{"id":147363,"date":"2024-06-24T16:40:29","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T15:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=147363"},"modified":"2024-07-24T10:22:06","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T09:22:06","slug":"are-all-bets-off-for-the-conservatives-analysis-of-the-general-election-conversation-and-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/are-all-bets-off-for-the-conservatives-analysis-of-the-general-election-conversation-and-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Are all bets off for the Conservatives? Analysis of the General Election conversation and coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Phoebe-Jane Boyd, Dahye Lee, and Ingrid Marin. <\/em><\/p>\n

Topics tackled by party leaders during their latest media appearances spanned LGBTQ+ rights, National Service, and the European Court, but one subject in particular has grasped the attention of potential voters\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n

We analysed the UK General Election 2024 conversation across online and print news, TV, radio, and podcasts as well as Threads, Facebook, blogs, and forums, from 17 June to this morning.<\/p>\n

\"Trends<\/p>\n

The topic that won\u2019t go away for the Conservatives<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Troubles for the Tories<\/strong><\/p>\n

Were the press and public focused on the leaders\u2019 latest performances on radio and TV, as figures in the campaign might have hoped? The impact of broadcast appearances has instead been overshadowed by the Conservative gambling scandal.<\/p>\n

Thursday 20 June was a bruising day for the party, with the news that two Conservative candidates are being investigated by the Gambling Commission for using inside information to bet on the date of the election. Rishi Sunak told<\/a> the ‘Question Time’ leaders\u2019 special audience that he was \u2018incredibly angry\u2019 to learn of allegations and said anyone found guilty would be \u2018booted out\u2019 of the party.<\/p>\n

Despite these assertions, the narrative has shifted, which highlights the Tories’ difficulties in addressing internal crises proactively, leading to broader public awareness of the controversies.<\/p>\n

This story is unlikely to go away from the public eye this week, as Labour\u2019s National Campaign Coordinator Pat McFadden wrote to the Gambling Commission’s Chief Executive Andrew Rhodes on Sunday evening, calling<\/a> for the commission to make \u2018the widest possible information about how wide the circle spreads\u2019 available.<\/p>\n

Senior Conservatives also responded to the news, with the Home Secretary James Cleverly refusing<\/a> to defend those who placed bets, insisting that it was a \u2018small circle.\u2019 Michael Gove, who is standing down at this election, compared<\/a> the scandal to Partygate. This morning, Tobias Ellwood called<\/a> for anyone who has broken the law to be removed from the party.<\/p>\n

Poor performance from the Conservatives meant potentially good things for one other party in particular\u2026<\/p>\n

A boost for Reform UK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amidst the Conservatives’ scandal, the growing dominance of Reform UK in polls has become a motif in both traditional media<\/a> and social platforms. Reform UK\u2019s impact on social media is led<\/a> by their own proponents – going against the stereotype that its base is made up of tech-averse pensioners.<\/p>\n

What do the polls say?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A poll<\/a> from The Telegraph showed that 69% of over 50,000 readers thought Sunak came out on top of Thursday\u2019s TV debate, with Starmer receiving only 17% of readers\u2019 votes.<\/p>\n

Despite this, several polls published on Thursday portended catastrophic results for the Conservatives, with a poll<\/a> for The Telegraph predicting they could retain just 53 seats, and Sunak could become the first sitting Prime Minister in history to lose his seat.<\/p>\n

One of the leading topics of conversation among Telegraph readers was the absence of Nigel Farage representing Reform at Thursday\u2019s BBC Question Time, especially as a new poll suggests<\/a> that voters would prefer him to a Conservative as the leader of the opposition to a future Labour Government. The BBC has since announced it will add another Question Time leaders\u2019 special featuring representatives from Reform UK and the Green Party.<\/p>\n

The impact of radio<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Despite the two LBC interviews and an episode of BBC\u2019s Question Time, the highest radio impact was created by the aforementioned Conservative gambling scandal, which generated almost three times the volume of Labour in the General Election conversation.<\/p>\n

The top radio shows with the highest engagement turned out to be LBC and The Times, with both generating a reach of 1.1 million and 703,000 on that day, respectively.<\/p>\n

While social media drives the Labour conversation, it was radio that made an impact on Reform UK voters, who actively engaged in response to Starmer\u2019s interview and his answers to a voter on LBC.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Social media peaked following Conservative leader Rishi Sunak’s interview with LBC. Poll results seem increasingly influential among Labour supporters, who are using them to bolster voter confidence and sway swing voters across Conservative, Reform, and Liberal Democrats.<\/p>\n

\"Claire<\/p>\n

Is radio time a good investment for General Election hopefuls? With clips being shared on social media, use of the format drives engagement. But will the content of these clips impact voting on 4 July?<\/p>\n

For regular updates on what is happening in UK politics and public affairs,\u00a0sign up to our weekly Point of Order newsletter<\/a>, going out every Friday morning.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Topics tackled by party leaders during their latest media appearances spanned LGBTQ+ rights, National Service, and the European Court, but one subject in particular has grasped the attention of potential voters. Here is the analysis of the UK General Election 2024 conversation from 17 June to this morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":147366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7383,7272,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/423"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147363"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147601,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147363\/revisions\/147601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}