Simon Atkinson’s research while affiliated with WWF United Kingdom and other places

British politics entered a period of extraordinary flux following the narrow votes in favour of Leave in the 2016 EU Referendum and the Conservatives in the 2017 General Election. Although the latter campaign saw Theresa May returned as Prime Minister, her authority was much diminished due to the Tories’ loss of their overall majority and her being forced to seek a confidence and supply arrangement with Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionists to stay in office. The resulting hung parliament was dominated by Brexit and, when the government was unable to make progress over the issue, May resigned to be replaced by Boris Johnson. Previously the leader of the Leave campaign, Johnson would make ‘Getting Brexit Done’ his mission and core campaign slogan in a General Election he pressed for only months into his premiership. Regardless of the merits of the new Prime Minister’s provisional so-called oven-ready deal with the European Union, the policy appeared sufficiently intelligible to a public by now familiar with this controversial topic.

Political Communication in Britain offers unique insights from various members of the party, media, and polling organizations that contested, reported, and analysed the 2019 British General Election, as well as leading academic experts who have researched the campaign. Following an essay by Sir John Curtice exploring how the critical issue of Brexit influenced the election, the opening part of this volume features insiders discussing their respective parties’ operations, including their successes and disappointments. This section also includes expert examinations of Boris Johnson’s ‘oven ready deal’ as well as the digital advertising and controversial public relations efforts that helped promote it. The middle part of the book considers the media, with chapters from the BBC, Sky News, and regulator Ofcom, along with analyses of the pro-Conservative press, digital-only plat[1]forms, and the more left-leaning alternative news sites. The closing section of the volume turns to public attitudes, with experts, including leading pollsters, exploring how these contributed to the Conservatives’ victory. Dedicated chapters also place opinion research in broader context through examining the historical role of the exit poll, and the changing reception and reporting of polls both online and in print. Political Communication in Britain provides readers with an indispensable guide to the 2019 General Election from several of those most intimately involved in the campaign. Dominic Wring is Professor of Political Communication at Loughborough University, UK. Roger Mortimore is Professor of Public Opinion and Political Analysis at King’s College London, UK, and Director of Political Analysis at Ipsos MORI. Simon Atkinson is Chief Knowledge Officer at Ipsos

Against prior expectations the 2017 General Election proved to be a particularly dramatic campaign, repeatedly stunning commentators from its surprise calling right through to its frenetic conclusion. In seven weeks a hitherto dominant Prime Minister saw her once seemingly unassailable lead in the polls eroded as support for her previously beleaguered rival surged. The subsequent restoration of two-party dominance contributed to the return of a hung parliament with profound consequences for both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Political Communication in Britain, the tenth volume in a series that began nearly four decades ago, revisits a momentous election by providing unique insights from the vantage point of those who fought, reported and researched a campaign that is likely to live long in the public imagination.

Against prior expectations the 2017 General Election proved to be particularly dramatic, repeatedly stunning commentators from its surprise calling right through to its frenetic conclusion. In seven weeks a hitherto dominant Prime Minister saw her once seemingly unassailable lead in the polls eroded as support for her previously beleaguered rival surged. The subsequent restoration of two-party dominance contributed to the return of a hung parliament with profound consequences for both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. Political Communication in Britain, the tenth volume in a series that began nearly four decades ago, revisits a momentous election by providing unique insights from the vantage point of those who fought, reported and researched a campaign that is likely to live long in the public imagination. Dominic Wring is Professor of Political Communication at Loughborough University, UK. Roger Mortimore is Professor of Public Opinion and Political Analysis at King’s College London, UK, and Director of Political Analysis at Ipsos MORI. Simon Atkinson is Chief Knowledge Officer at Ipsos MORI, UK.

This book offers a unique exploration of the 2015 General Election from the perspectives of those most intimately involved as strategists, journalists and analysts. It features contributions from the rival parties, news and polling organizations as well as academic experts who examine all aspects of the campaign. A common theme that emerges is the increasing complexity of the democratic process given the development of a more multifaceted party system and a growing fragmentation in mass media audiences. The UK electoral landscape has changed: in 2015 six parties received more than a million votes whereas in the 2010 General Election it was only three. This book provides invaluable insights into contemporary British politics through analysis of an election whose outcome, an outright Conservative victory, surprised many commentators. It will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of electoral politics and media and communication, as well as to practitioners and the wider reader interested in British general elections.