Labour leadership: Which candidate won Google search battle?

Jeremy Corbyn is way out in front of his three rivals for the Labour leadership when it comes to internet searches, according to new research by Google News Labs for the BBC.

Google has worked out which of the four candidates generated the most searches in each of the 650 Commons constituencies, between 1 June and 3 September.

Mr Corbyn came top in 539 of them.

Most searched-for Labour leadership candidate by constituency

Research by Google News Labs and Alasdair Rae of Sheffield University

The map shows the most searched-for Labour leadership candidates by UK constituency. The searches are those of all Google users - not just Labour supporters

This does not necessarily indicate support - people make Google searches for all kinds of reasons.

And the veteran left-winger was a virtual unknown three months ago when the contest began.

So it's only natural people would want to find out more about him. He appears to be generating as much interest in true-blue Conservative heartlands in the South of England as in Labour's former strongholds in Scotland.

But the gap between Mr Corbyn and his nearest rival in this particular contest, Andy Burnham, who is the most popular search term in 51 constituencies, is, perhaps, yet more proof of the extent to which the Islington North MP has captured the public's imagination.

The searches are those of all people using the Google search engine, and have not been confined to Labour supporters.

Yvette Cooper comes top in 37 constituencies, with Liz Kendall in fourth place on 23.

Blair's constituency

The four contenders will find out on Saturday who has triumphed in the battle to replace Ed Miliband.

Speculation is raging about whether Mr Corbyn, the surprise front runner, will get more than 50% of votes, enabling him to win without second preferences coming to play - or whether one of the other candidates can pile up enough first and second preferences to beat him.

How much the candidates and their teams can read into Google search data is open to question, but it does throw up some fascinating nuggets.

Mr Corbyn topped the Google search charts in his own Islington North constituency, in north London, despite being the well-known local MP there since 1983.

He was also the most searched-for candidate in Andy Burnham's constituency, Leigh, in Greater Manchester, and Liz Kendall's Leicester West seat.

But Liz Kendall comes top in Pontefract and Normanton - Yvette Cooper's seat.

Ms Kendall, who is widely portrayed as the Blairite candidate, is also the most searched-for candidate in Tony Blair's old Sedgefield seat, while Mr Burnham generated the most interest of the four candidates in Prime Minister David Cameron's Witney constituency, in Oxfordshire.

Existential questions

Separate data, taken between 15 and 22 July, shows Mr Corbyn was the most searched-for candidate overall, with Liz Kendall, another relative unknown, second, Andy Burnham third and Yvette Cooper fourth.

Google has also released a breakdown of the questions its users are asking about the Labour Party and its leadership contest, between those dates.

A Commons vote on the government's controversial Welfare Bill, on 20 July, was one of the pivotal moments of the Labour leadership contest, with Mr Corbyn among 50 Labour rebels voting against it.

So no surprise, perhaps, that the most asked question on Google was: "Why did Labour abstain on the Welfare vote?"

Most of the other questions relate to practical issues such as how to join the party and how to vote but the fifth most popular inquiry strikes at the heart of what many see as the party's identity crisis: "What does Labour stand for?"

The existential theme continues in the breakdown of the most popular questions asked about the Labour Party in the US, which suggests the party is a source of some mystery to the average American internet user.

Here are the top five Labour-related questions asked by American Google-users:

• Is the Labour Party liberal?

• What is the Labour Party?

• Is the Labour Party left or right?

• Who do the working class vote for in the UK?

• Will Jeremy Corbyn win?

Produced by John Walton, Punit Shah and Mark Bryson.