“Pale, Male, More Local and Less Vocal”: The Socio-Demographic Background and Ideology of the Conservative Party’s Parliamentary Candidates

Candidate selection is one of the key strategies used by parties to shape the face of their representatives in Westminster. With the prospect of an election defeat, some of the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (known as PPCs) are not only expected to be the party’s future MPs but also an indicator of both the pools of voters the party intends to target and the ideological line it will adopt once in opposition. Candidate selection therefore as an essential step towards the parliamentary party’s dual function of substantive (i.e. representing the party’s ideas and values) and descriptive (i.e. representing specific social groups) representation.This article therefore examines the socio-demographic and ideological profile of 71 new candidates selected for the 2024 general election. By looking at various data (including age, gender, ethnicity, occupation,…) and the positions taken by the candidates on social media will potentially enable us to grasp the ideological and strategic path chosen by the Conservatives and how they envisage to position and reinvent themselves after the election.This article finds that Conservative candidates seemed to have toned down their ideological preferences. If newly elected Conservative MPs are more pale, male and local, they also tend to be less vocal. Contrary to the suggestion that the party is set to become more radical, the article concludes that this shift could indicate a return to a more centrist, traditional and moderate parliamentary party.