'White van man' drove away from David Cameron at general election

David Cameron's bid to win over more blue-collar workers at the general election failed after the "white van man" drove away from the Conservatives.

A post-election study by Ipsos Mori found that Tory support among DE (semi-skilled, unskilled and unemployed people) and C2 (skilled manual workers) voters dropped by 5% and 4% respectively, when compared with 2010.

The survey, of more than 9,000 people, also found that votes among DE and C2 males – sometimes categorised as the "white van man" stereotype – fell by 6% and 3%, respectively, on the last general election.

Meanwhile, Labour saw their popularity grow among the class categories at the election as C2 support jumped by 3% and DE by 1% when compared with 2010. A comparison of Ukip's results between the elections was unavailable.

The data comes after the deputy chairman of the Tories, Robert Halfon, said that his party could re-brand itself as the "Workers' Party".

"The name is something we should look at, and I have written about this in the past," he told The Sun.

"If we get the message right as well as the policies, we will de facto become the Workers' Party. I believe we are that already, it's just not enough people know about it."

Cameron has made a concerted effort to diversify his all-Conservative Cabinet as part of his first reshuffle after entering Number 10.

Sajid Javid, the new business secretary, was one of the high-profile appointments. The 45-year-old is the son of a bus driver and is of Pakistani decent.

The Ipsos MORI research revealed that the Tories and Labour increased their vote share among black and minority ethnic (BME) voters, but remained unchanged among white voters.

"This may be related to the rise of Ukip among white voters (to 14% of the vote), which may have cancelled out some of the Liberal Democrat's fall, while among BME voters only 2% said they would vote Ukip," the pollster said.

The study found that the Conservatives were most successful among the 65+ demographic, with a 5.5% swing from Labour since 2010. The Tories also secured a 3% swing from Ed Miliband's party among AB (professional) voters, according to Ipsos MORI.