Inside the Conservative campaign machine

As the country waits for the results of the general election, the Guardian reveals an exclusive look at the Conservative general election battle bus before the campaign began and talked to a well placed insider about how the Tories have dominated British politics for two years.

The Guardian got to board the Tory battle bus before the election to discuss how the Conservatives fight elections.

It was two weeks before the August 2019 general election campaign got underway that the Guardian was taken onboard the Conservative battle bus to talk to a well placed Conservative Campaign Headquarters insider about the inner workings of the party’s machine. At that point, the bus was still tucked away in a garage, having the final touches added, and we were given an exclusive first sight, and an interview on board about the Tory campaign strategy and how they have managed to top the polls at every election for two years. We discussed everything from manifestoes, to local campaigning, to endorsements in order to bring you the most detailed look ever at the strategy that the party has developed, and continues to use, to win elections.

The results of the August 2017 general election are expected to be revealed later today and, if the polls are correct, will see a loss of support and seats for the Conservative party. Labour has seen a surge in the last two months and is expected to get one of their best results since the current boundaries were introduced a couple of years ago. It remains to be seen whether the Conservative strategy will keep them in No 10 Downing Street, but they are widely expected to remain the largest party.

At that time, party endorsement deals were still being thrashed out, and that’s where the insider started. “The thing is with endorsements, is that they hurt parties long term,” they said. “Whenever you don’t stand in a seat, you are basically removing your core base of voters for the next election. If the Liberal Democrats stood in a single constituency every GE they’d do better than if they swapped around and stood in it in one GE, and endorsed Labour in another, then stood again in the third. The Conservatives try and stand in every seat, and in as many as possible in order to ensure that base remains high and this is reflected in the fact we win lots of list seats and have a high national vote.”

They also took aim at the Classical Liberal approach to endorsements: “The CLibs demands in endorsement deals always revolves around protecting their people and they try and get as many endorsements in one constituency as possible and they make those red lines. For example, they demanded that LPUK endorse [Cumbria and Lancashire North MP] Duncs11 as a red line for further endorsements. I mean, there was a big thing where everybody knew that [Deputy Prime Minister] Friedmanite19 would rather endorse InfernoPlato but had to endorse Duncs instead.

“Everybody knew it was a farce and it was a pure petty power play from [Classical Liberal leader] Twistednuke. It’s why Fried rolled his eyes and endorsed Duncs instead of InfernoPlato. If IP lost, he’d get on the north-west [list] seat. I’d also point out that often the Classical Liberals want to get endorsement pacts very early. This is not necessarily needed – they do it for their own advantage to try and bounce other parties into making endorsements without being fully ready and prepared themselves. They then work to pit one party against the other saying ‘oh if we don’t agree one soon we’ll agree to endorse another party in this constituency we know you want.’ Often other parties fall into this trap, which makes the ploy actually work. If all parties agreed on a set date as to when to begin discussing endorsements you’d have a much more honest and reflective endorsement pact.”

They said that an ideal time to begin discussion endorsements would be “a week before the deadline for candidates. This is usually the dead weak anyway in which people focus on manifesto submissions. By then all parties will have had their candidate lists done and dusted and parties can work around their members. The problem at the moment is because things are discussed so early, parties have the endorsements all sewed up but if a new member joins and wants to stand in a certain place, they’re told tough luck we already agreed on this months ago.”

The insider then moved on to campaign visits by senior party figures, this time taking aim at Labour’s strategy. “Visits by the leader and deputies and whatnot are scheduled in advance although visits by more junior people are done on a whim and are done based on the state of the campaign at the time to allow for flexibility. If a Tory candidate is running a particularly strong campaign another may choose to visit as a sign of approval. If it’s a tough fight, some may come for support. It’s important to allow for space in our visits to reflect the dynamics of the campaign. Usually the leader will have decided the main target seats and will look at whether they need a boost but if it’s not needed they’ll ask who needs help if it’s a close race and it goes from there We don’t do pre written events like Labour.”

They also revealed that Tory manifesto submissions ended the day of our meeting, saying: “meaning our manifesto is in the works two weeks before the general election. Our manifesto submission process is extremely organic in which we have an open document in which everybody can submit any policy to have it be approved or greenlit by the leadership. this means our manifestos are different every single term.”

Later expanding on this and what Tory manifestos have managed that they thought other parties have not in the past, the insider said: “I mean, for one is that the Conservatives, counter intuitively perhaps, change with the times. Each manifesto design is different and each leader makes their stamp on it. InfernoPlato’s manifesto was more mature as reflected in the times as he was coming in after years of left wing mismanagement. Leafy_Emerald’s September 2018 one was more hopeful, and his Feb 2019 one was much more serious,reflecting the chaos left by the Liberals. Other parties recycle the same policies, the same design, and the same rhetoric. Of course, it’s not just the design, the policy shifts too.

“I’m not sure why they [other parties] recycle their manifestos to be honest, but the same circumstances are a poor excuse. Doing the same thing over and over again, having already lost to us, is insanity. You have to try new things. Repeating the same old strategy of an anti-Tory endorsement pact and an anti-Tory manifesto never works for them in the long term as when they are faced with the choice of real power they begin to infight and mess it up\as evidenced by the fact the Tories had to come in and clear up the Liberal government’s Brexit problems”

While on the bus, the Guardian got to take an exclusive look at how the Conservatives plan their campaigns. “It’s not as intensive as you’d expect,” the insider said of the party’s planning efforts. “We focus mainly on government and our business for as long as possible. For example, last term we didn’t focus on general election prep until after we passed the [Brexit] withdrawal agreement. In this case we’ve only really begun to get the ball rolling. I don’t regard candidate nominations and policy drafting as explicitly campaign preparation. National campaign stuff is really planned until we get very close to the campaign so we can tailor our message more effectively. No point planning a campaign until you know whether your budget has passed for example

which the insider said had not been changed the party’s polling dip. “I’d say no to the campaign planning except it’s shifted expectations a bit in regards to coalitions and strategy in regards to coalitions post general election. I’d say it has, if anything, injected more urgency into the campaign in which everybody is much more focussed and realising we cannot be complacent if we want to avoid a chaotic Labour led government.”

In regards to local campaigning, the insider told the Guardian what advice is given to new and inexperienced candidates, revealing a large degree of independence: “Candidates are advised to broadly read up on the manifesto and really get to know the local area or ask for help which will always be given. Otherwise they are left on their own and our overriding piece of advice is to have fun. If you’re bored, then the electorate will be bored.”

They also spoke about what they thought the biggest mistake was that other parties made each election. “The biggest one is not doing anything during the term honestly. Name recognition is important and if you’re not doing anything during the term, nobody will recognise you at the doorstep. In addition, often there is an emphasis on mass producing posters that are simple to make and are very transparently lazily done. I bet at this campaign you’ll see a mass of Labour posters that can be produced in a matter of seconds and Classical Liberal posters with a bunch of yellow text on a grey faded background picture of a local area. The public see through this.

“Our approach [to posters] is to actually say something, Recent posters for example try and say something that you don’t know – take the prescription poster for example. But it’s not just that. Whilst the national campaign has its place, it’s important to focus locally. A good manifesto does wonders for the national campaign, and if you focus on a manifesto, then follow up on a good local campaign, it can do wonders.”

Other parties have aggressively rejected the claims of the insider, with one Classical Liberal telling the Guardian: “Conservatives have openly said they left endorsement talks too late, they were open about that. Other parties they got endorsement agreements with complained about the time they were taking. The Tories are lying to you and the British people, they should stop. As for their criticism of our party, let’s see who increases their seat count and who falls come election night shall we?”

A Labour spokesperson declined to comment on the insider’s criticisms. He said: “We have no official comment but we would like to note that we look forward to seeing whether these claims and criticisms are backed up by the British People come Election Results.”