The British political phrase Workington Man designated the Conservative Party’s target voter in the general election that was held on Thursday 12^th December 2019. This target voter was characterised as an older, white, working-class, Brexiteer, Northern-English man.

In U.K. faces Freaky Friday prospects, published in the National Post (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) of Thursday 7^th November 2019, David Oliver wrote that the Tories needed “to mobilize the “Brexit vote” to get anywhere near the magic 320-seat mark for a House of Commons majority”, and explained:

There is now much talk of the “Workington Man” among Tory election strategists. “Workington Man” is, a little patronizingly, described as someone who is from the North of England (a town like Workington), is through-and-through working class, used to vote Labour, and whose Dad probably voted Labour, but who is thoroughly miffed with the politics of Westminster. He voted “leave” in 2016 and probably for the Brexit Party in the 2019 Euro Elections.
Tory strategists believe that Workington Man and his ilk are the votes needed to “get Brexit done.”

In reference to Workington, a town in Cumbria, a county in north-west England, on the Scottish border, the phrase Workington Man was coined by the centre-right thinktank Onward—as explained by Harriet Sherwood in ‘Workington is a Labour town on the brink of change. They voted Leave and they’re fed up’, published in The Observer (London, England) of Saturday 2^nd November 2019:

“Workington Man” [is] the invention of a right-leaning thinktank Onward to describe the cohort of voters it says the Conservative party must win over if Boris Johnson ¹ is to secure a majority at next month’s election. Onward’s report said Workington Man was over 45, white, without a degree, voted Leave in the 2016 referendum, worried about crime, and “favours security over freedom”. Workington, on the Cumbrian coast, is “one of the places where the eponymous archetype is most common among the local electorate” and is “the ultimate bellwether seat, despite being a longstanding Labour stronghold”.
According to Will Tanner, the thinktank’s director: “It is clear that the Conservatives’ path to victory runs through working-class rugby league towns like Workington, Warrington and Wigan … as well as the party’s leafy heartlands in the south of England.”

¹ The British politician, author and former journalist Boris Johnson (born 1964) was then the Leader of the Conservative Party.

The earliest occurrences of the phrase Workington Man that I have found are as follows:

1-: From General Election: Who is target voter Workington Man?, by Bob Cooper, political reporter, BBC Cumbria, published on the BBC website on Wednesday 30^th October 2019:

According to Onward—the right-of centre-think tank that gave birth to the creation—Workington Man is older, white and Northern.
The imagined poster boy for “middle England” likes rugby league and Labour. He voted for Brexit and feels the country is moving away from his views.

2-: From the Evening Standard (London, England) of Wednesday 30^th October 2019:

QUOTE OF THE DAY
‘No women, sounds about right’
Campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez ² rolls her eyes at a think-tank’s claim that the vote of Workington Man, not Essex Man, holds the key to Downing Street this time.

² Caroline Criado-Perez (born 1984) is a British feminist author, journalist and activist.

3-: From Workington Man is London’s latest stereotype for the northern voters it neglects, by Lisa Nandy ³, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Thursday 31^st October 2019:

In elections past we have met Essex Man and Worcester Woman. Now, journalists are pouring out of London again in search of another stereotypical swing voter, Workington Man—apparently an older white man who voted leave, has no degree and lives in a “rugby league town”. He is the Tories’ new target voter, according to a report by the thinktank, Onward, and much of the national media has gone wild in response.

³ A member of the Labour Party, Lisa Nandy (born 1979) is the MP for Wigan, Greater Manchester, in north-west England.

The phrase Workington Man resurfaced when its Labour counterpart, Stevenage Woman, was coined in 2023 in reference to Stevenage, a town in Hertfordshire, a county in south-east England.

In ‘We’re in a huge mess’: could ‘Stevenage Woman’ block Labour’s path to power?, published in The Observer (London, England) of Saturday 1^st April 2023, Miranda Bryant wrote the following about the phrase Stevenage Woman:

A Labour thinktank believes that if the party heeds its advice, this mythical archetype—along with 2019’s “Workington Man”, who Labour is trying to win back from the Tories—is the key to regaining power in the next general election.
According to Labour Together, this newly identified group of voters—also referred to as “disillusioned suburbans” in its report, Red Shift—is a full-time working mother of two in her early 40s. The group is not in poverty but battling stagnant wages and cost increases, the report, published today, says.
Disengaged from daily politics, but “by nature a balancer”, the group leans towards social conservatism, is “a little to the left” on the economy and is “comfortable” with immigration, the report adds.
In the last election, Stevenage Woman voted Conservative, but is now twice as likely to back Labour, the report predicts. “She’s not seeking radical or dramatic change, but she is worried about her life today, the state of public services, and life in her town.”