Forget bonding over a love of film noir, Stylist meets four women assessing potential dates on how they vote

Once, talking politics was anathema to passion and ‘never ask someone how they vote’ was an etiquette mantra we all adhered to. Scroll through Tinder, Happn, Once or Bumble today however, and you’re as likely to come across a declaration of political allegiance (‘No Tories please’ or ‘Lefties need not apply’) as you are a sarcastic one-liner or a career brag. Opportunities to find love, it seems, are suddenly being limited by where you put your cross on the ballot.

A glance at any Facebook feed proves that political discussion has reached an all-time high, especially among millennials. A Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition, Corbyn coup and wave of tax scandals have resulted in party battle lines being drawn and redrawn, leading many of us to become increasingly vocal about where we stand.

On dating site Bumble, you can now add a filter so that a potential partner knows your political affiliation as soon as they land on your profile. Or download the CandiDate app (where matches are based on political views) or try to find love on OKComrade, the left wing version of OKCupid.

Adam Hyde, editor of political news site Great British Politics, says, “Identity politics has been a key driver for young people of late and has strengthened the political dynamic to many relationships. Where once young people wouldn’t care if a potential boyfriend or girlfriend told them they voted for say, the Tories, the impression that political affiliation defines social groups is now an additional barrier to relationships.”

We’ve certainly become more assertive about who we support and why – especially since the last election. So is dating along political lines a faster, more accurate way to find love with a like-minded person? Or, as Stylist columnist Lucy Mangan, who has famously written about being a left-winger married to a ‘Toryboy’, worries, are we missing out on the chance of happiness with a potential partner who could broaden our minds? “Stating your politics as left or right and/or demanding the same from a potential partner seems quite an unnecessary closing off of your options,” says Mangan. “Dating someone of the opposite political persuasion doesn’t always make life the easiest or most harmonious but it does make it more interesting!”

As the EU referendum threatens, once again, to divide us into opposing camps, we speak to four women whose dating lives are dictated as much by their political leanings as by their penchant for walks on the beach.

“I’d swipe left on lefties”

Are you a Labour lover or captivated by Conservatives? How we vote is influencing how we date more than ever before