2015 general election

Sunday

Steerpike

Thick of It writer ridicules Ed Miliband’s 8ft ‘policy cenotaph’

Ed Miliband has woken up to ridicule this morning after the Guardian unveiled his latest election accessory. No longer content with his trusty lectern, the Labour leader has bizarrely commissioned an 8ft 6in stone inscription which bears Labour’s key election promises.   Miliband plans to install this in the Downing Street Rose Garden if he succeeds in getting in to Number 10. Given that the Tories’ pledge to protect their tax cuts promise with a law was seen as a ‘last minute gimmick’, Labour have managed to take the phrase to new heights. In fact, Mr S thinks it all sounds a bit like a plot line from the BBC’s The Thick

Sebastian Payne

Watch: Nigel Farage, Douglas Carswell and Tim Aker on Ukip’s chances with five days to go

Ukip has four key target seats in Essex and Kent it hopes to win on Thursday. In order of likelihood of victory, Clacton, Rochester & Strood, South Thanet and Thurrock are the constituencies to watch on election night. I visited three of these seats yesterday, to find out how each of the candidates are feeling about the impending election, as well as their predictions of how well Ukip will do. 1. South Thanet Ukip candidate: Nigel Farage Last Ashcroft poll: Ukip two points behind Tories WATCH: Highlights from @Nigel_Farage’s final public meeting of the campaign in South Thanet #ge2015 #ukip https://t.co/sIRqo4PtKg — Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) May 2, 2015 Nigel Farage held his

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Nicky Morgan’s market place fight to hold her marginal seat

Nicky Morgan’s record as Education Secretary is coming under fierce attack in the Loughborough market place where she’s campaigning. A furious man is telling activists that he will never vote for the Tory candidate because of ‘what she’s done’. The campaigners brace themselves for a diatribe about Tory education policies. Instead, it turns out that his complaint is that ‘she’s kept all the kids in school for longer’. This has had a devastating effect, not on the kids themselves, but on the fish and chip shops in Yarmouth and Skegness, where this particular voter cannot now buy a delicious feast as he’d wish. ‘Rubbish!’ he bellows, as one Tory member

Steerpike Steerpike

Politicians deliver careful messages of congratulations for the royal baby

This morning the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby girl. The girl, who is the Queen’s fifth great-grandchild, is the fourth in line to the throne. As members of the public began to celebrate, the political leaders were quick to put out their own carefully worded messages of congratulations. With the election less than a week away, each leader must work out how to toe the party line on the monarchy, while not coming across as cold-hearted or too politically-minded. First out of the starting blocks was Nick Clegg who managed to mention both his constituency and his better half Miriam in his messages: Just behind him was ardent royalist David Cameron who offered a simple message,

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Lord Ashcroft’s final marginal polling shows how tight the election remains

Lord Ashcroft has released his final marginal polls before the election, looking at ten marginal seats in England and Scotland. The Tories are set to hold onto four key marginals: Battersea, Croydon Central, Pudsey and Stourbridge. In Croydon Central, Ashcroft has found significant movement towards the Tories: last October, there was a six point Labour lead, which shrunk to a four point lead in March and has now turned into a four point Conservative lead. This movement is thanks to a decline in the Ukip vote share, which has dropped nine points since October. There’s also good news for the employment minister Esther McVey in Wirral West. The Tories are very keen

Sebastian Payne

Election podcast special: six days to go

In today’s election podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the most significant moments during the campaign this week. Did Ed Miliband’s interview with Russell Brand make any impact? Which moments of the Question Time special will be remembered? And what might happen one week today if the Conservatives are unable to form a government? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

Steerpike Steerpike

Noel Gallagher: Ed Miliband is a f–king communist

Tony Blair once counted Noel Gallagher as one of New Labour’s key celebrity backers. However, under Ed Miliband’s leadership, Labour can rely on no such support from the musician. In an interview on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man, which airs tonight, the former Oasis member said he was unable to endorse any politician out of the current line-up: ‘I’m not sure I can get behind any of them at the minute. I dunno. The fact that Cameron didn’t turn up for the debate is a disgrace. I think that Miliband, if he gets in, is just going to fail us.’ And why would Miliband fail? ‘Because he is a f**king communist.’ Mr S suspects it’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Who are the precocious producers of Milibae: The Movie?

Oh dear. Ed Miliband did not have a good run on Question Time last night. After he was grilled by the audience over Labour’s history with debt, even the most die-hard Milifan would have struggled to find any sex appeal in his trip as he hurried off the stage. However, Miliband fans are made of tough stuff and haven’t yet abandoned their leader in his hour of need. Instead, they have made an entire movie about him, which brings together highlights from the Milifan movement. Warning: contains disturbing images It’s unknown whether Milibae: The Movie will be rolled out for nationwide release. However, Mr S was most impressed by the video, which showed a rather precocious knowledge of politics. Perhaps the Milifans asked

Steerpike Steerpike

Michael Gove claims Tories will win more seats in Scotland than Labour

Michael Gove was out and about with fifty odd Tory activists dressed as Nicola Sturgeon in Westminster today, when he made an extraordinarily bold prediction about next week’s election results. The top Tory claimed that his party would end up with more seats in Scotland than the Labour Party. He also suggested that Sturgeon was more dangerous than Russell Brand, ‘because she votes’. While Miliband’s party might well be set for an absolute hammering north of the border next Thursday, they do currently have 41 Scottish seats whereas the Tories have a single constituency. Mr S later asked the Chief Whip to back up his claim. ‘It is a reality based prediction, yes,’ Gove

Sebastian Payne

The fruitcakes are back as Ukip declares ‘war with the BBC’

Ukip is becoming a two-faced party. One side is made up of credible political challengers, while the other side comprises LibLabCon conspiracy theorists. Since the last election, the party has made progress by promoting this serious side, while sidelining the fruitcakes. But over the last few days, the more loony side of the party has reappeared, thanks to the party making the BBC a campaign issue. While out campaigning in Aylesbury yesterday, Nigel Farage said he had no complaints about the other broadcasters — just the Beeb: ‘We have this bizarre state of affairs where we have BBC, an organisation which we are all charged £145 a year to have the benefit of seeing, aren’t

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Senior Tories to plot election response on Friday

Tory MPs will plot their party’s response to the election result and any likely coalition partnerships in a meeting next Friday, 8 May at 4pm, Coffee House has learned. The powerful executive of the 1922 Committee will meet that afternoon in order to prepare their demands for the Prime Minister and discuss any initial outlines of a coalition agreement between the Tories and the Lib Dems that have already been passed on to them. They will be preparing for a meeting of the full party on Monday, where they will set out their demands in full. We have known for some time what the demands of the Committee will be

Steerpike Steerpike

David Cameron: election is a ‘career-defining’ moment

Given that David Cameron will not see out another election campaign if he sticks to his bizarre pledge not to run for a third term, Cameron is nearing the end of his prime ministerial career regardless of the outcome of this election. Still, Mr S suspects that he did not mean to call the election a ‘career-defining’ moment at a campaign event earlier today. A Freudian slip perhaps? He then added that it was also a ‘country-defining’ moment. Update: Mr S’s colleague Harry Cole has been speaking to Michael Gove, who has defended Cameron’s comments, saying he was talking about the careers of the three million people who he wants to give

Steerpike Steerpike

Russell Brand says vote (but not for Ed Miliband)

At a recent screening of his new capitalism documentary the Emperor’s New Clothes, Russell Brand, the revolutionary who refuses to vote, said he was too angry to say nice things about today’s politicians: ‘When I watch it [the Emperor’s New Clothes], I sort of think come on Russell people really want to hear you say something about the election like Caroline Lucas is lovely, or Natalie Bennett is lovely, or Tom Watson is lovely or Ed Miliband is really trying his hardest, but when I watch this I think “nooo! Justice!”’ However just a week later and the comedian has changed his tune. After Ed Miliband paid a late-night visit to his

Sebastian Payne

Campaign kick-off: six days to go

By this time next week, the election will all be over and it will be a question of seats, leaderships and coalitions. With six days of campaigning left, today will be dominated by the fallout from last night’s Question Time special. David Cameron put in a good turn, Ed Miliband did not and Nick Clegg appeared to sail on through without much impact. To help guide you through the melée of stories and spin, here is a summary of today’s main election stories. 1. Miliband’s not sorry The special edition of Question Time last night with the three main party leaders was the best television of the campaign. Cameron, Miliband

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

The truth about Labour and overspending

Ed Miliband’s worst moment in the Question Time debate came when he refused to accept that Labour had spent too much before the crash. The audience reacted with fury: how could he be trusted if he has yet to work out what he did wrong? This is toxic for him because his denial is completely genuine: he has convinced himself that the debt crisis is unconnected to what he got up to when serving in HM Treasury. listen to ‘Ed Miliband says Labour did not overspend in government’ on audioBoom

Sebastian Payne

Listen: The Spectator’s verdict on the Question Time leaders special

According to the snap poll, David Cameron has won the final TV ‘debate’ of the short campaign. In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discussed the Question Time special this evening and how each of the party leaders performed. Was the audience more receptive to Ed Miliband or Cameron? Were there any major gaffs? Did Nick Clegg make much of an impact? And will it make any difference to the campaign? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ed Miliband’s refusal to admit that Labour overspent could cost him dear

Tonight’s Question Time special with Cameron, Miliband and Clegg provided the best television of this campaign so far. A well-informed audience relentlessly pressed the three leaders on their weakest points. At the end of the evening, an ICM poll for the Guardian gave the evening to Cameron by 44 per cent to Miliband’s 38 per cent with Clegg garnering 19 per cent support. Miliband’s didn’t have a great night and his most awkward moment came on the record of the last Labour government. The audience were audibly irritated by his repeated refusal to concede that the last Labour government had spent too much money. Under questioning from the audience, Miliband

The Spectator

As it happened: Question Time leaders special

Welcome to the Spectator’s live coverage of the special edition of Question Time with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. We’ll be providing live analysis of the final TV programme with each of the party leaders from 8pm. This page will automatically reload. 

Sebastian Payne

Has the Tory crossover in the polls finally arrived?

As election day nears, the number of polls appearing is rapidly increasing. But it still remains very tight and the movements are generally within the margin of error. But there is one trend emerging from the handful of polls released in the last few days: the Tories are stable on 35 per cent and ahead of Labour. As the chart above shows, YouGov, Ipsos MORI and ComRes all put the Tories on 35 and ICM concurred with this vote share on Monday. There is no consensus between the pollsters however on where Labour sits in comparison to the Tories. Lord Ashcroft had Labour the furthest behind, traling by six points, on

Mark Gettleson

The Lib Dems struggle to replace old political blood with new

The Liberal Democrat resilience in countless marginal seats has confounded many commentators. While perhaps winning half the number of votes as Ukip nationwide, it is far from inconceivable that they will win five to ten times the number of seats. Take Sutton & Cheam, for instance, where despite having a majority of just 1,608 votes, Paul Berstow seems all but certain to retain his seat. This has, quite correctly, been attributed to the personal following of Lib Dem incumbents – and their ability to build an often robust local campaigning machine around their cult of personality. People of all sides of the political spectrum flock to banners, irrespective of their underlying party