Hi! I’m David, a senior lecturer in British politics at the University of Liverpool.
My research interests are broad - I am interested in all aspects of British politics, party politics and electoral behaviour.
My main focus is to complete an undergraduate textbook on local government, titled Understanding UK Local Government.
I am also interested in the concept of identity and its influence on voting behaviour. This takes two main forms:
Exploring which local (sub-national) identities are politically salient, and how this salience plays out with regard to voting behaviour.
Exploring the voting behaviour of elected parliamentarians, as well as the broader reasons why they vote the way they do.
And then there’s anything else that piques my interest, typically involving voting behaviour and Liverpool’s political history. I am also the author of Whatever Happened to Tory Liverpool?, published by Liverpool University Press, and available as a hardback (£28) or an ebook (free).
I am involved in building a database of local election results from across Merseyside, imaginatively called the Merseyside Local Election Results Project.
In my spare time I’m usually found triathlon training (I’m aiming to complete my second Ironman in September 2023), doing a spot of parkrun tourism, staying up too late making maps, or abusing the spirit of the Pizza Hut buffet.
- The history and politics of Liverpool
- Scouse identity
- Identities and political behaviour
- British politics
- Party members
PhD in Politics, 2014 - 2017
Queen Mary University of London
MA in Politics with Research Methods, 2013 - 2014
University of Sheffield
BA in Politics and International Relations, 2010 - 2013
University of Sheffield
Academic Publications
Talks
Non-Academic Writing
Commentary, journalism, and other writing
How England’s new Reform councillors compare in their views to other parties
Reform councillors are more aligned with Greens when it comes to building more houses but take quite different views on crime and tax and spend.
‘Scouse not English’ is a myth
Liverpool’s reputation as a progressive city is overhyped.
Assisted dying: 56 MPs switched their vote between rounds – here’s how religion affected their choices
A group of MPs switched their vote between second and third reading, with those identifying as religious more likely to end up opposing the law change.
Politicians and the public agree on what the Spending Review’s priorities should be
With the UK Government’s spending review due to conclude in June 2025, Mitya Pearson and David Jeffery argue that while politicians and the public mostly agree on public spending priorities, politicians need to make the case to the public where they do not.
Royaume‑Uni : comment la religion des députés influence leur position sur la légalisation de l’aide à mourir
Les députés ont récemment voté sur un projet de loi sur l’aide à mourir. Un vote où leur affiliation religieuse a joué un rôle non négligeable.
Is the UK-EU reset the first step toward Britain rejoining the single market?
The UK and the EU have reached agreement on a post-Brexit “reset” to their relationship. Mitya Pearson and David Jeffery write that while there is support in the UK for establishing closer relations with the EU, there are major political obstacles to taking more ambitious steps like rejoining the single market.
What do MPs really think about immigration? We surveyed them to find out
Members of the public are more likely than MPs to think immigration has been too high in recent years.
Assisted dying bill: religious MPs were more likely to oppose law change in first round of voting
MPs will soon vote on Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill. Analysis of the second reading shows how religion, identity and party shaped support and opposition.
Reject rioting revisionism
Legitimate grievances do not justify illegitimate behaviour
How should Labour and the Tories respond to the populist right? Lessons from Europe
The evidence suggests traditional parties that ape the populist radical right’s policies risk boosting their rivals instead of reclaiming voters.
The Conservative Party must oppose Labour’s plans to impose unitary local government
These proposals both show no sign of delivering significant cost savings (whilst guaranteeing less efficient provision of services) and threaten to devastate our suburban and rural activist base..
Conservative leadership contest: what we know about how MPs voted in race between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick
The new leader of the opposition was less popular among new MPs but took the free market vote.
The big difference between Badenoch and Jenrick’s campaigns? Ex-Johnson supporters.
Overall, the contours of this leadership election are broadly as expected – but a detailed examination of Tory MPs reveals some surprising leadership fault lines.
Who’s left? The composition of the new parliamentary Conservative Party
David Jeffery analyses the make-up of the post-election parliamentary Conservative Party, suggesting that despite being significantly smaller, the ideological divides remain much the same.
The Lessons of Tory Democracy
Tory Democracy offers a lesson for all those interested in taking up the challenge.
If the Tories lose the next election, Boris Johnson won’t be the man they turn to
Modelling of the result suggests the former PM will lose a significant amount of support within the party, and possibly his own seat.
Annihilation in the red wall, an exit for a top leadership contender and a parliamentary party stuffed with southerners and Oxbridgers – how losing the next election could shape the Conservatives
Penny Mordaunt’s seat is at risk while leadership hopeful Kemi Badenoch would be sitting pretty.
Older and redder
Millennials are drifting leftwards with age
Can the Conservative Party be reinvigorated?
The Conservatives have now been in government for longer than New Labour, but voters are increasingly abandoning the party. David Jeffery analyses attempts at reinvigoration such as the National Conservatism conference and the Conservative Democratic Organisation, concluding that increasing the power of party members is unlikely to be the solution.
Starmer is winning back voters across the referendum divide
Vote Leave, abandon the Tories?
What might the proposed new boundaries for Liverpool Council mean for the city's political parties?
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose kidda
Did the Liberal Democrats enjoy a poll boost after winning those by-elections?
Change point analysis seems to say - yeah, a bit.
What would Liverpool’s local elections look like under proportional representation?
A little experiment to explore the Red Liverpool narrative
What we learned from round one of the Conservative leadership contest – in five easy charts
Johnson is the least popular among women MPs and Jeremy Hunt managed to get a vote from the European Research Group.
How divisions among Leave-backing MPs helped May to win the last leadership election
Those who voted against same-sex marriage were more likely to support Leadsom than those who voted for the legislation, whilst the opposite was true for Gove.
It was Thatcher wot lost it – or was it? Conservative electoral decline in Liverpool since 1945
Contrary to popular narratives that see Margaret Thatcher as the cause of Conservative decline in Liverpool, David Jeffery explains that various other factors were in play, long before Thatcher came to power. Those factors, combined with the rise of the Liberals in the 1970s, displaced the Conservatives as the main local opposition to Labour.
Corbynism might not actually end – even if Labour loses the election
A crushing defeat in June could paradoxically make it easier to elect another leader from the far left.
The north remembers: why Conservatives still get a frosty reception in key regions
Despite efforts to appeal to the minds and the wallets of those in the north, the Tories have yet to win hearts.
No, Thatcher didn’t cause the Conservative decline in Liverpool
It was the rise of the Liberals, and the decline of the city’s Protestant tradition, that did for the Party.
