James Kanagasooriam

James Kanagasooriam

US election: how did the polls get it so wrong?

From our UK edition

18 min listen

The post–mortem has begun on the US election with the Democrats desperately trying to figure out what just happened. To make sense of the result, Katy Balls is joined by Kate Andrews and James Kanagasooriam, chief research officer at Focaldata. On the podcast they discuss: how an election that seemed to be on a knife–edge

Will there be an election upset on Thursday?

From our UK edition

12 min listen

Tomorrow, voters will head to the polling booth to cast their vote in the 2024 general election. Will there be any surprises in store? So far, there has been little movement when it comes to the gap in vote share between Labour and the Tories. However, there’s still plenty of uncertainty across the parties as

Who will survive?

From our UK edition

14 min listen

It’s another bad day for the Conservatives. Rishi Sunak has withdrawn support for the Tory candidates involved in the general election betting scandal. What has led to the timing of this decision? Also on the podcast, James Kanagasooriam, Chief Research Officer of Focaldata, explains their latest poll that suggests a 250-seat Labour majority. He joins

The Dunkirk Strategy

From our UK edition

13 min listen

The Conservatives have unveiled a new pensions policy: the ‘Triple Lock Plus’. What does it mean and what’s the thinking behind it? Will it help shore up the Tories’ core vote?   Katy Balls and Focaldata’s James Kanagasooriam join Natasha Feroze to discuss.  Produced by Natasha Feroze and Patrick Gibbons.

Is the Labour lead as big as it seems?

From our UK edition

13 min listen

Both major party leaders are hitting the road today and campaigning in Scotland, which will be a major battleground in the coming election. Labour looks comfortably in the lead, but is that number accurate to what’s happening on the ground? Cindy Yu and Katy Balls talk to Focaldata’s James Kanagasooriam about their latest analysis. Produced

Coronavirus and the new world

From our UK edition

The West’s failure to reap economic benefit from its greater levels of personal and political freedom has broken what I call the ‘Fukuyama Curve’ and its confidence. Given one parent was Sri Lankan and the other Singaporean, a commonly-cited stat in my childhood home was that both countries had similar GDPs back in the early

The margin between a Tory landslide and defeat is tiny

From our UK edition

In next week’s election, it feels like voters would elect a Conservative president and a centre-left parliament if they had the choice. Denied those options they are muddling their way to a conclusion. But what will they decide? Firstly, it’s worth remembering that Corbynomics is popular. YouGov generically polled Labour policies and they were popular. But

Why Tories should think carefully before backing Boris

From our UK edition

In my old job as an investment banker, there were two schools of thought about how to get the best return. Long-term funds – where money was invested over a number of years; and short-term ones – which sought quick returns wherever it could be found. The Conservative party now finds itself facing a similar dilemma:

Eight reasons why young voters are turning away from the Tories

From our UK edition

It’s plain to see that the Conservative party has a youth problem. Millennials are turning away from the party in their droves. But what is actually causing this dire Tory performance among young voters? There are eight reasons, any of which on their own would present a problem. Together, their combination is creating a conveyor

The Brexit paradox that spells doom for the Independent Group

From our UK edition

When I quit investment banking in search of daylight in 2014 I thought my life was going to be little easier crunching numbers for political campaigns. It wasn’t to be. Over the last few years, I’ve worked on the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, the 2015 general election, the Scottish Holyrood election in 2016, the