National award for insights into UK and United States politics

Professor Paul Whiteley from the Department of Government has won the Sir Paul Curran Award for his outstanding articles on UK and United States during a tumultuous year of elections on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Award from leading online news site The Conversation is awarded each year to an academic who has shown exceptional skill, dedication and engagement in communicating their knowledge to readers.

Laura Hood, Senior Politics Editor and Assistant Editor at The Conversation (UK edition), said: “The Politics + Society team asked for Paul to be recognised this year because his work formed the cornerstone of The Conversation’s 2024 election coverage.

“He analysed dozens of past elections to help us understand where the campaign was going wrong for former prime minister Rishi Sunak, and issued some warnings to the Labour party about the perils of a victory based on low turnout. He also helped readers digest the various MRP polls that appeared to be shaping as well as measuring the campaign.

“Paul’s award was linked to his work analysing the rise of the Reform party at a time when hard evidence is hard to come by. Paul has looked at how protest voting is tied to Reform voting, and what it means for Reform to be advancing in the polls at this stage in the electoral cycle. He’s issued advice to Labour and the Conservatives as they try to produce a response to this new electoral threat.

“More recently, Paul has turned his attention to US politics to help readers understand the politics of Donald Trump. Professor Whiteley has contributed 120 articles to The Conversation since August 2014.Over that time, he has covered all the major developments in British and US politics from Brexit to Trump, providing important insights from his in-depth knowledge of emerging and historical electoral patterns and voter behaviour."

Laura added: “He has contributed to The Conversation’s coverage of every British election that has taken place since launching in the UK and has written some of our strongest, evidence-based analysis of Brexit since the referendum in 2016.”

Paul is the author of multiple books, including Brexit Britain: The Consequences of the Vote to Leave the European Union, Political Choice in Britain and Political Participation in Britain: The Decline and Revival of Civic Culture.