When a soaking wet Rishi Sunak stood in front of Downing Street last month to call a snap 4 July general election, the Conservative Party needed a miracle.
Almost three years had passed since the Tories enjoyed a lead over Labour in the polls, and the prime minister had given them just six weeks to turn it around. No campaign is ever perfect, but Mr Sunak’s needed to be pretty close to stop Sir Keir Starmer walking into Downing Street on 5 July.
But since the prime minister kicked off proceedings in the wettest of circumstances, the picture for the Tories has gone from bad to utterly bleak.
With poll after poll predicting an unprecedented wipeout, The Independent takes you behind the scenes on the Conservative Party battle bus to see the veteran campaigner Michael Gove in action.
At 9am on Thursday, the Tory-blue bus was parked outside a cafe in the heart of Westminster to pick up a gaggle of broadcasters, print journalists and photographers – as well as Mr Gove. We were heading for Capital Interchange Way, a housing development in Brentford, west London.
Reporters had blocked out four hours for the trip in the hope of being able to grill the housing secretary on Tory policy, the party’s campaign and the rapidly unfolding election betting scandal.
But mere minutes after boarding, the hopeful hacks were told they would get a Q&A with Mr Gove, but with just one question each and no follow-ups allowed. Disappointment rapidly set in. The hour-long bus journey left ample time for Mr Gove – an experienced media performer – to run through the Tory lines.
Journalists had to coordinate lines of inquiry in advance to ensure we were not stepping on each others’ toes. Taking just a handful of media questions from select outlets has been a feature of Mr Sunak’s premiership and the Tory campaign has even tried to limit the topics journalists can ask about.
Earlier this month, a Tory aide sensationally brought a Sky News interview with the Conservative Party chair to a halt after the journalist asked about claims Richard Holden had stitched up his own selection for the Basildon and Billericay constituency.
On Thursday the same aide criticised The Independent for asking an evasive Mr Gove a series of follow-up questions in the huddle. Huddles typically see top politicians grilled in a free-flowing back and forth which often ends when reporters have run out of questions to ask.
But Mr Gove’s ended after the six print hacks had taken their turn and the minister was ushered off to the back of the bus.
The day then slipped from disappointing to bizarre. After arriving at the housing development, journalists were told they could get off the bus, but not escort Mr Gove on his tour of the site.
An agency reporter was allowed to view flats with the housing secretary to report colour, including Mr Gove asking apprentices whether they were happy with their training. “It’s better than I thought it would be,” one replied.
Meanwhile, other journalists were kept for several hours around a conference table in a blank white room and offered fig rolls, Fanta, Sprite and Pink Lady apples to keep them happy. Mr Gove could briefly be seen speaking to TV cameras through a small closed window, but one reporter who tried to go out of the room was told to return to their seat.
Without so much as a goodbye, Mr Gove had vanished and reporters were told to get back on the bus for the drive back to Westminster.
Tory staffers handed out pasta salads, Pringles and copies of the day’s newspapers, but most were left wondering what the point of the visit had been.
It appeared emblematic of a campaign that has displayed an obsession with micromanaging minor details while tearing itself apart with major national gaffes. By the time we returned to Westminster, it had emerged that the party’s campaign manager Tony Lee had “taken a leave of absence” after becoming embroiled in the election date betting scandal.
With two weeks to go until election day, quite where this leaves a campaign that was already struggling to gain momentum remains to be seen.
