Dr Lawrence McKay

Email:
l.a.mckay@reading.ac.uk
Job title:
Lecturer in Comparative Politics

Responsibilities:Module convenor: British Government and Politics (PO2BGP)
Instructor: Introduction to Contemporary Democracy (PO1ICD); Inequality (PO1INE)
Co-convenor: Politics and International Relations Research Seminar Series

Areas of interest

Comparative politics, public opinion, political trust/discontent, electoral and political geography, urban-rural divides, European politics, British politics, quantitative methods (especially survey experiments, multilevel methods and geospatial data).

Postgraduate supervision

Public opinion; especially trust and discontent with politics and attitudes to democracy
Political geography: i.e. how does where people live relate to how they think and vote?
British politics; including public opinion, voting behaviour, representation, post-war political history, etc.EPSA; ECPR

Research centres and groups

Centre for Political Behaviour and Policy Analysis
Public Opinion Analytics Lab

Background

My research focuses on public opinion and political behaviour: in particular, looking at how geography influences what we think and how we vote. My work also tackles popular discontent with politics (in Britain, Western Europe and occasionally beyond). My interest in these themes crystallised in response to Brexit and Trump’s 2016 victory, as I was starting my PhD at the University of Manchester, supported by the Hansard Society.

Upon completing in 2020, I moved to work as postdoctoral research fellow on the TrustGov project at the University of Southampton, where I pursued this research further, leading a large-scale programme of cross-national surveys and working with stakeholders such as the UN Foundation and OECD. In 2022, I started an independent fellowship funded by the British Academy, which focused on the revival of the rural-urban divide in the politics of Western Europe. I have also worked closely with UK In A Changing Europe, co-authoring a major report ‘Levelling Up: What England Thinks’ and leading a research project into how voters respond to immigration targets.

I am an involved member of the academic community, regularly attending workshops and conferences, and co-organising the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties annual meeting in 2023. I am also passionate about supporting early career researchers: between 2019-21, I was a committee member for the Political Studies Association’s Early Career Network, co-founding the annual online conference #BecauseTheInternet.

Academic qualifications

PhD (Politics), University of Manchester
MRes (Politics), University of Exeter
BA (History), University of Exeter

Awards and honours

British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, ‘The revival of the urban-rural divide in West European politics?’ (2022-5)
UK In A Changing Europe/ESRC Small Grant Fund – Political Behaviour and Public Opinion, ‘Understanding performance politics in 2024 and beyond’ (2024-5)
ESRC NWDTC CASE Studentship (2016-19), ‘Understanding and explaining the representation gap in British politics’

Professional bodies/affiliations

Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of the Political Studies Association (and former member of Early Career Network Committee, 2020-1)
Other memberships: PSA EPOP; EPSA; ECPR

Selected publications

Peer-reviewed publications

McKay, L., Claassen, C, Bankov, P. & Carman, C. (2025). Countryside champions or urban allies? What rural and urban citizens want from elected representatives. Electoral Studies, 95.

Baniamin, H. M. McKay, L. (2025). Compliance and Reactance in the Face of Authority Advice: An Experiment on Religious Gatherings in India during COVID-19. Journal of Asian and African Studies.

McKay, L., Jennings, W., & Stoker, G. (2024). Understanding the geography of discontent: Perceptions of government’s biases against left-behind places. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(6), 1719-1748.

McKay, L., Jennings, W., & Stoker, G. (2024). Social ties, trust and the geography of discontent. Cambridge journal of regions, economy and society, 17(1), 17-36.

Valgarðsson, V., Jennings, W., Stoker, G., Bunting, H., Devine, D., McKay, L., & Klassen, A. (2024). A crisis of political trust? Global trends in institutional trust from 1958 to 2019. British Journal of Political Science.

Jennings, W. Furlong, J. Stoker, G. McKay, L. (2024). Fragmented and dealigned: the 2024 British general election and the rise of place-based politics. Political Quarterly.

Valgarðsson, V., Jennings, W., Stoker, G., McKay, L., Devine, D., & Clarke, N. (2024). The Good Politician: Competence, Integrity and Authenticity in Seven Democracies. Political Studies, 00323217241261180.

Seyd, B., Hamm, J. A., Jennings, W., McKay, L., & Anness, M. (2024). ‘Trust the messenger’: Public trust in sources of information on COVID-19. Parliamentary Affairs, gsae029.

Seyd, B., Hamm, J. A., Jennings, W., McKay, L., Valgarðsson, V., & Anness, M. (2024). ‘Follow the science’: Popular trust in scientific experts during the coronavirus pandemic. Public Understanding of Science, 09636625241253968.

McKay, L. Jennings, W. Stoker, J. (2023) What is the geography of trust? The urban-rural trust gap in global perspective. Political Geography.

Devine, D., Valgarðsson, V., Smith, J., Jennings, W., Scotto di Vettimo, M., Bunting, H., & McKay, L. (2023). Political trust in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: a meta-analysis of 67 studies. Journal of European Public Policy.

Jennings, W., Valgarðsson, V., McKay, L., Stoker, G., Mello, E., & Baniamin, H. M. (2023). Trust and vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-national analysis. Vaccine: X, 14, 100299.

Denham, J., & Mckay, L. (2023). The Politics of England: National Identities and Political Englishness. The Political Quarterly, 94(4), 613-624.

Stoker, G. McKay, L. Bunting, H. (2022). ‘Trust and Local Government: A Positive Relationship?’ In Handbook on Local and Regional Governance, ed. Filipe Teles. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Jennings, W. McKay, L. Stoker, G. (2021). The politics of levelling-up. Political Quarterly. Awarded the PQ Crick Prize for Best Article, 2021.

Jennings, W., Stoker, G., Bunting, H., Valgarðsson, V.O., Gaskell, J., Devine, D., McKay, L. and Mills, M.C. (2021). Lack of trust, conspiracy beliefs, and social media use predict COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines, 9(6), 593.

McKay, L. Jennings, W. Stoker, G. (2021). Political trust in the 'places that don't matter'. Frontiers in Political Science.

McKay, L. (2020). Does constituency focus improve attitudes to MPs? A test for the UK. Journal of Legislative Studies.

McKay, L. (2019). ‘Left behind’ people, or places? The role of local economies in political discontent. Electoral Studies.

Reports

McKay, L. Jennings, W. Stoker, G. (2023). ‘Trust and faith in politics’ in The State of Public Opinion: 2023, ed. A. Menon. London: UK In A Changing Europe.

Hall, S., Jennings, W., Mckay, L., Stowers, S., Surridge, P., Wager, A. (2022). Levelling up: what England thinks. London: UK In A Changing Europe.

Jennings, W. McKay, L. Valgardsson, V. (2022). ‘What has Brexit done to political trust?’ in British Politics After Brexit, ed. A. Menon. London: UK In A Changing Europe