The British Election Leaflet Project

Caitlin Milazzo (University of Nottingham)
Jesse Hammond (University of California, Davis)

 The British Election Leaflet Project was created with the goal of compiling an innovative dataset on the messages that parties disseminate though their campaign leaflets and other “letterbox” materials. 

Electionleafets.org has been gathering election leaflets since 2009. Using this fantastic resource, we have assembled a collection of more than 8,000 leaflets from the three general elections.  Each leaflet is coded based on a number of dimensions, including the issues covered, the nature of the message, and the types of images used.

An overview of the data for the 2010, 2015, and 2017 general elections is available here. For each election, the dataset includes leaflets from the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, the Scottish National Party, and the  UK Independence Party. 

The British Election Leaflet Project is supported by the Centre for British Politics at the University of Nottingham. Research assistance was provided by Joshua Townsley (University of Kent). 

Target of Opposing Party Messages, 2015

Target of Opposing Party Messages, 2010

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Papers

Milazzo, Caitlin, and Jesse Hammond. "Face of the party? Leader personalisation in British campaigns" (Working Paper)

Milazzo, Caitlin. 2016. “On the Attack: The Role of Negative Campaigning”. In P. Cowley and R. Ford (eds.), More Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box: Another Fifty Things You Need to Know About British Elections. London: Biteback Publishing.
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The BRITISH ELECTION LEAFLET PROJECT in the News

Negativity: The Campaign Promise That No British Party Kept
9 November 2015

Revealed: The Party with the Most Negative Election Campaign
The Spectator - 7 May 2015

Unpopular Leaders Missing from 2015 Leaflets
6 May 2015

Throwing Stones from a Glass House
29 April 2015

Leaders, likeability, and leaflets: Do parties recognise the electoral liability of their leader?
2 April 2015