Why does Swindon point the way to general election results?

Not being a particularly ‘old’ place in terms of population, and not having a university to bring in disproportionate numbers of younger adults, Swindon has high numbers of working-age families with school-age children.

This is a key group when it comes to elections, according to the University of Bristol’s Professor of Political Sociology Paula Surridge.

“They’re the group who don’t tend to have a strong allegiance to one party or another,” Professor Surridge said.

“They tend to change a little bit more depending on the way the election is going, and that’s why we see these seats swing.”

But there are geographic reasons too – demographics have to be combined with how the town is split up at election time.

Many large towns or small cities of Swindon’s size have what Lord Hayward calls a “doughnut” formation, where the central area forms one constituency, around which other constituencies take in the suburbs and outskirts.