Boris Johnson zeroed in on pro-Brexit areas during the election campaign as the Conservatives made three times as many stops in leave seats as in remain constituencies, according to a Guardian analysis of the constituency stops made by the party leaders since parliament was dissolved.
Johnson has maintained a defensive strategy in the run-up to the election, focusing his meet and greets in Conservative-held seats. Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, has spread his campaign stops across an array of marginal seats although he made twice as many stops in leave areas as those that voted remain in the 2016 referendum.
Seats both Labour and the Conservatives have their sights on are Blackpool South, Broxtowe, Mansfield, Rugby, Telford, Stroud and Wolverhampton North East: all of these seats were visited by both Corbyn and Johnson.
Otherwise the parties largely managed to stay out of one another’s way. All the leaders visited Doncaster North constituency in the days after heavy flooding hit the areas. Truro and Falmouth, which the Conservatives hope to regain, was the only other constituency to be visited by the Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems.
Conservatives
Since the launch of the campaign in early November, 32 of the 55 visits made by Johnson were to Conservative-held constituencies, focusing heavily on areas that voted to leave the EU.
Johnson has also travelled more widely than other leaders visiting constituencies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Travelling by jet allowed him to visit Stockton South, Moray and South Armagh in one day. The prime minister was criticised for using a plane to travel from Doncaster to Washington, a journey of around 100 miles, on a separate campaign day.
However, on occasion the prime minister has also been uncharacteristically camera shy. Johnson appears to be the only leader who has cancelled scheduled visits. According to news reports he didn’t appear at scheduled stops in Westhoughton, Rochester and Strood, Bishop Auckland and Wells citing “bully boys” and “security concerns” among the reasons for the no-shows.
Labour
The constituencies on Labour’s visit list suggest the party took a more ambitious approach than Johnson, with Jeremy Corbyn making almost as many campaign stops in Tory-held areas (28) as in Labour seats (30).
However, the Labour leader made almost twice as many appearances in areas that voted leave in the 2016 referendum: 41 of Corbyn’s campaign stops were in leave-voting constituencies compared with 22 in remain areas.
Ashfield has been one of the most-visited constituencies. The narrowly held Labour seat voted to leave the EU and has been visited by the Conservatives, Labour and twice by the Brexit party. The Brexit party focused its campaign almost solely on Labour-held, leave constituencies. Nigel Farage visited 19 Labour constituencies that voted to leave the EU in hopes of hoovering up leave-supporting Labour voters.
Liberal Democrats
Perhaps unsurprisingly the Liberal Democrats’ main focus was areas that voted to remain in the EU. Two-thirds of the stops made by Jo Swinson were in pro-remain constituencies, while she targeted Labour and Conservative-held seats in equal measure.
Glasgow Central proved to be the most visited constituency by the party, where Swinson made two separate visits. The area had been held by the Scottish Nationalist party and voted to remain in the EU.
Swinson also visited Esher and Walton, a constituency within a remain area, where the Tories’ Dominic Raab is seeking to regain his seat. The constituency was not visited by Boris Johnson during the campaign.
Methodology
The analysis covers the period from 6 November, the day on which parliament was dissolved, to 5pm on 11 December. Campaign stops were sourced using wire photographs and/or lists of campaign stops from the political parties. All parties were contacted and provided with a list of campaign stops, however, only the Liberal Democrats responded.
Where a leader visited two locations within one parliamentary constituency in one day this was taken as one stop. Debates were excluded as were events at which all three leaders were present, for example, the speeches given to the CBI on 18 November.
Comparisons to the 2017 campaign cover the equivalent period, 3 May to 6 June 2017.
