Sangam: A Confluence of Knowledge Streams

Addressing Immigration: A study of Conservative and Labour party election manifestos and individual candidates’ election addresses, 1964-1979

Show simple item record

dc.contributor Toye, Richard
dc.contributor Thackeray, David
dc.creator Sokolov, E
dc.date 2022-06-30T08:25:28Z
dc.date 2022-07-04
dc.date 2022-06-29T06:08:14Z
dc.date 2022-06-30T08:25:28Z
dc.date.accessioned 2023-02-23T12:15:06Z
dc.date.available 2023-02-23T12:15:06Z
dc.identifier http://hdl.handle.net/10871/130099
dc.identifier.uri http://localhost:8080/xmlui/handle/CUHPOERS/258564
dc.description Black and Asian immigration into Britain after the Second World War has received enormous scholarly attention due to its association with decolonisation and the search for a post-imperial identity. However, historians still argue whether race and immigration were potent electoral issues throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Therefore, the thesis will focus on Conservative and Labour manifestos and election addresses from the six general elections between 1964 and 1979. The goal is to understand how Britain’s two major parties competed on race and immigration, using various languages and rhetorical devices. The analysis will reveal the fundamental significance of manifestos and addresses for the study of electoral politics and race and immigration issues. Although manifestos and addresses have received some attention from prestigious publications such as the Nuffield Election Studies, the contents of these sources remain largely unscrutinised. This thesis is based on a massive dataset of comparable material that differentiates between original messages and texts copied from national manifestos, revealing the complex interchange between candidates’ leaflets and the parties’ manifestos. Instead of relying on a sample, the thesis explores the quantity and quality of the promises which candidates made about immigration and other related issues across all 630 parliamentary constituencies in Britain. Finally, using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis, the thesis assesses the interconnections between immigration and domestic issues such as crime and housing. It also engages with international problems like Europe, Rhodesia and the Commonwealth. It will be shown that since1964 discourses on race and immigration have undergone numerous far-reaching transformations. By 1979, political and public discourse on race and immigration had shifted decisively to the right. Whereas this process was driven in part by the individual agency of right-wing Conservative MPs, it was met with fervent opposition from the Labour Party and its candidates.
dc.description Leverhulme Trust
dc.language en
dc.publisher University of Exeter
dc.publisher History Department
dc.rights 2023-12-31
dc.rights This thesis is embargoed until 31/Dec/2023 as the author is publishing their research
dc.rights http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
dc.subject Immigration
dc.subject Race
dc.subject Conservative
dc.subject Labour
dc.subject Party Election Manifestos
dc.subject Election Addresses
dc.subject Political Promises
dc.title Addressing Immigration: A study of Conservative and Labour party election manifestos and individual candidates’ election addresses, 1964-1979
dc.type Thesis or dissertation
dc.type PhD in History
dc.type Doctoral
dc.type Doctoral Thesis


Files in this item

Files Size Format View
Addressing Immigration.pdf 11.69Mb application/pdf View/Open

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record

Search DSpace


Advanced Search

Browse