Professor John Curtice is integral to the UK’s general election coverage. He's the psephological expert who pops up on various political TV shows and manages to help us mere mortals make sense of the complicated election statistics. Not only that but John, a 70-year-old professor of political science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, will most likely know the likely outcome of our latest general election before anyone else, given that at 10pm on July 4 2024, having analysed the results of a national exit poll, he will make a bold prediction, announcing the winner.
“The lovely thing about the period between 10 o’clock and 11.30pm is that nobody knows,” he says. “It’s that moment when we don’t really have a government.” But John can take some comfort in the fact that in the past six general elections his team’s exit poll has proved accurate, correctly predicting the largest party each time. In the meantime, we’re happy to let him guide us through the process.
So, to help you get to know the man behind the figures a bit better, here are some little-known facts about Professor John Curtice…
1. Professor John Curtice first got into politics at nine years old
John’s first political memory is of the moment Harold Wilson was elected as leader of the Labour Party in 1963. The following year he was allowed to stay up late to witness Mr Wilson bring Labour to power for the first time in 13 years at the 1964 general election. “Don’t ask me why, I just found it interesting,” he says. “I remember begging my parents to allow me to stay up during the 1964 general election count, and remember that very close result, and that only the following day did we know that Harold Wilson had got an overall majority. Very odd pre-occupations for a nine or 10-year-old I utterly admit.”
2. Professor John Curtice is married to a member of the clergy
His wife the Rev. Dr Lisa Joan Curtice is a social scientist but she retrained as a priest in the Scottish Episcopal Church. In 2021 John was asked during an interview who would be his ideal dinner date and he replied saying, “My wife. Especially at the moment seeing as we haven’t been out for dinner for a very long time.” So, he’s clearly a romantic at heart too.
3. John isn’t too keen on his hair
The professor’s tufts of white hair, alongside his infectious smile and enthusiasm, are what has made him one of the most popular political experts in Britain, but it seems he doesn’t share our fondness for his locks. “My hair can be unruly if I’m not able to get to the hairdressers,” he says. “Otherwise, I’m follicly challenged like many men of my age – I don’t particularly enjoy that.”
4. He’s not from a political background
Professor John Curtice was raised in Cornwall by his father, who worked in construction, and mother who was a part-time market researcher. However, he studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University. He was at Oxford at the same time as former prime minister Tony Blair, but their paths didn’t cross.
5. He was a choir singer
At Oxford, John Curtice was a choral scholar (where talented singers are awarded scholarships in return for singing in the university’s choir) and spent two hours each day at the evensong church service. He’s still a keen churchgoer.
6. Professor John Curtice first covered the election in 1979
His first TV election night appearance was the night Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979. He was armed with a calculator he had programmed himself and tasked with providing his mentor, political scientist David Butler with statistical backup in case the BBC’s mainframe computer went down.
7. He forced a political leader to eat his hat
In 2015 the former Liberal Democrat leader, the late Paddy Ashdown, promised to eat his hat if John’s exit poll proved correct and his party only held onto 10 of its nearly 60 seats. On the night, they won fewer than 10 so on a TV show the following night Paddy Ashdown was given a hat to eat. Luckily, it was made out of chocolate cake.
8. He’s a knight of the realm
Professor Sir John Curtice was given a knighthood by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2017 for his services to the social sciences and politics. Despite being famous for his political predictions, at the time he said the honour was ‘not something I saw coming’. He added, “I am surprised as well as being honoured that I have been granted this knighthood. The gratifying part of the citation for me is that it is not just for services to social sciences, but to politics. It is probably relatively rare for someone who avoids all partisan politics and all partisan comment to actually be cited as giving services to the political life of the nation. What seems to be true is that, for good or ill, people find that when I stand in front of a camera and try to explain to people what's going on politically using the academic work that I have done, people say that they find this useful, illustrating and informative."
