Background:
- Gordon Brown could have called a Snap Election in 2007 when he became PM after Blair stepped down and he would have won but however, he didn’t call an election and a year later there was a worldwide recession happened and he got the blame for the UK’s fault in it.
Key Issues Surrounding
The Campaign:
- How damaging the recession would be to the Labour Party
- Did Cameron do enough to detoxify the party
- The first UK election TV debate
- What role would UKIP and other minor parties do
Key
Policies:
- Conservatives focused on saving the NHS and the need to see the economy through better management and savings
- Labour focused on Brown’s economic management and action going against the economic collapse
- Lib Dems focused on a compromise between the two parties
The
Campaign:
- First TV debate in the history of UK general elections makes Clegg’s rise as he became popular when he kept on looking into the camera.
- The media created a three-party responding as three parties became popular
- Elements such as early morning conferences to allow news outlets to have the latest news in the mornings were abandoned by parties
- The financial crisis meant that little policies were actually created and all policies that were made was on how each party was going to make the economy better
- The media mainly support the Conservative party
- Conservative spent a lot of money on campaigning but Labour didn’t since they spent a lot in 2005 so they relied on activists to the campaign.
- The Campaign was seen for perhaps the first time through social media as in real time were commenting on Twitter during TV debates etc.
-
PartySeatsWin/LossShare of Vote%Conservatives
307
+109
36.19%
Labour258
-98
29.0%
Liberal Democrats57
+57
23.0%
Plaid Cymru3
+1
0.4%
SNP6
0
1.7%
Other19
-3
9.6%
- This election meant it is now difficult not have TV debates – means elections are now more presidential
- Conservatives support fell by 2-3% which wasn’t enough for a majority
- Nick Clegg was seen as a good deputy prime minister and a peacetime coalition was put into place.
-
GeographyLabour gained votes in Scotland but lost in England and Wales.Conservatives gained votes in the South of England where they had mainly lost them in 1997
ClassConservatives saw a strong swing from the C1 and C2Labour gained a 10% swing from the DE
GenderMen had a slight preference to the Conservative partyWomen preferred the Labour party and the Lib Dems
AgeLabour won the 18-24 whereas the Conservative party won everything else
RaceConservatives won the white vote, Labour support with the BME was 68%.Lib Dem was almost equal to 20% white and 24% with BME