Gaffes

  • Insight
  • 25 June 2024

This election campaign has been defined by a series of high-profile gaffes, scandals, and controversies - many of which have had surprisingly high cut through for a public which is otherwise increasingly switched-off from politics.

This week, our polling looks at which gaffes have attracted the most attention, and which have led to the most negative perceptions of the parties - allowing us to produce our General Election 2024 Campaign "Gaffe-O-Meter".

Top of the list are high-profile Conservative gaffes on D-Day, gambling, and Sky TV. These are all stories for which we have seen exceptionally high cut-through in focus groups. Last week alone, for example, we spoke to voters in Whitby who described Sunak's leaving of D-Day early as "disgraceful" and "disrespectful". Conservative 2019 voters in Blyth told us that Sunak saying he had to go without Sky TV as a child shows that "he just doesn't understand the struggles of normal people". And in Romford, voters said that Conservative campaigners betting on the election date suggests that they don't take this election seriously.

Labour's biggest scandal was on the party's handling of Diane Abbott's candidacy. This has come up most frequently in focus groups with Labour 2019 voters - although clearly has wider cut-through than with just that group. You can read here our analysis of how a focus group in Swindon North responded to the news.