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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

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Tory Party Leadership - David Cameron Leads in Searches

October 14, 2005

David Davis may be thought to be leading the way in the Tory party leadership but Hitwise data reveals that David Cameron is leading the way in online popularity.

I have been accused of being a bit of a political junky and the fact that I have been charting searches for the Tory leadership candidates may offer some proof of this. Events in Blackpool were heating up last week as the race picked up steam. News of Sir Malcolm Rifkind's withdrawal on Tuesday was of little surprise to me as he was the least searched for among the five candidates.

What's really interesting in the data is that while David Davis is considered to be the frontrunner, he is second to David Cameron in the volume of searches for his name by UK internet users. According to a BBC News story this morning, Mr. Davis is thought to be leading the way, with backing of 65 MPs. According to Hitwise UK search term data, David Cameron is much more popular among the UK population. Searches for 'david cameron' were nearly 3 times greater than those for 'david davis'. Searches for 'liam fox' eaked out a small lead over those for 'ken clarke'. I should acknowledge however that the combined share of searches for 'ken clarke' and 'kenneth clarke' put Ken Clarke in third place in popularity based on the volume of UK internet searches.

The other really interesting data point is the volume of searches for the candidates going into the leadership contest. In the week ending 3rd September 2005, Ken Clarke held the top two spots as the most searched for candidate, David Davis held the number 3 spot and David Cameron came in fourth.

With the first round of voting on Tuesday and the final results available 6 December, I will continue to watch this closely. Nothing like a good race to get the blood pumping!

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