In Pictures: Highlights from the 2024 General Election campaign
PA Reporters
·3-min read
For 42 days, the UK’s politicians have travelled around the country bidding to win the support of voters ahead of the General Election.
Photographers from the PA news agency have been with them every step of the way capturing the highs and lows of the campaign.
How it began: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak issues a statement outside 10 Downing Street in the middle of a rain storm on May 22 calling a General Election for July 4 (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Nigel Farage began the election campaign saying he was too busy to have a leading role, and ended it as Clacton candidate and leader of the Reform UK party (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer met potter and Great Pottery Throw Down judge Keith Brymer Jones during his visit to Duchess China in Longton (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Meanwhile, his deputy Angela Rayner was given the job of guiding in an easyJet plane arriving from Amsterdam onto the stand during a visit to Stansted airport (Joe Giddens/PA)
Scottish National Party Leader John Swinney took the one-on-one approach to wooing voters at a cafe in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA)
Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth had a small stage to deliver his big ideas for Wales when he launched his party’s campaign in Bangor (Peter Byrne/PA)
The General Election is the proverbial moment when people waiting for a long time to be taken where they want to go suddenly see several buses arrive at the same time.
The Prime Minister unveiled the Tory model in Redcar while Sir Keir Starmer revealed Labour’s juggernaut at Uxbridge College.
All aboard: Rishi Sunak had packed plenty of placards on his campaign bus when it was launched at Redcar Racecourse (Jonathan Brady/PA)
Meanwhile, Sir Keir had the company of Ms Rayner and Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves when they set off from Uxbridge College in London (Lucy North/PA)
The Liberal Democrats were notable for eye-catching stunts, many of them water-themed, even managing to photobomb an appearance by the Prime Minister at a rowing club in Henley-on-Thames.
Meanwhile, leader Sir Ed Davey, offered a range of photographer-friendly antics while taking his message to the voters.
Liberal Democrat supporters in a boat, stole the focus away from Mr Sunak as he met supporters for doughnuts and coffee beside the Thames at a rowing club (Jonathan Brady/PA)
Leap of faith: Sir Ed Davey strikes a pose as he attempts an aqua jungle floating assault course at Spot-On-Wake in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire (Jacob King/PA)
There was an even deeper plunge in Sir Ed’s future when he undertook a bungee jump from a crane at Eastbourne Borough Football Club (Gareth Fuller/PA)
Reform UK’s campaign started with Richard Tice at the helm but took on extra momentum with Mr Farage’s decision to enter the fray as leader and candidate for Clacton as he seeks to win a Commons seat, something that has so far eluded him.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was locked and loaded when he took part in clay pigeon shooting during a visit to Catton Hall in Frodsham, Cheshire (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
Paying attention in class, Mr Sunak met pupils in a science lesson during a visit to John Whitgift Academy in Grimsby, Lincolnshire (Dominic Lipinski/PA)
Sir Keir helps to serve teas and coffees to Labour supporters during a visit to Hucknall Town Football Club in Nottinghamshire (Stefan Rousseau/PA)
Scottish Green Party co-leader Lorna Slater delivered her party’s General Election manifesto plans at Summerhall in Edinburgh (Jane Barlow/PA)
Eamonn Holmes made a savage dig at new prime minister Keir Starmer this morning as he announced the results of the General Election on GB News. The former This Morning star, 64, branded the Labour leader "deadly dull" as he fronted his Vo
Boris Johnson says Nigel Farage played a "significant" role in the "destruction" of the Tories – while taking a swipe at those who ousted him from Number 10 back in 2022. Reform UK have secured five seats in the House of Commons including one for its leader Mr Farage, who succeeded in being elected in Clacton, Essex. Former prime minister Mr Johnson has dissected his party's performance in his Daily Mail column, saying the reasons why the Tories lost so many MPs were "complex" - but "the Yucatan asteroid in this catastrophe was obvious: it was Reform".
Who’s to blame? All of us – every Conservative MP in the last Parliament – has a share of the blame for this defeat. For my part, I made life harder for my Party by calling publicly for tougher policy on migration and defence, and so made negative headlines about Tory splits and factions.
The party has published what it plans to do in its manifesto, and it has a number of promises on the benefits system including Universal Credit and PIP
As one big Tory beast after another faced The Hunger Games on election night, one notably escaped the carnage. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, stood tall on the podium with the former and current Labour candidates whose vicious infighting had done him such a big favour.
Migrants in northern France celebrating Labour’s landslide victory have given Sir Keir Starmer a nickname and have vowed to cross the Channel at the “first chance” they get.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman comments on the Tories' "really bad result" in the election and warns of "big problems" being caused by Keir Starmer on the horizon, including scrapping of the Rwanda scheme. Ms Braverman refused to comment on suggestions that she would run for leader.
Few things in British politics seem familiar this morning. So it’s a welcome feature of this election that the pollsters have seemingly, once again, got it wrong. They overestimated the Lib Dems in 2010. They failed to spot a Tory majority in 2015. They largely didn’t foresee Brexit or Theresa May losing her majority. Now add to that list the apparent overestimation of Labour’s lead.
Along Birmingham’s busy main roads the day after the general election, Palestinian flags flutter from lamp-posts as traffic roars past. A sign near a major roundabout reads: “Vote for genocide. Vote Labour.”
The rush to effect “change” in the next 100 days will become irresistible and the need to tear up the Labour manifesto to justify painful taxes on pensions, savings and “wealth” held in assets will play out.
Suella Braverman has issued a scathing verdict as to why the Conservatives lost the election, blaming Rishi Sunak for pursuing an "idiotic strategy" that treated voters like "mugs". In an intervention that will be seen as her teeing up a potential leadership bid, the former home secretary said her party "failed in office and deserved this result". The former home secretary - who retained her seat of Fareham and Waterlooville but with a much-reduced majority - blamed "high taxes" and "high immigration" as well as "insane political correctness" she believed the party had embraced for the scale of the defeat.
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