The 2024 UK General Election Conference

The accompanying landslide came courtesy of an electoral system that rewarded Keir Starmer and his party with a huge majority despite their securing just over a third of the popular vote. Enabling this striking outcome was the collapse of the ruling Conservatives, who lost almost half their electoral support, together with the marked decline in the fortunes of the Scottish National Party.  

While the Labour vote share was slightly more than that it had obtained in 2019, the party’s number of MPs more than doubled in a reversal of that defeat. The new government was, however, far from the only beneficiary from the Conservatives’ electoral woes. Like Labour, the Liberal Democrats combined a modest improvement in their vote share with a substantial increase in their parliamentary representation.

The Greens similarly enjoyed a good result, returning four MPs for the first time. While most opposition parties made progress at the Conservatives’ expense, none appeared to have as much a role in engineering the dramatic electoral downfall of Rishi Sunak’s government as Reform UK.

When Prime Minister Sunak called the election, Nigel Farage was not the leader nor even a prospective candidate for his new party. Seven weeks later he was finally an MP speaking on behalf of his five strong Reform parliamentary grouping.

The Conference

This conference brings together various leading experts to reflect on their experiences of the 2024 General Election.

Tickets are free of charge and now available on a first come basis, either in person or online attendance to reserve your place.

The latest in a series of post-mortems that date back to the 1979 election and which each have produced the Political Communication books (the most recent of which was published by Springer), the gathering will hear from those who contested, reported, and analysed another momentous campaign.

Dedicated sessions will explore the role of the parties, media and polling and examine the issues and personalities that shaped and defined the election.

The event will also reconsider the Election Night experience and mark the formal launch of www.electionanalysis.uk, a major study of the campaign drawing together over 100 contributions from 130 academic colleagues.

This conference brings together various leading experts to reflect on their experiences of the 2024 General Election.

Confirmed participants so far include: Simon Atkinson (Chief Knowledge Officer, Ipsos), Ric Bailey (Chief Political Adviser, BBC), David Deacon (含羞草视频), Mike Dixon (Chief Executive, Liberal Democrats), Isla Glaister (Data and Elections Editor, Sky News), Miranda Green (Financial Times), Emily Harmer (University of Liverpool), Emma Hoskyns (Head of Special Events, ITV News), Dan Jackson (Bournemouth University), Kishan Koria (Editor, ITV Peston), Beth Kuenhel Mann (Senior Research Executive, YouGov), Roger Mortimore (King’s College London), Nathan Ritchie (含羞草视频), David Smith (University of Leicester), Luke Tryl (Director, More in Common), Dominic Wring (含羞草视频)