Labour voters die younger

Labour voters die younger than people who vote Conservative, according to a study at Bristol University which suggests that Tory policies promote higher death rates in Labour strongholds.

Researchers led by George Davey Smith, professor of clinical epidemiology at the Department of Social Medicine, say in the British Medical Journal: "If Labour voters die at a younger age than Conservative voters on average then they will be alive to vote at fewer elections per lifetime."

Professor Smith, assisted by Dr Daniel Dorling from the Department of Geography at Bristol, investigated the association between voting patterns, deprivation and mortality across England and Wales for the years surrounding the general elections of 1983, 1987 and 1992.