The Religious Alignment at English Elections between 1918 and 1970

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Abstract
Before World War I religion was a major determinant of voting in Britain. Butler and Stokes have used recent interview surveys, divided into cohorts, to trace the declining effect of religion on British partisanship or at least the present day results of that historic decline. This paper compares their findings with census based analyses of religion and voting at each election from 1918 to 1970 and for each major party. The results confirm and extend the Butler/Stokes conclusions. The Conservatives consistently benefited from the Anglican tradition, Labour consistently did badly in areas of high religiosity. But the Liberals connection with both class and religion varied. Religious effects were large between the wars. They dropped to a low level in 1950–1 and then increased again though not to the interwar level.

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