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It’s safe to say the result of the 2015 General Election was quite a surprise – particularly as nearly every single opinion poll in the build-up had David Cameron and Ed Miliband neck-and-neck.
Now the result is in, what happens next? And what does the result mean for political polls?
Find out in this week’s PLMR podcast.
First, we speak to Tony Grew, the Parliamentary Editor of Politics Home. We ask Tony:
What happens next?
Tony says David Cameron has now formed a majority government and will set about selecting members of his cabinet. This may include promotions for junior ministers and the clearing out of some big names.
What about Labour and Ed Miliband?
According to Tony, major upheaval could be in store for Labour. He thinks a move away from longstanding members of the party – those who are associated with Brown and Blair could be beneficial in the long-run.
With political polls not predicting the outcome of the election accurately, it raises the question about how they can more closely forecast results. We spoke to Andy White from ComRes to find out about their plans for the future.
Does the election present a problem for political polling?
Andy says ComRes had the Tories ahead throughout most of the campaign but there is still a challenge for the whole industry to better record voting intentions.
What will be implemented?
It’s too early to exactly say what but Andy says pollsters will look at working with academia more closely, so they can more accurately predict outcomes in seats.