In reply to those muddling my personal opinion, with various articles and academic reports relating to reasons that the middle class is turning away from the Tories. —
First looking at the younger age group, from an article in the Tory mouthpiece The Spectator.
The most obvious one is ethnic background. Those from an ethnic background tend to not vote Tory.
Only 2/100 of voters over 80 are from an ethnic background but this rises to 20% in the under 30s.
Education. Tony Blair ensure a far larger level of the population had the opportunity to attain further education qualification. Many took up this opportunity. This dramatic expansion of higher education has dramatically shifted life outcomes, values, debt levels, and world views of this generation, and they are far less likely to vote Tory. Analysis of the referendum shows this in stark figures.
The young are drawn to cities, those left behind are feeling exactly that and the Tories show no desire to provide opportunity to those in these rural locations, which again had previously been a source of Tory votes.
Home ownership. This has previously been a big driver in Tory votes. The gap continues to grow between wage ratio and home ownership.
Student fees have de-coupled another portion of young vote from the Tories.
Corruption, tax dodging, and economic downturn all play its part.
Brexit - no further explanation needed.
Finally, Tories are seen as stuck in the past - the Tories are more likely to resist movements like BLM, LGBT, etc.
The Spectator was correct in its analysis, the last lot of elections in May show that so many of what were once rock solid Tory strongholds are now looking shaky and indeed analysis of the voting patterns confirm exactly that.
Let us hope it is structural and not merely a blip.
