Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn boost level of interest in British politics to 25 year high

Interest in British politics is at a 25 year high thanks to Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn, according to new research.

Some 43 per cent of people said in 2017 they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of interest in politics which is the highest level recorded since researchers started asking the question in 1991.

The authors of the report, published by the National Centre for Social Research, also found that the percentage of people who believed there to be a “great difference” between the main political parties has spiked.

In 2017 some 45 per cent said there was a large divide between the parties - the highest rating since 1992 when it was 56 per cent.

Professor Sir John Curtice, one of the authors, said: “If anything, voters in Britain are showing greater interest in politics than they have done at any point in the last 25 years.

“Perhaps the intense debates over Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party have served to persuade voters that politics does matter after all.”

Just 32 per cent of people in 1991 said that they had a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of interest in politics.

That level of interest remained roughly the same until it hit 35 per cent in 2008 before dipping to 31 per cent in 2009 and 2010.

It then increased to 42 per cent in 2016 - the year of the EU referendum - before peaking at 43 per cent last year.

The report suggested Brexit could have been the main reason for the increasing level of interest in politics.

It states: “One possible explanation for this increase is, of course, that the advent of the debate about Britain’s relationship with the EU, attracted the interest and attention of some voters in the way that the routines of everyday party politics do not.

“The decision to leave the EU has certainly been described as one of the most important decisions that the country has taken since 1945.

“We cannot prove that this indeed is what has happened, but it certainly sounds like a plausible hypothesis.”

Meanwhile, the research also showed that Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party had coincided with a major increase in the percentage of people who believe there was a “great difference” between the political parties.

In 2015, the year in which Mr Corbyn took over as Labour leader, 27 per cent of voters believed there was a “great difference” but that jumped to 45 per cent in 2017.