The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #174179   Message #4235371
Posted By: Nigel Parsons
04-Feb-26 - 12:39 PM
Thread Name: BS: Brexit and other UK politics thread 4
Subject: RE: BS: Brexit and other UK politics thread 4
Backwoodsman:
You quote "From Daniel Lismore (UK-based artist, designer & perfumer) on his FB Page…
“Polls say Reform voters are the least educated.
Polling consistently shows that Reform UK draws its strongest support from voters with lower levels of formal educational attainment. That fact matters. Not as a slur, but because it helps explain a pattern that keeps repeating.


I saw that polling, but could find no evidence that 'weighting' had been applied to the figures.
A quick Google for percentage of entrants to 'higher education' gives the following:
Higher education (HE) entry in the UK has grown significantly, rising from ~3% in the 1950s to ~8% in 1970, ~19% by 1990, and peaking near 50% by the late 2010s. Recent data shows 18-year-old entry rates increased from 24.7% in 2006 to a 38.2% peak in 2021, settling at 36.3% in 2025.
The House of Commons Library


So if Reform are supported mainly by the older generation then that will always mean that those supporters will have lower levels of 'education', but higher levels of life experience.