Data sources

BES 1992, study no. 2981

BES 1997, study no. 3887

BES 2001, study no. 4619

BES 2005, study no. 5494

BES 2010, study no. not yet assigned

For 1997 election study, items labintwc and labintun have been used: How closely do you think that the Labour Party looks after the interests of …

[working class people], [unemployed people]

• 1 very closely

• 2 fairly closely

• 3 not very closely

• 4 not at all closely

• 8 don't know

• 9 not answered

For 2001 election study and 2005 election study, the following items have been used:

Some people say that political parties look after the interests of some groups and are not so concerned about others. How well do you think that the Labour Party looks after the interests of the following groups? [a) working class people] [c) People who are unemployed or on benefits]

The categories 1 and 2 have been coded as Labour represents the interests of these groups (1); the categories 3 and 4 have been coded as Labour does not represent the interests of these groups (0); the categories 8 and 9 had been excluded from the analysis. The index was derived from the two dummy variables and coded as described in Section 4.5 of the text.