Political Communication in Britain: Campaigning, Media and Polling in the 2024 General Election

Political Communications is a now established series of eleven books, the first of which appeared in the aftermath of the watershed General Election of 1979.  Cumulatively the series offers unique insights from both practitioner and academic perspectives with commentaries from those responsible for organizing, reporting, and analyzing every campaign held during the last 45 years.  The primary focus of the books is to understand the interplay between the rival parties, various media and the voting public, and the similarities and differences between this and previous elections.  

This book resembles previous volumes in terms of its structure. The content will, however, differ not least because this election ended in the return of a new government. Political Communication in Britain (2024) will provide commentaries from party insiders about a campaign whose outcome was seemingly not in doubt, but which nonetheless delivered some surprising results due to the idiosyncrasies of the UK electoral system. The book will examine the workings and efforts of various rival campaign, both online and off, in the context of a hastily called election held in July for the first time since 1945. The reporting of events and role of journalism in seeking to hold the rival politicians will be discussed including by those responsible for delivering some of the most popular news coverage. A range of polling experts will examine how voters experienced the campaign through use of quantitative and qualitative based forms of analysis to provide insights into why and how so many different parties were able to gain the necessary support to secure representation in the House of Commons. Aside from Labour, the other beneficiaries from this campaign were the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, the Greens, and a range of independents: the reasons for their successes will be complemented by explorations of why the Conservatives and Scottish Nationalists succumbed to such heavy defeats. 

Dominic Wring is Professor of Political Communication, Department of Communication and Media, Loughborough University, UK.

Simon Atkinson is Chief Knowledge Officer at Ipsos, UK.

Emily Harmer is Senior Lecturer in Media, University of Liverpool, UK.

Roger Mortimer is Director of Political Analysis, Ipsos, and Professor of Public Opinion and Political Analysis, King’s College London, UK.