The Farage campaign struggled in the early days of the Short Campaign
“There are two regulated periods for candidates contesting Commonwealth elections. Known as the long campaign and the short campaign. Separate spending limits apply in each of these periods. The long campaign period for this year's Senate election began on 19 December 2014 and ends on the day before a person becomes a candidate. The short campaign period begins on the day a person becomes a candidate and ends on polling day. The earliest someone can become a candidate the day that the President dissolves the Senate. For the Senate election on 7 May 2015 this will be 30 March 2015. The Political Parties and Elections Act 2008 introduced a new pre-candidacy expenditure limit. The limit is extra to the election expense limits which apply to candidates during the general election campaign. As well as the limits on national party spending. The expenditure limit for each candidate is different. Parliament increased the limits last year by the Representation of the People Order 2014.” - Regulation of candidates’ campaign expenditure, Isobel White, House of Commons Library (2015)
In April the “short campaign” officially started this marked the legal beginning of the Presidential Election, Parliament was placed in purdah and the campaigns were allowed to turn on the spending taps. The polls at the start of the campaign were good for Howard, despite recent complications a YouGov poll put Howard at 42%, leading his nearest rival by 18 points, Brown was on 24% and struggling to hold second place against Clegg on 20%. Whilst Farage and Griffin were on 8% and 6%. Labour was still taking the blame from a worsening economic climate and soaring unemployment.
Many in Labour had hoped the expenses scandal would be the great leveller but unfortunately for Brown many of his ministers whilst Prime Ministers were the worst offenders. The only party the scandal really benefited was the BNP, who had not been in Parliament for long enough to claim massive amounts in expenses. However Howard remained popular, his relative lack of power during the Brown years actually benefited him as he kept his hands clean of the financial crisis and expenses scandal. With such an insurmountable lead it would take a minor miracle to remove Howard from his pedestal, most of Britain’s pundits instead focused on the question who would be his principal opponent, Brown or Clegg?
Back when Brown was PM, Clegg had been a thorn in his side during PMQs
Howard ran his campaign around being a steady pair of hands to guide the country through the triple threat of financial crisis, expenses scandal and swine flu. He ran with the slogan “Enough is Enough”, a dig at the leading Labour political class. Comedian Stewart Lee described Howard’s election persona as an “pretending to be an exasperated grandpa.” Lee said of Howard “he’s gone from dracula to everyone's grumpy loveable grandpa Vlad, who only occasionally wants to suck your blood.”
“Richard Ottaway, Conservative Candidate for Croydon Mayor has launched a major anti crime campaign across the borough. Richard’s ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign, supported by posters in over 250 shops, calls for less paperwork for police officers. This will allow more police on the streets - and proper transparency on criminal sentences. Richard is concerned that some violent offenders are being let off with cautions. Richard said: “Under our Labour Mayor and hard-left Premier, too many offenders seem to get away with it. It’s time things changed.” Jason is also supporting Croydon Council’s campaign to get more police officers on Croydon’s streets to boost the borough’s fight against crime. Residents and businesses are being urged to sign a petition. The council will present it to Premier of London, Ken Livingstone, on behalf of the people of Croydon. Although Croydon is the largest London borough, it only has the eighth highest number of police officers. This is far less than some boroughs with less crime. Jason says “I’d urge all residents to get behind this call to the Premier.” - “Ottaway for Croydon Mayor” leaflet, Jason Hadden (2009)
Howard’s campaign mostly stuck to safe Conservative issues, for example he pledged to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1.2 million. Howard also felt most comfortable campaigning on issues of law and order, he attacked Labour for allowing 900,000 young people to fall into unemployment, claiming that this caused “thuggery and hooliganism.” Pledging to get Britain’s youth back to work allowed Howard to link the issue of youth unemployment to his favourite topic of crime.He pledged that Councils and police would get powers to shut shops or bars selling alcohol to children. A Howard Government would double the fine for under-age alcohol sales to £20,000. He also pledged to treat the causes of crime in the community. Howard promised to increase the use of Social enterprises to deliver more public services aimed. The underlying theme was a broken Labour Britain of drunken unemployed youths that only Howard could put a stop to.
Meanwhile on the Brown side, after a little help from ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, the Labour Party unveiled its general election slogan: 'A future fair for all'. Gordon Brown told party activists in St Davids that Labour would tap into voters' 'submerged optimism'. The future and fairness were ideas that had always been at the heart of the New Labour project. Underlining this was the 'for all' part. This was a reworking of the powerful 'many, not the few' sentiment. Both highlighted the dividing lines with the Tories. Brown’s campaign was based around the perceived unfairness of the coalition’s cuts. Brown pledged that those with the “broadest shoulders” would bear the brunt of paying down the national debt. Labour’s campaign also tried to paint Howard as a nasty “old-Tory” in the mould of Margaret Thatcher rather than the moderate George Osborne.
Brown made housing a clear pillar of his campaign. He pledged a total of 120,000 affordable homes for the Government to build by 2012 at the latest, creating 50,000 jobs. He promised local authorities would be given the powers to give greater priority to local people on waiting lists. He also promised to reform Council house finance to allow councils to spend the proceeds of council house sales and council rents. Brown also retreated to the one place where Labour had a clear advantage; healthcare. Polls showed voters did not trust Howard with the NHS and Brown aimed to take advantage of this. Brown said his Government would guarantee "enforceable rights." These included treatment within 18 weeks, access to a cancer specialist within two weeks, and free health checks for over-40s. Brown set out long term goals of NHS dentistry, better access to GPs and individual budgets for long-term or chronic conditions.
Brown visited several hospitals during the campaign, especially northern ones like this one in Sunderland
“Under a Brown presidency cancer patients will be guaranteed a specialist screening within one week. Brown said he would divert budget savings into purchasing diagnostic equipment for the NHS. This would enable doctors to screen patients for cancer more swiftly. The pledge to introduce the change before the end of the parliament extends a policy announced in March. Brown said he would ensure the government would end its reliance on targets in the health service. Instead the NHS would give users "entitlements". Among those new entitlements were rights for all patients to be seen within 18 weeks or to be offered alternatives. Brown said he would give hospitals extra resources to help them meet these obligations. With funds of £1.2bn over five years. NHS officials have said the two-week right could be implemented within three years. Brown staffers estimate the diverted money could pay for over 600,000 ultrasound tests.” - Gordon Brown to woo with cancer pledge and new NHS cash, Allegra Stratton, The Guardian (2009)
Clegg’s campaign slogan was one word; “change.” Inspired by, if not completely ripped off from the 2008 Obama campaign. Clegg was the youngest candidate on the stage at just 40 years old, compared to Brown and Howard at 58 and 68 each.The Liberal Democrats had been in the Commonwealth’s Government longer than the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat Mayors ran cities up and down the country, they had a successful administration in the South West and they had several well-known cabinet ministers. Now, according to Clegg they were ready to take the top job in the country.
Clegg had a unique position amongst the Liberal Democrats as one of its few leading members not to serve in the Cabinet, this gave Clegg wiggle room to attack both Howard and Brown directly as part of the “same failed consensus”, ironic considering Clegg’s party served in the Howard Government. Like Brown's campaign, fairness was a key strand running through Clegg's manifesto. The Clegg campaign incorporated three main themes of fair taxes, more chances for children, and a greener economy. Whilst the coalition had lowered income tax for lowest earners, Clegg wanted the tax scrapped on earnings up to £8,000. Clegg pledged to protect the state pension and increased pay for service personnel. Clegg also promised to "clean up politics." This prong of the campaign included limiting political donations to £12,000, and introducing an MP's recall system.
Political reform was a large part of Clegg's campaign
Finally at the bottom of the pack was Farage and Griffin, scrapping for the anti-immigration vote. Farage tried to take advantage of the anti-establishment mood caused by the expenses scandal by adopting the slogan “sod the lot.” However Farage’s anti-establishment message struggled with the fact that UKIP MPs and Senators were some of the worst offenders for expenses abuse, Farage himself had claimed nearly £15,000 in MP’s expenses, including for a flat in London, despite the fact Farage lived in Kent. just 30 miles from the House of Commons.The main thrust of Farage's campaign was, of course, withdrawal from the European Union. Farage claimed membership cost the Commonwealth £120bn per year. Along with that, President Farage would scrap EU fishing quotas and introduce controls on immigration. Farage insisted this was not a one-issue campaign. He had other proposals including a tax-free earnings threshold of £11,000, followed by a blanket 31% tax rate - with National Insurance scrapped. Farage also suggested the creation of "county boards" to oversee policing, education and health.
Griffin’s slogan was even more on the nose than Farage’s “British jobs for British workers.” Griffin hoped to win over disaffected Labour voters in working class areas like Barking in East London and Stoke in the East Midlands. Fear about swine flu, financial anxiety and an anti-establishment sentiment due to the expenses scandal had made the 2009 election a prime target for the BNP, with some suggesting the party could reach two million votes. Griffin said his Presidency would bring an end to immigration from Muslim nations. He promised to "encourage" some UK residents to return to "their lands of ethnic origin" (although he didn't say how). Griffin promised to bring back British troops from Afghanistan immediately, leave the European Union, abolish regional Parliaments and bring back the Queen. Griffin also made a point of reallocating funds from the foreign aid budget to increase spending on frontline NHS services.
In the early campaign Howard had apparently hit his ceiling and had nowhere to go but down, he was the reigning champion and the other candidates knew this. Brown made a strong impression, his manifesto launch in Preston was slick and drew a decent crowd. As the Commonwealth saw so many times and the elections moved along voters slowly trickled back to the two main parties, Farage especially struggled, with a right-leaning Tory to his left and the unabashed radical Griffin to his right Farage’s polling stagnating and he became at risk of losing fourth place to Griffin.
Griffin wasn’t only causing a problem for Farage, over in Broadcasting House as the BBC made preparations for the TV debate, the number one question execs were asking was; should they invite Griffin?
“The BBC is not alone among studios in wanting to attract as much attention to itself as it can. In a noisy, crowded marketplace, if you’re not known, you are unlikely to get watched. So they will not be unhappy to see the coverage today of the controversy over whether to have BNP leader Nick Griffin on the Presidential Debate. Griffin’s appearance is going to happen, the build up will be big and there will be angry debate among Griffin, other candidates, and the studio audience. Anger among the audience has become a key part of politics. I’m not sure whether Griffin will enhance the quality of the debates, but when the media was driving the expenses furore, the ratings rose. If Griffin does appear, the BBC will report it in advance, which will help ratings rise again. In the BBC’s defence, the BNP has won seats in Parliament and passed the threshold for a Presidential candidate. Under the rules of impartiality, they have to reflect that. The other parties have to respond to this change too. The line that ‘we do not share a platform with the BNP’ is less easy to hold.” - Labour should put Brown up against Griffin, Alistair Campbell blog post (2009)
The BBC had set a precedent by inviting Griffin onto their flagship "Question Time" show twice
“Brown had the strongest campaign launch in 2009”, Discuss - A Level History Exam (2019)