Factors

Partty leader

- Represents party and many voters view leader as image of the party.

- Public opinion of leader and ability to offer appealing brand to electorate plays important role in creating support for the party.

- Leader's personality, charisma and popularity among voters is important.

 -Nigel Farage viewed as image of UKIP and his charisma played a role in UKIP's appeal to voters.

-Since Farage stepped down as leader, UKIP hasn't achieved the same electoral success.

- Tony Blair popula beyond traditional Labour voters.

-Blair's personality and charisma had wide appeal, important in success of New Labour from 1997.

- Party leaders unite the party, important because party supporters may come from a range of groups in society.

- More divided parties struggle to win elections and appeal to voters.

- Labour Party divided under Corbyn, who faced a vote of no confidence in 2016.

- Conservative Party divided over issue of leaving the EU.

- Party leders play a role in gaining party funding, crucial as greater resources can mean the ability to run a stronger election campaign.

- Theresa May held dinners for donors to increase funding for the Conservative Party.

- Tells public about party policies, new personality of the leader, and how the party behaves under pressure.

-Ed Miliband was seen to be a weaker leader than David Cameron, because of problems in the election campaign.

- Studies shown voters already know who they'll choose before the elecction campaign, so the election may not always change minds.

- Party policies important to gather support.

- Change in party policies can gather new voters.

- 1997- after Labour rebranded to New Labour under Tony Blair, they achieved their biggest general election victory.

- Provides means by which the electorate can access info on parties.

- Different media outlets support different parties and encourage readers to vote in certain ways.

- Daily Mail a right wing paper. Supported Brexit in 2016 referendum.

- Guardian a centrist/left leaning paper. Some Corbyn supporters accused paper of being biased against Labour leader.

- BBC funded by taxpayers and supposed to be unbiased.

- How parties respond to external events may impact their support.

- Terror attacks, world politics and protests may all be commented on and responsed to by major parties.

- If a party responds in an unpopular way, this may impact their support.

- Harder to regulate, so false news stories and info may be seen, which could influence voters.

- On social media a mix of news, personal stories and opinions and other info can be seen.

Family- How someone's family votes also has an impact on who they'll vote for- some families pass on their political values.

Ethnicity

- Some political parties are more diverse and representative of minority populations than others.

- Labour party historically had more diverse electorate

Class

- Labour historically party of the working class.

- Voting has moved away from being related to class.

- Classes have changed sizes, and become less important.

- Number of workers in industries has fallen.  - Educational opportunites have increased. -UK economy structure has changed, could be argued opportunites less class related.

Age 

- Younger voters tend to lean more left and support Labour or similar parties.

- Conservative vote increases with age.

- Not clear why age changes voting patterns.

Region

- Cities have tended to support Labour, and rural areas Conservative in recent elections.

- North of England tends to support Labour, and south Conservatives.

- Historically North more industrial with deeper trade union links= may be linked to historic Labour support.

- Scotland, Wales and NI have different national parties that voters support.