Mile End Institute Partners With British Election Study on New Candidate Research

Key Points

• The British Election Study (BES), which has tracked British voters’ attitudes and behaviour at every general election since 1964, will expand its research programme to include a dedicated Candidate Study for the first time.
• The new Candidate Study will be developed through a partnership involving the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London, the British Election Study and the Electoral Commission.
• From 2027, the British Election Study will be led by Royal Holloway, University of London, in collaboration with King’s College London and the University of Manchester.
• The research programme has received a £4.9 million award from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
• The Candidate Study will examine the motivations, backgrounds and experiences of people standing for election, allowing researchers to compare candidates with the voters they seek to represent.
• Dr Sofia Collignon, Director of the Mile End Institute, said the partnership would create an opportunity to develop a fuller understanding of political representation and electoral behaviour.
• Professor Maria Sobolewska of the University of Manchester said the expanded study would help researchers investigate both how communities engage with democracy and the experiences of candidates seeking public office.
• Candidate Studies have been conducted in Britain since 2015, but concerns about reliable research funding have affected their continuity. Integrating the research into the BES is intended to provide a more stable foundation for future work.

The article begins with the main development and its immediate significance, followed by the research partnership, funding arrangements, statements from academics, and the wider background and potential implications.

The Londoner News (TLN) October 12, 2026 – The British Election Study will introduce a dedicated Candidate Study from 2027 through a new partnership involving the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London and the Electoral Commission. The expansion will enable researchers to examine the backgrounds, motivations and experiences of people standing for election alongside the attitudes and behaviour of British voters. The development forms part of a new research programme led by Royal Holloway, University of London, in partnership with King’s College London and the University of Manchester, following a £4.9 million award from the Economic and Social Research Council. The initiative is intended to strengthen long-term research into political representation and provide greater continuity for Candidate Studies that have operated in Britain since 2015.

What Does the New British Election Study Candidate Research Programme Involve?

The British Election Study (BES) is expanding its established research programme to include a Candidate Study, creating an opportunity to examine both sides of the electoral process: the people who vote and the people who seek elected office.

The announcement identifies the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London and the Electoral Commission as partners in the new research initiative. The Candidate Study will become part of the wider BES programme from 2027, extending the scope of a research project that has monitored British voters’ attitudes and behaviour at every general election since 1964.

According to the announcement from the Mile End Institute, the new arrangement will enable researchers to investigate candidates’ motivations, backgrounds and experiences in a more sustained way. It will also allow comparisons between political candidates and the voters they aim to represent.

The expansion is significant for the study of electoral politics because voting behaviour alone cannot provide a complete picture of political representation. Understanding who stands for election, what motivates them and what experiences they bring to public life provides another perspective on how representative democracy operates.

The research programme is designed to bring these perspectives together within a single, continuing framework. Rather than examining voters and candidates through entirely separate research projects, the expanded BES will provide an opportunity to investigate their experiences alongside one another.

The announcement does not provide a detailed timetable for individual surveys, candidate recruitment or the publication of findings. Those operational details should therefore be distinguished from the confirmed plan to incorporate candidate research into the programme from 2027.

Which Universities Will Lead the British Election Study From 2027?

The new British Election Study will be led by Royal Holloway, University of London, alongside King’s College London and the University of Manchester.

The research programme follows a £4.9 million award from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), which supports research across the social sciences. The funding will underpin the next phase of the BES and its expanded approach to studying electoral behaviour and representation.

The three universities will work together to deliver the research programme. The Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London will contribute through its partnership on the Candidate Study, alongside the Electoral Commission.

This institutional structure brings together established academic research into voting behaviour and a dedicated strand examining election candidates. The arrangement is intended to create a more comprehensive research resource for understanding British elections.

The £4.9 million award is a central part of the announcement because it provides a defined funding basis for the new phase of the study. However, the available announcement does not specify how the entire award will be divided among the participating institutions or how much will be allocated exclusively to the Candidate Study.

The precise allocation of funding should not be inferred from the overall award. What is confirmed is that the new BES leadership arrangement and the addition of candidate research form part of the programme supported by the ESRC funding.

Why Does the Mile End Institute Consider Candidate Research Important?

Dr Sofia Collignon, Director of the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London, said the addition of the Candidate Study would create an opportunity to develop a fuller understanding of political representation.

Collignon, who said she had been involved in running Candidate Studies for more than ten years, highlighted their value in examining who represents the public, including candidates’ motivations, backgrounds and experiences.

She explained that bringing candidate research into the British Election Study would allow researchers to compare the behaviour and experiences of political elites with those of voters.

Her statement also emphasised the importance of securing the future of Candidate Studies. Integrating this research into the established BES programme is intended to provide continuity for a field of study that has not always benefited from reliable funding.

The partnership therefore has two connected objectives. The first is to broaden the evidence available to researchers studying elections and political representation. The second is to establish a more sustainable framework for carrying out candidate research over time.

Collignon’s comments underline the relationship between research continuity and the ability to identify changes in political representation. Studies conducted across multiple elections can help researchers distinguish enduring characteristics from developments specific to an individual election.

The announcement does not, however, set out particular findings about the current composition of candidates or identify specific problems within Britain’s electoral system. Its central focus is the establishment of a research structure through which those questions can be investigated more systematically.

How Will the Candidate Study Complement Research Into British Voters?

Professor Maria Sobolewska, a British Election Study Co-Investigator at the University of Manchester, said the established programme had focused on understanding how different communities across Britain engage with democracy.

She explained that the new funding would allow the BES to extend that work by examining candidates who seek to represent those communities.

According to Sobolewska, including candidates in the research will help the study capture a fuller picture of the electoral process, encompassing both voters and those seeking public office.

This approach could allow researchers to consider questions about representation alongside established measures of electoral behaviour. These may include how voters participate in elections, how their political attitudes develop and how their choices relate to the people seeking their support.

The addition of candidate research provides a complementary perspective. While voter studies examine the public’s political preferences and behaviour, candidate studies can investigate the characteristics and experiences of those competing for elected positions.

Taken together, the two strands can provide evidence for examining the relationship between the electorate and the people who seek to represent it.

The announcement does not specify the full list of questions that future Candidate Study surveys will ask. Nor does it identify which demographic groups, political parties or electoral contests will receive particular attention. Those details remain separate from the confirmed objective of integrating candidate research into the wider study.

Nevertheless, the partnership establishes a framework through which academic researchers can examine representation using evidence drawn from both voters and candidates.

Why Has Long-Term Funding Been a Challenge for Candidate Studies in Britain?

Candidate Studies have been conducted in Britain since 2015, but the announcement states that many have operated without reliable research funding.

This has created a challenge for researchers seeking to build a consistent body of evidence about people standing for election. When research programmes lack dependable funding, maintaining continuity across successive elections can become more difficult.

The incorporation of the Candidate Study into the British Election Study is intended to address this issue by providing a more stable institutional and financial foundation.

Long-term research can be particularly useful in electoral studies because the characteristics of candidates and the circumstances surrounding elections can change. Evidence collected across several election cycles can help researchers examine those developments over time instead of relying solely on isolated studies.

A continuing programme may also make it easier to compare findings collected at different points, provided the research methods and questions allow valid comparisons.

The announcement describes the new arrangement as a means of safeguarding the future of candidate research and enabling researchers to build a longer-term understanding of the people who stand for election.

It does not establish that every future Candidate Study will receive permanent funding or guarantee that all research questions will remain unchanged. Rather, it identifies integration into the BES as a measure intended to improve the continuity of this work.

What Is the Role of the Economic and Social Research Council in the New Programme?

The Economic and Social Research Council has awarded £4.9 million to support the next phase of the British Election Study.

The funding provides the financial basis for the programme to be led by Royal Holloway, University of London, alongside King’s College London and the University of Manchester, from 2027.

The award is relevant to the Candidate Study because the announcement links the wider BES funding arrangement with the expansion of its research activities. The partnership aims to incorporate candidate research into a programme that already has a long record of studying British electoral behaviour.

The announcement does not provide a separate financial breakdown for the Candidate Study, so the total award should not be interpreted as funding exclusively for that component.

The institutional partnership and funding award together establish the basis for the next phase of the programme. Further information about specific research activities, survey schedules and publication arrangements would be needed to assess how the funding will be distributed in practice.

What Could the New Candidate Study Mean for Political Representation Research?

The expanded programme will provide researchers with an opportunity to study candidates and voters within a shared research framework.

For political scientists, the availability of evidence about both groups could help support more detailed investigations into how representation operates in Britain. It could also provide a basis for examining whether the backgrounds and experiences of candidates change across elections and how those changes relate to the communities they seek to represent.

For universities and other researchers, continuity is another important consideration. A programme that can build on evidence collected across multiple elections may support comparisons that would be difficult to make using short-term studies alone.

The research could also be relevant to journalists and organisations seeking reliable evidence about elections. However, the announcement does not specify how the findings will be disseminated or whether particular public reports, datasets or policy briefings have already been scheduled.

Similarly, the Electoral Commission’s involvement is confirmed, but the available information does not describe its precise operational responsibilities within the Candidate Study. It would therefore be premature to attribute specific survey, regulatory or reporting functions to the Commission without further details.

The immediate development is the establishment of a partnership and a longer-term research framework, rather than the publication of new findings about candidates or voters.

Background: How Has the British Election Study Developed Since 1964?

The British Election Study has tracked the attitudes and behaviour of British voters at every general election since 1964. Its long history provides researchers with a continuing source of evidence about electoral behaviour and political change.

The study’s established focus on voters has made it possible to investigate how political attitudes and electoral choices develop over time. The new Candidate Study will extend this approach by bringing systematic research into the people seeking election into the same broader programme.

Candidate Studies have been conducted in Britain since 2015. According to the announcement, however, many have taken place without reliable research funding, making the long-term continuation of this work a concern.

The new arrangement will bring the Candidate Study into the BES through a partnership involving the Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London and the Electoral Commission. The wider programme will be led from 2027 by Royal Holloway, University of London, working with King’s College London and the University of Manchester.

The £4.9 million ESRC award supports this next phase of the research programme. The integration of candidate research is intended to strengthen continuity and allow a longer-term examination of political representation.

The development builds on the existing study rather than replacing its established focus on voters. Its stated aim is to provide a more complete understanding of electoral politics by examining both the electorate and those seeking to represent it.

Prediction: How Could the New Candidate Study Affect Voters, Researchers and Political Institutions?

The immediate confirmed effect of the announcement is the planned expansion of the British Election Study from 2027. Its longer-term impact will depend on the research questions pursued, the evidence collected and the findings eventually published.

For voters, the programme could provide more evidence about the backgrounds and experiences of the people seeking elected office. This may help inform public discussion about political representation, although the announcement does not establish that the research will directly change voter behaviour.

For academic researchers, the inclusion of candidate research within the BES could make it easier to examine the relationship between voters and political candidates over successive elections. The value of those comparisons will depend on the quality, availability and comparability of the resulting data.

For universities and research institutions, the partnership offers a framework for collaboration across institutions and disciplines. The stated intention to improve the continuity of Candidate Studies could support more sustained research, although the exact funding arrangements for individual studies have not been published in the announcement.

For political institutions and the wider public, the programme could contribute evidence to debates about representation and participation in British democracy. Any conclusions about candidate diversity, barriers to entering politics or differences between candidates and voters will need to be grounded in the research findings rather than assumed in advance.