Michael Steed, who has died aged 83, was one of the pioneers of psephology who worked with the political scientist and psephologist David Butler on many general election studies. He took an early interest in the significance of local elections, and for more than two decades provided an annual chart of those results to the Economist magazine, as well as contributing to the Observer and making television appearances on election nights.
A prominent Liberal party activist, he was the vice-chair of the National League of Young Liberals during its radical phase in the 1960s, frequently at odds with the party leader at the time, Jeremy Thorpe. He consistently championed gay rights, called for a federal Europe and proposed constitutional reform, including regional government. Steed did not just snipe from the wings but took on key roles in the party, becoming a member of the party executive and serving as its president (1978-79) under an election system he had devised and which the party backed.
