Sex, Money and Politics: Sleaze and the conservative party in the 1997 election

Abstract

Sleaze emerged as a major issue in British politics in the mid-1990s. This article considers its effects on the 1997 re-election prospects of the Conservative Party in two respects. First we explore its influence on individual constituency results, by focusing on two key aspects, sex and money. We show that four Conservative losses can be directly attributable to the issue of sleaze. Second, we test for the effects of sleaze on Conservative support generally, concluding that a further 15 seats were probably affected. In a close election, such losses could have been highly significant. The article finishes with some discussion of how the British experience of sleaze compares with that in the USA.