My main research interest lies in how political elites conceive of, and respond to public opinion. I am particularly interested in how political actors form their opinions of likely electoral reactions and how these are affected by cognitive biases. 

My PhD thesis used a mixed-methods approach; combining quantitative analysis of UK governments' responsiveness to public opinion with qualitative analysis of a handful of case study policy decisions including the Liberal Democrats' U-turn on tuition fees and the coalition government's NHS reforms. My research on tuition fees has recently been published in the Journal British Politics.

I am currently exploring how political parties in the UK have used public opinion research to inform their decision-making.