How people voted in the election according to which newspaper they read

Readers of The Independent, which did not officially endorse any party – were overwhelmingly more likely to have voted Labour than Conservative

Labour Jeremy Corbyn looks at newspapers following the general election (Reuters)

Newspaper readers largely followed the party allegiances of their favourite publication when they voted in the general election, new data has shown.

Over the three days after voters went to the ballot box, YouGov polled more than 50,000 British voters.

The data showed that the Financial Times had the most divided readership.

While the newspaper endorsed the Conservative Party, just 40 per cent of its readers voted Tory, while 39 per cent opted for Labour.

However, the majority of readers of the Conservative-backing Daily Mail, Telegraph, Express, Sun and Times voted Tory.

Readers of the Labour-backing Guardian and Mirror were overwhelmingly more likely to have voted for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.

Readers of The Independent, which did not officially endorse any party – were overwhelmingly more likely to have voted Labour than Conservative.

YouGov asked voters a series of questions, including which newspaper they usually read – if any.

The Independent, which went digital only last year, had the highest number of highly shared articles across social media relating to the general election throughout the campaign, according to data from Buzzsumo.

Sixty-six per cent of Independent readers said they had voted Labour, compared to just 15 per cent who had voted Tory. A further 12 per cent opted for the Liberal Democrats.

The Guardian had the highest percentage of Labour voters at 73 per cent, with just eight per cent of the paper’s readers opting for the Conservatives and 12 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.

Mirror readers were the second-most likely to have voted Labour, with 68 per cent of them preferring Mr Corbyn's party and just 19 per cent backing the Tories.

In spite of the Sun’s strong endorsement of the Tories, 30 per cent of the paper’s readers still backed Labour at the polling booths.

And 24 per cent of the Tory-backing Times still voted red, with 58 per cent backing the blues and 14 per cent opting for Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats.

Readers of the true-blue Telegraph were most likely to have voted Tory, at 79 per cent, with just 12 per cent backing Labour and 6 per cent giving their backing to the Lib Dems.

Daily Mail readers showed a clear preference for the Conservatives, with 74 per cent of its readers backing her compared to just 15 per cent who voted Labour.

The Express showed a similar breakdown to the Mail and Telegraph, with 77 per cent blue and 15 per cent red.

The Daily Mail was the most-read newspaper among the 52,615 people surveyed by YouGov, followed by the Guardian and the Sun.

Media commentator Roy Greenslade said the fact that over 40 per cent of the electorate had backed Labour in spite of what he called the “demonising” of Mr Corbyn showed that newspapers are waning in importance.

“Spending basically two weeks demonising a man, a leader, and still they don’t pull off a victory for their chosen one, suggests they are out of touch, out of touch with the electorate as a whole, though not necessarily their readers,” said the former Mirror editor.

“It’s the end of the hegemony of news print from the right.”

Almost a third of those polled – 31 per cent – said they did not vote.