
What were people Googling during conference season?
As conference season winds down for 2017 and politicians start returning to work, we thought we’d share some research we’ve been conducting.
During the 2017 conference season, we monitored Google search trends for some of the UK’s most high-profile politicians to discover what the UK public wants to know most about our elected politicians.
The results range from funny and bizarre to potentially quite sinister.
For example, who hasn’t, at least once, wondered if Theresa May is related to motoring journalist and former Top Gear presenter James May?
Or whether Boris Johnson is left-handed? It doesn’t appear he is, although all three American presidents before Trump were left-handed. As was Albert Einstein.
Sufficient people have also Googled “What does Michael Gove do?” to make it an autocomplete suggestion.
On the less amusing and somewhat worrying side were searches related to the very private lives of senior politicians.
Yes, wanting to know if Michael Gove is married (he is, to journalist Sarah Vine) is reasonable, but the top searches for Philip Hammond and Rebecca Long-Bailey were trying to find out where they live.
In fact, we noticed a few unusual searches regarding female politicians. The top suggestion for searches that start “is Diane Abbott...” was ‘black?’ Surely you don’t need to Google that?
Here's the full rundown of what people want to know about Britain's politicians.
Conservative Party politicians
Politician |
top suggestion |
second suggestions |
third suggestion |
|
"is" |
Theresa May |
Tory |
related to James May |
for Brexit |
"is" |
Boris Johnson |
conservative |
left-handed |
American |
"is" |
Michael Gove |
married |
a climate change denier |
a climate change sceptic |
"is" |
Philip Hammond |
still chancellor |
a remainder (sic) |
married |
"is" |
Amber Rudd |
married |
good |
s seat safe? |
"is" |
David Davis |
married |
a brexiteer? |
no data |
"is" |
Jeremy Hunt |
married |
keeping his job |
no data |
"is" |
Michael Fallon |
a brexiteer |
no data |
no data |
"is" |
Liam Fox |
no data |
no data |
no data |
Politician |
top suggestion |
second suggestions |
third suggestion |
|
"does" |
Theresa May |
have a sister |
have a tattoo |
have Snapchat |
"does" |
Boris Johnson |
support Brexit |
want to be PM |
support fox hunting? |
"does" |
Michael Gove |
believe in climate change |
(what) does Michael Gove do? |
no data |
"does" |
Philip Hammond |
where does Philip Hammond live? |
what does Philip Hammond do? |
no data |
"does" |
Amber Rudd |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
David Davis |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Jeremy Hunt |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Michael Fallon |
(how much) does Michael Fallon earn? |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Liam Fox |
no data |
no data |
no data |
Labour Party Politicians
Politician |
top suggestion |
second suggestions |
third suggestion |
|
"is" |
Jeremy Corbyn |
married |
rich |
vegetarian |
"is" |
Tom Watson |
related to emma watson |
how old is Tom Watson MP? |
|
"is" |
John McDonnell |
married |
Marxist |
ill? |
"is" |
Jon Trickett |
an MP? |
no data |
no data |
"is" |
Angela Rayner |
married |
who is Angela Rayner |
|
"is" |
Sadiq Khan |
married |
Labour |
ismailli |
"is" |
Emily Thornberry |
married |
no data |
no data |
"is" |
Diane Abbott |
black |
no data |
no data |
"is" |
Rebecca Long Bailey |
how old is Rebecca Long Bailey? |
no data |
no data |
Politician |
top suggestion |
second suggestions |
third suggestion |
|
"does" |
Jeremy Corbyn |
have a wife? |
support Trident? |
have Snapchat? |
"does" |
Tom Watson |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
John McDonnell |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Jon Trickett |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Angela Rayner |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Sadiq Khan |
no data |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Emily Thornberry |
what does Emily Thornberry's Tweet mean? |
no data |
no data |
"does" |
Diane Abbott |
how much does Diane Abbott earn? |
What does Diane Abbott do? |
no data |
"does" |
Rebecca Long Bailey |
where does Rebecca Long Bailey live? |
no data |
no data |
Other Politicians
Politician | top suggestion | second suggestions | third suggestion | |
"is" | Nigel Farage | coming back? | on LBC tonight | rich? |
"is" | Vince Cable | standing in 2017 | Good? | no data |
"is" | Nick Clegg | standing | running | Dutch? |
"is" | Nicola Sturgeon | married | stepping down | 's hair real? |
"is" | Nicola Sturgeon | married | on holiday | |
"is" | Mhairi Black | still an MP | single | |
"is" | John Swinney | married | ||
"is" | Ruth Davidson |
(where) is Ruth Davidson's seat
|
||
"is" | Kezia Dugdale | related to Rose Dugdale |
(what) age is Kezia Dugdale
|
|
"is" | Shona Robinson | married | ||
"is" | Leanne Wood | married |
standing for Westminster
|
|
Politician | top suggestion | second suggestions | third suggestion | |
"does" | Nigel Farage | have a German passport | have a brother | have cancer |
"does" | Vince Cable | lose his seat | keep his seat | win |
"does" | Nick Clegg | speak Spanish | have a brother |
have a daughter?
|
"does" | Nicola Sturgeon | have siblings | no data | no data |
"does" | Mhairi Black | (how) does Mhairi Black pronounce her name | no data | no data |
"does" | John Swinney | (where) does John Swinney live | no data | no data |
"does" | Ruth Davidson | no data | no data | no data |
"does" | Kezia Dugdale | no data | no data | no data |
"does" | Shona Robinson | no data | no data | no data |
"does" | Leanne Wood | no data | no data | no data |
Online privacy and information security
Unsurprisingly, the general public is using Google to discover more about our politicians. Still, it is concerning that some people are so keen to know where certain politicians live, who their families are and what's going on with their health. Politicians have expert advisers who can guide them as to how much information they allow about themselves to go online. Members of the public don't.
Steve Roberts of Online Spy Shop has this advice for anyone concerned about online privacy. "The first thing to do is ensure your social media accounts are set how you want them. Many people aren't aware that their Facebook or Instagram accounts may be viewable by anyone, regardless of if they're connected to them on the platform.
"Go to the settings section for each platform to check this.
"Secondly, be very careful about posting anything that could be used to identify you personally. People are obviously careful about posting financial information but still make mistakes. Don't post any information you'd be uncomfortable with a stranger knowing - that's my advice."
Steve also advises users to be cautious when it comes to image sharing.
"Youngsters who've just passed their driving test often post a picture of their license when it arrives. Likewise, people post images of the keys to their new flat. A criminal could use this information in several ways. Just don't do it."
How we conducted our research
By monitoring Google’s autocomplete suggestions based on previously entered search terms, we could see what people had been searching for. Google’s autocomplete suggestions have some real-time data; in some cases, Google suggests search terms based on what’s happening now.
In other instances, Google makes suggestions based on historical search volume. We used five separate devices and four different web browsers (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox and Apple’s version of the Google App).