The 2024 general election campaign saw the Labour Party storm to victory, winning over 400 seats with a 174-strong majority. All things considered the Labour election campaign was fairly unremarkable – caution being the overriding theme of a rather reserved effort.
Having previously looked at the many events leading into this election, it is now time to look at three of the most notable campaigns from the election itself. This is how the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and Reform campaigns were a story of the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good: The Liberal Democrats
In a campaign featuring the incumbent Conservative government, frontrunner Labour, the nationally governing Scottish National Party, and popular result-spoiling insurgent in Reform, it could have been the case that it would be hard for the Liberal Democrats to stand out.
Instead, they grabbed headlines through the most lively and positive campaign of this cycle.
Their wacky, headline-grabbing campaign saw the relatively unknown and thus unpopular Ed Davey performing outlandish stunts. These included rowing (and continually falling off) a kayak, riding down a waterslide, and committing to a bungee jump in the final days of the campaign. On a separate occasion, high-profile Lib Dems arrived in their election battle bus to my workplace at Thorpe Park, going on to get some iconic shots on several rollercoasters.
Although it all seemed very unserious, they were done for a purpose: to promote their policies.
In the election, the Liberal Democrats seemed to take on the mantle of the new party of the left. More radical than Labour in several aspects, keynote policies included free school meals for all primary school children, scrapping the two-child benefit cap, and increasing taxes on large corporations.
One of the major overarching themes of their manifesto was a focus on social care and the NHS, inspired by Davey’s own experiences as a carer, demonstrated in some particularly touching social media videos.
The party also committed to rejoining the Single Market, bringing up the topic other major parties remained silent on: Brexit. Polls have shown such a move is now supported by a clear majority of the electorate.
This “Fair Deal” was far more ambitious than Labour, costing £27 billion, more than five times the amount pledged by Keir Starmer’s party. Perhaps it could be said that due to the unlikeliness of a Lib Dem win, they could promise anything without the need to be as scrutinised, as realistic, or as fiscally conservative as Labour.
Result?
In the end, the message did seem to get through. The Liberal Democrats did better than even they seemed to expect, breaking down the so-called “blue wall”. With the aid of tactical voting, they were able to oust major Tory MPs such as Education Secretary Gillian Keegan and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.
Ed Davey himself won a majority of over 17,000, the largest ever Lib Dem majority in a general election.
With 72 seats, it is the best performance in the history of the Liberal Democrats and the best third party effort in over a century.
The Bad: The Conservatives
On the other hand, the government’s campaign was described by one senior Tory party figure as “the worst campaign in my lifetime.”
It started badly with Rishi Sunak announcing the general election in the pouring rain outside of Downing Street. Without an umbrella and with his suit drenched, it immediately made Sunak the butt of the joke. In the background, speakers blared D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better”, the soundtrack to New Labour’s landslide in 1997.
Moreover, although such an announcement was a shock, Labour were wise enough to quickly buy up prominent ad space on websites such as The Sun and The Daily Mail. The former of these, as well as The Financial Times and The Sunday Times, would back Labour for the first time in nearly two decades.
Throughout the campaign, the Tories too lost several prominent backers such as billionaires Sir Jim Ratcliffe and John Caudwell to Labour whilst Reform took on Jeremy Hosking and Sir John Hall.
The first days proved the party was anything but media savvy. Sunak was pictured building a red wall of bricks in perhaps not the best metaphor and photo’d with an exit sign above his head. Worse was his symbolic visit to the Titanic museum…
Socially, he proved himself equally inept, asking Welsh voters if they were excited for the Euros, Euros that Wales did not qualify for. He then had Conservative councilors dress in hi-vis and feed him easy questions at an event as if members of the public.
The national service policy was a fetch at best. Thought to encourage older voters who never served themselves, it would force 18-year-olds into military training or community work. It was said to be compulsory although the government never quite pegged what the punishment for not doing it was. It became an obvious point for attack, with Labour pointing out exorbitant costs whilst Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan compared it to Alan Partridge shouting “monkey tennis!” when pitching terrible programme ideas. Another gimmick was not what was desired, especially after the flagship Rwanda policy was still in limbo and had no chance of going ahead prior to the election.
In early June, former UKIP and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage u-turned on a previous statement to say he was again running for Parliament. Sunak perhaps planned the early election to catch the popular right-winger out, fearing a Farage-led Reform movement would split the right-wing vote. Instead, it only made it worse, with Farage standing and Reform surging in the polls and even overtaking the Conservatives in some.
The worst was still yet to come. June marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day. A day celebrating literal heroes, some centenarians, who will perhaps never be commemorated in such a way again, Sunak was universally condemned for leaving the events early to attend a TV interview. Even fellow Conservative MP Penny Mordaunt (who would go on to lose her seat in the election) would condemn the action.
Moreover, the ITV interview prompted the absurd claim Sunak – often attacked for being out of touch – knew the sacrifices of Britons, having himself gone without Sky TV as a child. Back at the D-Day events, an infamous photo was taken with world leaders with Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron taking Sunak’s place whilst it gave Starmer a photo opportunity with Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a picture used in the Labour Party manifesto.
A further scandal occurred when it was revealed that Conservative candidate and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sunak, Craig Williams, had bet on the date of the election three days before it was publicly announced. Investigated by the Gambling Commission, it soon came to light that Tory director of campaigning Tony Lee and wife, Conservative candidate Laura Saunders, were too being looked into as well as chief data officer Nick Mason. Williams and Saunders were eventually disowned although the damage had already been done, with Michael Gove believing the controversy was as damaging as Partygate.
The sense of dishonesty was only heightened by an often-repeated and disproven lie by the Conservative camp that Labour would raise taxes by £2,000.
Result?
In many ways, the Conservatives seemed to concede defeat from the beginning. Prominent Tory MPs at risk of losing their usually safe seats stood down within days, such as Michael Gove and John Redwood – both of whom represented constituencies the Conservatives would go on to lose. MPs were parachuted into seats last minute, such as Iain Dale (who later withdrew after previous negative comments about Tunbridge Wells – which he would represent – were uncovered) and party Chairman Richard Holden, who was given a safe Essex seat despite having previously said he was “bloody loyal” to the North East.
In the last days, the party instead warned of a supermajority. This seemingly failed to stem the threat whilst also effectively excepting loss whilst pleading for the electorate to return a capable opposition. A largely absent Boris Johnson made an eleventh-hour appearance but did not praise Sunak in any way.
In the end: a catastrophe. The Conservatives won their lowest-ever number of seats at just 121. Liz Truss, Penny Mordaunt, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Gillian Keegan, Grant Shapps, Alex Chalk, David TC Davies, and Therese Coffey are just some of those who lost their seat.
The Ugly: Reform UK
In January, Reform announced they would stand in every UK seat.
After initially ruling out standing, Nigel Farage made a huge announcement in early June to say he was going to take over from Richard Tice to lead Reform. This would lead to a bounce in Reform’s polling and pulling them neck-and-neck with the Conservatives.
On polling day however, the Conservatives were nearly 10 whole points higher.
Perhaps part of this fall was due to the actions of Reform activists, many of whom made racist, homophobic, or generally offensive comments.
One canvasser on behalf of Nigel Farage in Clacton, for example, were filmed describing Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian descent, as a “fucking Paki.” He later remarked that those coming over in small boats should be shot.
Another aide pointed out a police car with a Pride flag, asking “what are the old bill doing promoting that crap? They should be out catching nonces, not promoting the fuckers!” That same activist stated their police officers would be “paramilitaries”, and mused for the reintroduction of hanging.
Another candidate was banned for previous support for the British National Party. More alarming was Reform candidate Ian Gribbin, who had called for women to be “deprived of healthcare”, saying that Britain should have taken up Hitler on the offer of neutrality rather than fight the Nazis.
For his part, Farage has tried to pin any controversy on that of a few bad apples thought he himself is no stranger to controversy in this election cycle.
So unpopular, he had a milkshake thrown on him on the campaign trail, he faced widespread condemnation after comments made in a BBC interview with Nick Robinson, claiming that the west and NATO had provoked Russia into invading Ukraine. This resulted in a stunt by the Led by Donkeys group, who staged a fake Putin banner to lower behind Farage at a speech. Also negative was the coverage he got from remarking Rishi Sunak did not understand “our culture”, a piece of dog whistle politics attacked as racist and inflammatory.
During the campaign, two major Reform candidates fled to the Conservatives, attacking the racist and bigoted comments exposed during the campaign.
Result?
Although good for a first-time party, Reform won just five seats, with exit polls predicting Reform winning into the double digits. Despite having such a high-profile campaign, they would win less than 1% of the seats on 14% of the vote; the Liberal Democrats got 2% less votes but would win 1,440% more MPs.
They certainly showed themselves to be more right-wing than the government and were successful in helping sink the Tory ship but their campaign exposed an ugly underbelly that demonstrated serious issues with those at the heart of the campaign.
GRIFFIN KAYE.