Abstract
This chapter explores the election strategies, campaign themes and targeting pursued by the seven key political parties—the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, and the four challengers: the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) from the right and the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party (SNP) from the left—in mainland Britain during the 2015 General Election. The first section focuses on the unofficial long campaign, which began in April 2009, and assesses its impact upon the 2015 General Election. The second section concentrates on the official short campaign, which began in March 2015. The main contention of this chapter is that it is not possible to explain the results of the 2015 General Election without understanding the broader context of the unofficial long campaign.
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Mullen, A. (2016). Election Strategies, Campaign Themes and Target Voters. In: Lilleker, D., Pack, M. (eds) Political Marketing and the 2015 UK General Election. Palgrave Studies in Political Marketing and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58440-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58440-3_2
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