Banks emerged as the Unionist Party front-runner amidst a wide field of primary candidates. Meanwhile, Blair was a strong favourite to become the Liberal Party nominee, and after facing a fiercer-than-expected primary challenge from left-wing Senator Bernard Corbyn, became the first female presidential nominee of a major British party. Banks ran a populist campaign pledging to "Make Britain Great Again", which also opposed illegal immigration, political correctness and social liberalism. Blair, as a former senator and First Lady of Great Britain, emphasised her greater political experience and denounced Banks and the Unionist campaign as bigoted. She advocated the expansion of outgoing President David Miliband's policies on healthcare, LGBT and women's rights and what she called "responsible capitalism". The tone of the campaign was widely regarded as divisive and overly negative, demonstrated by the poor personal ratings of both candidates amongst the general public.
In the run-up to the election, Blair led practically every national vote poll and was judged to be ahead in most swing states such as Cheshire, Cornwall, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, leading Banks' eventual victory to be considered one of the greatest political upsets in British history. Blair received over 1.1 million more votes than Banks, thanks mainly to strong victories in the Londons, Mersey and Scotland, whilst Banks won the Electoral College thanks to upset victories in the Midlands and most notably Yorkshire, which hadn't voted for a Unionist candidate for president since 1984. The result made Banks the fourth person in history to become president whilst losing the nationwide popular vote. He is the first president with neither prior public service nor military experience.