A young man takes a selfie with Angela Rayner, the former deputy leader of the Labour Party, in Ashton in Makerfield. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty
Young men in the UK are not more rightwing than older groups, according to a study that challenges claims they have been a key driver of the recent success of parties such as Reform UK.
The analysis of data from the British Election Study, which surveys about 30,000 people annually, found that age is a stronger determinant of political opinions than gender. While men aged 18 to 25 are less progressive than women of the same age, they remain more progressive and less likely to vote for rightwing parties than any older group of men.
Researchers at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), who conducted the study, say politicians should reconsider how they engage with young men, who are sometimes dismissed as lost to misogynistic online influencers.
Dr Chris Bick, lead author of the report, stated: “There is a sense that young men are shifting rapidly to the right, but we have not found much evidence for that at all. They remain the most progressive cohort of men across a range of issues.” He added that for those interested in advancing progressive politics, this group remains a base of support.
Figures such as Andrew Tate have been cited as appealing to young men, but the IPPR research shows that while young men have moved right in recent years, they have done so in line with other groups and remain considerably more progressive as a bloc than older age groups.
Support for conservative parties among men aged 18 to 25 rose from about 18% in 2022 to just under 30% in 2025, mirroring a rise among older men, from about 35% to over 50% in the same period. Since the last election, young men have become about 5 percentage points more likely to support Reform UK, far less than older groups where support has surged.
On issues such as immigration, race, women’s rights, and homosexuality, young men are more progressive than older men, though they are more conservative than young women. The gender gap is more noticeable among younger people than older ones.
Dr Bick noted that the divergence is driven more by young women moving left than by young men moving right. For example, young women are far more likely to support diversity in school curriculums and same-sex families in children’s television.
“Young women are moving to the left more than young men are moving to the right,” he said, adding that this trend is even more pronounced in other countries.
