Professor Will Jennings

Will Jennings is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton. His research explores questions relating to public policy and political behaviour, specifically in relation to public opinion, polling, political trust, elections, electoral geography, agenda-setting, place-based politics, and public administration. 

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economic at the University of York (1996-1999) and received his DPhil from the University of Oxford (2004). He has held positions at the London School of Economics and Political Science (2004-2008), the University of Manchester (2008-2012) and the University of Southampton (2012-present), including a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005-2008). He has been Elections Analyst for Sky News since 2017. He was a member of the independent inquiry instigated by the British Polling Council and Market Research Society to investigate the performance of the pre-election polls at the 2015 general election. He has served as a Trustee of the UK Political Studies Association (2014-2019) and co-directed the Centre for Towns think tank with Lisa Nandy MP and Ian Warren (2017-2022). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

He has authored numerous books relating to political behaviour, including 'Policy Agendas in British Politics' (with Peter John, Anthony Bertelli and Shaun Bevan, 2013), 'The Politics of Competence' (with Jane Green, Cambridge University Press 2017), 'The Good Politician' (with Nick Clarke, Jonathan Moss and Gerry Stoker, Cambridge University Press 2018), and 'The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales' (with Jamie Furlong, Oxford University Press 2024), as well as the two latest Nuffield Election books, 'The British General Election of 2019 and The British General Election of 2024' (with Rob Ford, Tim Bale and Paula Surridge, Palgrave 2021 and 2025). His latest book, 'Trust in Crisis? How Trust, Mistrust and Distrust Shape Democratic Governance' (with Daniel Devine, Viktor Valgarðsson, Jennifer Gaskell and Gerry Stoker) is due to be published by Cambridge University Press in early 2027.