2020
The Brexit rift splitting the Conservative Party
Category: Best visualization (small and large newsrooms)
Country/area: Singapore
Organisation: Reuters
Organisation size: Big
Publication date: 18/07/2019

Credit: Basil Simon, Léa Desrayaud
Project description:
British Prime Minister Theresa May’s failure to secure the backing of parliament for her Brexit deal led her to resign the leadership of the Conservative Party, triggering a leadership contest. Her successor will inherit a fractured party and a House of Commons just as divided along the Brexit faultline.
With Reuters’ own analysis of the voting patterns of all 650 MPs, this project visualises the factions in the House of Commons that emerged while May tried to push through her Brexit divorce detail.
Impact reached:
The project was showcased on reuters.com and used throughout Reuters stories to add context and understanding of the divided parliament.
Techniques/technologies used:
The heart and strength of this piece was the original data analysis achieved and visualised in R. From there, the ternary visualisations were finessed in Adobe Illustrator
What was the hardest part of this project?
The most difficult part of the project was finding a clear and effective visualisation of voting patterns that explained the untraditional shifting support of British parliamentarians.
What can others learn from this project?
R can be used to not only to analysis and report out stories, it can also be used to complete the main bulk of visualisation.
Project links:
graphics.reuters.com/BRITAIN-EU-LEADER/010092Q33KW/index.html