Date/Time: Tuesday 8 October 2024, 5.30pm

Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University

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All our events remain free and open to all, but pre-booking is required. Bookings for this lecture will open at 10.00am on 1 October. To reserve your place click the booking link below or telephone our booking voicemail line 0191 208 6136.

Chaired by Dr Martin Farr, Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History and Co-Chair, Public Lectures Committee

The 2024 general election was the most remarkable in half a century. Overall, voters were clear what they did not want – another five years of Conservative rule – but far less clear what they did want. All kinds of records were broken as long-standing patterns of voting behaviour ceased to apply. As a result, the future of British politics looks more uncertain than ever.

Biography

Peter Kellner CBE is a political analyst, Visiting Scholar at Carnegie Europe and former President of the pioneering online survey research company, YouGov.

He was Chairman of YouGov from 2001-7 and President from 2007-16. He was named as Chairman of the Year in the 2006 Quoted Companies Alliance awards.

He has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Times, Sunday Times, Independent, Observer, Evening Standard, New Statesman and Prospect. He has also been a regular contributor to Newsnight (BBC2), A Week in Politics (Channel Four), Analysis (Radio Four) and BBC TV election night results programmes. He has written, and contributed to, a variety of books and leaflets about politics, elections and public affairs. He was awarded Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards in 1978.

Peter has also been a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, a distinguished visiting fellow at the Policy Studies Institute, London, and served as a member of committees set up by the Economic and Social Research Council to commission research into elections and social exclusion. He received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association in 2011.

Peter has served as a trustee with various charities, including Action on Smoking and Health, the National Literacy Trust, the Hansard Society, UpRising (a mentoring charity) and NIESR, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research. He has also chaired the Royal Commonwealth Society (2009-13) and NCVO, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2016-19). He was awarded his CBE in the 2023 New Year honours list for his services to charity.

Before joining YouGov, he acted as a consultant on public opinion research to a number of organisations, including the Bank of England, Corporation of London, Foreign Office, National Westminster Bank and Trades Union Congress.