis and calculates what the outcome of the election would be in those circumstances.

Modelling elections this way has worked well in the past, even with the emergence of UKIP and the decline of the Liberal Democrats. Whether this model will work in the future remains to be seen.

How do you calculate the polling averages?

Polls are only included in the polling average if they come from a reliable source and the data tables are published. Each poll is listed in order of the last day the fieldwork was completed. Each poll is given an initial weight of 1.

1. After each day the weight of the poll is reduced by 0.05.
2. If multiple polls are released by the same pollster then the first poll has no additional reduction in its weight, but each subsequent poll has its weight reduced by an additional 0.2.

When the weight gets to 0 or below then the poll is dropped from the calculation.

Does the swingometer take into account by-election results?

No. By-elections often produce results that are unlikely to be reproduced at a general election. Therefore including them would be unhelpful.

Do you track local by-elections?

No. This is mainly for two reasons. Firstly local by-elections happen most weeks meaning that we would always be writing up results. Secondly they often produce results that are out of line with national politics because of low turnouts or the electorate being motivated by a particular local issue.

What is MIN and OTH?

You may have noticed MIN and OTH in election results. MIN is the largest vote for a candidate who does not belong to one of the main parties. OTH is the total votes cast minus the votes cast for the parties minus MIN. The total votes cast is therefore equal to the party votes plus MIN plus OTH. It is done this way so as to not clutter up the results as Election Polling is mostly about the electoral analysis of the main parties.