July 5, 2024, 9:04 am
Britain is going to the polls. Rather than waiting out the current term, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has decided to call a general election early on 4 July. This despite the fact that Sunak’s Conservative Party is well behind Keir Starmer’s opposition Labour Party in opinion polling. What brought us to the point where Labour looks set to achieve a healthy victory after its worst defeat since the Second World War at the last election? What does this year’s election signify for the United Kingdom? How would it reshape the social and economic landscape? What tactics have the parties used to deliver their respective messages? What are their policies? What consequences and implications would the election have for Australia?
Dr Patrick Leslie is Research Fellow at the Australian National University. His research focuses on representation and the behaviour of elites in legislatures and courts in Australia and Great Britain. He completed his Bachelor and Master’s degree from the University of Nottingham and his PhD from the University of Essex in 2018. Patrick has experience in quantitative social science methodology. His other research interests include gambling research. His work has appeared in the American Political Science Review and Political Geography.
Jennifer Lees-Marshment is professor of political marketing and management in the School of Business, University of Dundee. Professor Lees-Marshment is a world-renowned scholar in the field of Political Marketing, and also pioneering new research in the emerging field of Political Management. Professor Lees-Marshment is a practice-oriented academic and passionate about research impact and employability. Author/editor of 18 books, she has interviewed over 350 political practitioners including government ministers and staffers/advisors to Prime Ministers and Presidents in the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Experienced in commentating in the media, she advised TVNZ on Vote Compass in the 2014/2017/2020/2023 New Zealand elections. Jennifer previously worked at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, as well as the Universities of Aberdeen and Keele in the UK.
An experienced journalist and newsbreaker with more than two decades in the industry, working in Australia, the UK and globally in television, print, digital, social media and radio, Latika Bourke is currently writer-at-large for The Nightly. Previously, she wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age. She has been based in London since 2016. Latika began her career in her hometown of Bathurst in regional NSW, producing, writing and presenting radio news bulletins as well as producing and presenting local talkback programs. After graduating from university, she moved to Sydney to work for the now-defunct 2UE radio station and the national Macquarie Radio network as a general radio reporter, before being posted to the Canberra press gallery in 2009. In 2010, she was recruited by the ABC to be their first social media reporter alongside her duties as a federal political reporter, working online as well as for radio news, radio current affairs and television news. She also presented live television news bulletins on ABC’s 24 News channel and presented a political television talk show. In 2014, she was recruited by The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age to join the Canberra bureau as a political reporter. In 2016, she moved to London to work as a breaking and international reporter for the papers and specialises in geopolitics, national security, defence and foreign affairs. She is an experienced moderator, MC and frequent media commentator appearing on the BBC and Monocole Radio. Her memoir, From India with Love was published in 2015.
Content Creator – Australian Institute of International Affairs
