The last 10 days of an election campaign

Westminster Insider

As the general election reaches its final week, host Sascha O'Sullivan takes us inside the last push of the campaign. She explores how parties use every trick of the trade, from advertising to frantic leafleting, to try to capture every possible vote and travels to the BBC debate in Nottingham where the main party leaders had one final face off.

Ayesha Hazarika, broadcaster and former adviser to Ed Miliband, explains how many voters begin tune into an election campaign only once they reach the last 10 days, and warns about the impact of gaffes during the final stretch.

Former Conservative Party staffer Cleo Watson tells Sascha a scandalous story from the last week of the Vote Leave campaign which never made it to the press.

Ben Guerin, one of the advertising masterminds of Boris Johnson's 2019 election victory, relates how parties use attack ads in the last few days. And Craig Oliver, Downing Street Director of Communications for David Cameron, gives us tips for winning the "ground war" by focusing relentlessly on the constituencies which matter the most.

Sascha also speaks to pollster James Johnson who says that in the last week, many candidates can be overcome with a misguided optimism about their prospects — and tells us what happens campaign HQs get their data wrong.

Also, Jeremy Corbyn's former head of press Steve Howell takes us inside Labour’s 2017 campaign, while Sean Kemp, former special adviser to Nick Clegg, gives us a run down on Lib Dem targeting tactics in the final week.

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