General Election vs Euro 2024

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I was at the Podcast Show London, looking forward to a summer of sport… then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a General Election. This came as a surprise to media and civilians alike. Most people had expected polling day to be later in the year, around October or November. (Although not the Conservatives who allegedly used inside information to place bets on the date of the vote.)

Media outlets have unexpectedly found themselves with a difficult balance to strike. BBC Radio 5Live has declared itself the “home” of the Euros and General Election. TalkSport is sending election watchers to sister stations TalkRadio and Times Radio. On some nights, one TV channel has broadcast a leaders’ debate, while another shows a game.

While the politics junkies, myself included, have caught election fever with varying severity, most people have better things to do. They will have probably only started worrying about who they will vote for this week.

General Election Numbers Lagging

All this, combined with the fact that the election seems something of a foregone conclusion, has made the campaign a much more lowkey event compared to recent years. Ask most people what they are following and I suspect they are much more engaged with the woeful performance of England’s football team than the woeful performance of the Conservative party.

It is then no surprise which event is getting more eyeballs. The ITV clash between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer drew in a peak audience of 5.5 million viewers. The opening game between Germany and Scotland was watched by 10 million on the same channel. Yesterday 15.4 million tuned in for England vs Slovenia. That was during a weekend of Glastonbury coverage across the BBC. There’s also been the Cricket World Cup, the Tour de France began this weekend and Wimbledon started today.

With so much else for the media and fans to focus on, I can’t help but wonder if Rishi Sunak was rather hoping none of the public would notice there was an election on at all…

If you are interested in the UK General Election, check out the House of Comments podcast I co-present with Emma Burnell.