Lesson Three: Political Parties & Electoral Success

Success Criteria – I can… What you will learn… Success Criteria – I can… Describe the factors which contribute to electoral success Explain the impact of these factors and how they benefit the various political parties Factors which contribute to the electoral success for political parties The impact of some of these factors in detail.

Lesson Starter Create a mind map with the following title: “Main factors contributing to electoral success” Be ready to feedback!

Factors Could Include… Party Unity/Division Ability to finance a campaign Number of party members (help with campaign) How effective the campaign is (use of media etc) Image of the party leader Issues/policies – especially in link to main political issue of the day (more to come on voting behaviour) Previous record (especially if in Government)

Group Task In your groups, discuss what issues you think might be important to voters in Britain. It can be issues that would arise every election or perhaps recent political events that might shape public opinion. Once you have at least 4, rank them in order of importance to your group and be ready to explain why!

Main Issues: Economy The main political issue in the 2010 General Election and likely to dominate as economy is still in recovery. Economic growth in the 2000’s was linked to success of Labour. The economy became the main political issue again in 2010 due to the economic plummet in 2008 aka ‘Credit Crunch’ Impacted on Labour losing power in 2010 2015 election result could have dependent on who voters trusted the most with the economy – George Osbourne or Ed Balls. IPSOS Mori polls always put the economy as the most important factor for voters at election time.

Main Issues: Conflict Wars in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2005 eventually caught up with Labour in 2010. War in Iraq in 2005 most controversial due to justification (or lack of in the eyes of many) for conflict. This cost Labour a lot of support from the 2005 election. Their majority in the House of Commons in 2005 fell from 167 to 66 In the Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, George Galloway won a Labour safe seat from Oona King, a very popular MP, on an anti-war ticket, overturning a staggering 10,000 majority Paxman V Galloway - awkward! Combined with economic issues the legacy of conflict could not be shrugged off by the Labour party in 2010

Main Issues: EU A referendum was held on Thursday 23rd June 2016, to decide whether the UK should leave or remain in the European Union. Leave won by 52% to 48%. The referendum turnout was 71.8%, with more than 30 million people voting. England voted strongly for Brexit, by 53.4% to 46.6%, as did Wales, with Leave getting 52.5% of the vote and Remain 47.5%. Scotland and Northern Ireland both backed staying in the EU. Scotland backed Remain by 62% to 38%, while 55.8% in Northern Ireland voted Remain and 44.2% Leave. It is likely Brexit will remain a key issue for many elections to come, as was seen in the snap election of June 2017

Dissention in the Ranks… The Conservative Party was split over the issue of Brexit with many so-called “Euro-sceptics” disagreeing with other members of the party about leaving or remaining. The vote to leave consequently led to the resignation of David Cameron who was then replaced by the former Home Secretary Theresa May who also voted to remain.

Regional Split Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in the wake of the Leave result that it is "democratically unacceptable" that Scotland faces being taken out of the EU when it voted to Remain. A second independence referendum for the country is now "highly likely", she has said. Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the impact in Northern Ireland would be "very profound" and that the whole island of Ireland should now be able to vote on reunification. But, speaking while she was still Northern Ireland Secretary, Theresa Villiers ruled out the call from Sinn Féin for a border poll, saying the circumstances in which one would be called did not exist. Sky News - Brexit - Where does it leave us now?

Other Issues in elections 2009 - MP’s expense scandal seemed to impact on the success of all the big parties (not just Labour) as UKIP came second in 2009 European elections – BNP also picked up representation due to the ‘protest vote’ Immigration - Another major election issue – Labour were also massively criticised for being to ‘open’ on immigration policy – Gordon Brown struggled with this issue in 2010 – when questioned by a Labour supporter on immigration during the election trail he referred to her as a ‘bigot’ – ‘bigot-gate’ was another nail in the coffin of Labour’s 2010 campaign. Bigot-Gate

Other Issues in elections The NHS – the NHS is an internationally recognised public service and a source of pride for Britain. Within Britain, it is a cause of much debate and concern, particularly during times of economic difficulty. The funding and performance of the NHS are key concerns for many groups, such as the elderly, disabled and young families. Employment/Education – issues such as employment and education are usually key concerns although often for particularly groups (young voters for example) although, depending on economic circumstances, the importance of this factor can be changeable.

Thatcher We are going to begin to focus on the performance of the Labour Party in various UK General Elections from 1979 – 2010. Our job is to examine the factors which either led to a successful election campaign or defeat of the opposition. We will begin with 1979-92, the Thatcher years! Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister *Remember to take notes throughout!