FINANCIAL TIMES: Older voters grow weary of media and politicians in UK election

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Switches like this could be significant. Over-65s tend to show the highest turnout of any age group — in 2015 it was 78 per cent, almost double that of 18 to 24-year-olds. Robert Ford, politics professor at the University of Manchester, says that as a result, any moves by pensioners tend to have an impact on a national scale.

“Because it’s such a high turnout age-group, if the Tories lose 3 per cent among this bracket then that will convert into their losing a number of seats,” he says. “So it’s not a game-changer for the overall result but it could make a difference at the margins — and the margins means half a dozen Tory candidates who hoped to become MPs who now won’t be, because older voters have shifted.”