Lotte Hargrave

Dr Lotte Hargrave joined the Department of Politics at the University of Manchester as a Lecturer in Quantitative Political Science in August 2023. Since August 2024, she is also the Deputy PGR Director for the Politics Department. In her research, she uses innovative quantitative designs to study what voters want, how politicians act, and the sources and consequences of bias in our political systems. She works primarily on questions relating to gender, political behaviour, participation, communication, legislative politics, and public opinion.

Before joining Manchester, Lotte was the Head of Data Science at the public opinion consultancy Deltapoll. Her work at Deltapoll involved managing and fielding surveys for clients, carrying out research into British politics and public opinion, delivering quantitative presentations and reports, and data analysis and visualisations of all political trackers including Westminster vote intention, economic competence, and leadership approval ratings.

For the recent 2024 UK General Election and 2025 Local Elections, Lotte worked as a Psephologist for the BBC Election Analysis Team headed by Professor Sir John Curtice.

Lotte holds a PhD in Political Science from University College London (UCL), in which she examined the dynamic influence of gender stereotypes on politicians’ behaviour and voter attitudes. Her thesis was awarded the 2023 PSA McDougall Trust Prize for the best dissertations in elections, electoral systems, and representation and the Best Dissertation Prize by the UCL Department of Political Science.