David Cameron has been the most travelled party leader on the campaign trail, while Nigel Farage has been the most focused. We are halfway through the campaign and the wheels of the four main parties’ battle buses have been covering a considerable distance – and revealing some interesting patterns.
David Cameron has been the busiest of the party leaders and there are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the Conservatives are the only party that is fielding candidates in all four nations – having ended its alliance with the Ulster Unionists in Northern Ireland in 2012. Travelling across the UK also looks statesmanlike and Cameron is the leader that the electorate most sees as prime ministerial – an image he wants to reinforce.
The trips are perhaps as much about perception as seats the Tories have a chance of winning. Visits to Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff all took place over one day, though the Conservatives are unlikely to take any seats in Northern Ireland and will probably retain just the one in Scotland.
The second factor is that Cameron is outpolling his party and is therefore is seen as an electoral asset. Having Cameron out on the campaign trail is largely a positive for local Tories.
The defensive strategy of Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats has seen him spend a lot of time in their south-west of England heartland. Most of the seats the Lib Dems are likely to keep hold of are ones in which they are competing against Conservatives rather than Labour. Visits to Hazel Grove in Manchester as well as Surbiton, Cornwall North and Chippenham in London bear that out.
At first glance, Ed Miliband is taking a wide-ranging approach similar to Cameron, but if you look at the seats he has visited, his approach is actually quite aggressive. Many of the places his campaign events take place in are in Conservative-held seats such as Warrington South, Pudsey and Colne Valley. Labour is optimistic about making gains in the Midlands as well as in the north of England.
The Labour leader’s limited time in Scotland reflects a similar approach to last year’s referendum, when he largely stayed off the campaign trail. Polls suggest the Labour leader is less popular than Cameron. The exception was a visit to Edinburgh alongside Jim Murphy and Ed Balls.
The clearest campaign strategy is that of Nigel Farage, who has largely clung to English coastal constituencies where Ukip has a chance of winning seats. Beyond that he has made stops in a few other places where Ukip are also in the running, Boston and Grimsby further up the east coast, and Thurrock in the Midlands.
However, most of Farage’s energy has been focused on the attempt to win a seat of his own in South Thanet, where he has spent much more time than the other party leaders have in their own constituencies.
Methodology
We have attempted to account for every campaign event and stop made by each of the party leaders since 31 March through news coverage and photo opportunities.
