The Economist referenced Queen Mary research by Professor Tim Bale and Dr Monica Poletti, into conservative party membership. The article reads: “In the 1950s they had nearly 3m members. Now they have about 160,000. They are unrepresentative of Britain: according to research from Queen Mary University of London, 86 per cent of Tory members are middle class and 97 per cent are white, whereas only 54 per cent of Britons are middle class and 87 per cent white. Fully 71 per cent of Tory party members are men and 44 per cent are over 65 years old, compared with 18 per cent of the population as a whole. They are disproportionately concentrated in London and the south of England.”Find out more