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Since 2001, the Speaker’s Advisory Committee for Works of Art has appointed an official artist for each general election. The artist follows the campaign trail around the UK and produces an artwork or artworks based on their observations. The 2010 commission was awarded to Simon Roberts. Roberts is one of the UK’s most celebrated photographic artists. His work explores landscape, British identity, and belonging. In this online exhibition we share Roberts’ unique process of working, and present his final collection of 25 photographs capturing the 2010 election. 

Simon Roberts 

Before the election project, Roberts had undertaken two similarly large-scale projects. ‘Motherland’ (2007) charted a 75,000km journey across Russia between 2004 and 2005. In ‘We English’ (2009), the artist travelled around England in a motorhome photographing British leisure experiences. His work after the Election Artist commission includes the photo collection ‘Merrie Albion – Landscape Studies of a Small Island’ (2017), a ten-year survey bringing together political, social, and leisure experiences and identities.  

2010 General Election

The 2010 election was predicted to be one of the most tightly contested since 1992. That proved to be the case. No single party won a majority for the first time since February 1974 (known as a ‘hung Parliament’). The result prompted a coalition government between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative party, who had won the most seats. 

Roberts produced 25 tableaux-style photographs as election artist, utilising a large-format 4×5” film camera and photographing from an elevated perspective. 24 of these represented the days he spent on the campaign trail, traversing the country in his motorhome. A final (and unexpected) image from outside the Liberal Democrats’ headquarters captured the coalition talks. The party’s leader, Nick Clegg, believed the largest party had the right to form a government.  As they did not have an overall majority, David Cameron’s Conservatives needed additional support from another party’s MPs in order to pass legislation. Negotiations between the two parties began on 7th May and Cameron was announced Prime Minister four days later. They displaced a Labour government that had been in power for 13 years, led into the election by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  

A photograph of busy road, with a black car driving into shot and behind it a large white campervan. In the foreground, a white adult man with ginger hair holds a large camera on his shoulder, pointed towards an older white woman with short hair, dark glasses, a red scarf and a purple jacket. Another camera is facing her from the other side. Various men and women are also milling around. On top of the caravan, a white adult man with a slight beard and brown hair kneels with one leg on top of the caravan, wearing a check shirt, jeans, and white shoes. He has a camera fixed on the caravan and is holding a wire or line. To the far right, ahead of the campervan, two young figures sit on a wall, one with a grey hoodie pulled up over his head and the other with a grey jumper around his neck and his hand to his mouth.
Simon Roberts at work, photograph © Daniel Lillie

Roberts set out to record not just the three main political parties but also the smaller parties and independent candidates. His photographs record electioneering events and the UK’s diverse social and physical landscapes. They were displayed around the first floor of Parliament’s Portcullis House after the election as a free, ticketed public exhibition. They are now visible in locations across the Parliamentary Estate.

A photograph of a wood panelled corridor, with green leather bench seating running along the wall and a looped window at the very top just visible. On the wood panelling are three photographs in black wooden frames. The photographs are all of suburban scenes with grass patches, the nearest has two cars (the first black and second red) and a group of people on the side of the pavement. Some underlighting is visible in the far bench facing the carpet.
Photographs on display in Portcullis House © Simon Roberts

Watch

In a short video produced with Heritage Collections, Roberts explains his process, how to read the photographs and what they can tell us about the year of the election.

Full screen and subtitles available: please toggle the icon on the video viewer.

Public Gallery 

Roberts’ election project also included a ‘Public Gallery’. Photographs were submitted to a dedicated website by members of the public to reflect their own visual experience of the election. They were then curated by Roberts, in order to foster public participation in the project and complement his official series. Roberts explained at the time that;

Utilising photographs [submitted by the public] from digital cameras and mobile phones and creating an alternative photographic vision alongside my own will add a collaborative and democratic element to the work. They will also help provide an antidote to the more stage-managed photographs increasingly seen from campaign trails.

The public gallery is online at The Election Project. Clicking the image in the online gallery will expand the photographs and display the title or caption given by the photographer. The gallery was on display in Parliament’s Portcullis House in 2010 after the election, along with Roberts’ own photograph series.

A collage of lots of small photographs with a white background. The photographs show various scenes, from images of polling stations and parliamentary candidates to election posters and the Palace of Westminster.
A photograph of a white glass wall with a long photograph display on it of lots of small photographs. To the left of the display is a stand with blue leaflets in and some photograph images. To its left is a panel attached to the wall with writing and a small image. In the foreground there are three large stone benches with green leather cushions on the top. There are arches in the roof with lights in them and pale stone flooring.
A section of the Public Gallery, and the Public Gallery display in the atrium of Portcullis House © Simon Roberts
Image of a light blue background, with a brown voting box in the middle. A white ballot card sticks out from the top of the voting box. The name Simon Roberts is printed at the top of the image in capitalised red font. The phrase The Election Project is printed at the bottom of the page in capitalised white font.
Election Newspaper © Simon Roberts

Newspaper 

Roberts published the Election Project newspaper to accompany the photographs.

The publication explores the relationship between the media and politics, with invited writers contemplating the way political parties managed their relationship with the press, the use of photography in elections, political allegiances, and media organisation. It includes essays from photography curator Greg Hobson, journalists Sean O’Hagan and Peter Wilby, and then Speaker of the House John Bercow. 

The full newspaper is available here.

2010 Election Artist Gallery

You can view all 25 photographs produced by Simon Roberts here.

Click an image from the gallery to start.

Each photograph is accompanied by an extended caption from the artist. These captions, unless otherwise indicated, were written in 2010, just after the election, and so reflect the artist’s views of the election and its context from the time the photographs were produced. 

  • A photograph of a white woman addressing a small crowd, some with banners, the speaker’s back to camera. The speaker has short brown hair and is wearing a woman’s black coat. In her left hand she holds white sheets of paper down at her side. The crowd are all wearing jackets or fleeces stood on the pavement by steps to an office building and spilling over to an underground carpark entrance. On the left of the image, a white man in a hi-vis jacket takes a photo. To his left stands an older white man with grey hair and then a group of three adult women, one wearing a yellow armband and another holding a white bucket before her. To their left, two young men, one with dark hair and glasses and the other with long blonde or light brown hair, stand behind a banner. The banner reads “Brighton Benefits Campaign” on a bright red background, with the Brighton Pavilion in silhouette in white and figures of a person in a wheelchair, a parent and child, and a pair of people flying a kite or holding a banner. On the right, another two figures, one facing towards the camera wearing a sports jacket, hold a white banner that reads “Brighton and Hove, Fighting poverty amidst Plenty, Underemployed Workers Centre.” To the right, in the background, a green banner is just about visible behind a man whispering to another man in a suit, and another man in a scarf staring at the ground. On the far right of the image is grouped a white man in a hoodie and a cap dressed all in black, an older white man with brown hair taking a photo, a man with white hair and a moustache in a red scarf looking towards the speaker, and the back of a woman in a light grey jacket with a brown bag, brown shoes, and light brown trousers. The background is a 20th-century office building with grey concrete panels, large glass bay windows, and a red brick entrance with double doors and an intercom, next to a No Smoking sign. Above the red banner is a satellite dish or old-fashioned security light. In the far left of the photo there is a bright yellow banner reading PCS.
    Caroline Lucas, Green Party, Brighton, 24 March 2010, Brighton Pavilion constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7134. “On Budget Day, members of the Public and Commercial Services Union took strike action against privatisation and cuts to junior civil servants and public employees at the Brighton Job Centre on Edward Street. The local Green Party candidate, Caroline Lucas, can be seen here addressing workers on the picket line. The Brighton Pavilion constituency was the Green Party’s number one target seat, which Lucas (who is also the Leader of the party) won with 31.3% of the vote, taking it from Labour by just over 1,250 votes. The win is a breakthrough for the party after more than 20 years of campaigning in Britain. It is also a significant moment for the UK Parliament, as the only major European legislature that has never had a Green MP before. It was a close three horse race, with both the Tories and Labour looking like they might take the seaside resort. David Lepper, who was popular for his stance against the Iraq War, has held the seat for Labour since 1997. His replacement, Nancy Platts, a union worker, came second. The Green Party spent £400,000 during this election, a small amount compared to the main parties, but a big sum for a party with fewer than 10,000 members.”
  • A photograph of a long suburban street. On either side, terraced houses in a grey-brown brick line the pavements with picket fences and small front gardens and brick chimneys, some with cars parked on them. At the side of the road, various cars are parked all along the road into the distance. At the very far end, under a grey sky, is a white tower block just about visible. In the nearest house in the foreground on the left of the image, an older man with grey hair posts a flyer through the letterbox of a green door, just behind a parked moped, a small tree, and two large bins within a picket fence. On the pavement looking on is an adult white man in a suit, holding leaflets in his left hand. On the other side of the street, some way down, another adult white man in a leather or wax jackets walks towards the camera carrying something in his right hand like a cigarette or a dog lead, just obscured by a burgundy Renault parked on the side of the road. The road has white markings slightly on the street and onto the pavement for the cars. About half way down the visible street, in the near foreground, a right turning leads off the visible road, through bollards at either side of the pavement. A single yellow line runs through the immediate right of the image.
    Kellie Maloney, UK Independence Party, Barking, 29 March 2010, Barking constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7135. “Kellie Maloney – promoter of British world heavyweight champions Lennox Lewis and David Haye, and confessed self-publicist – stood as the UK Independence Party candidate in the Barking constituency. The east London constituency, which re-housed many East Enders after World War II, was a key target seat for the British National Party and the party’s leader Nick Griffin. The constituency was also the national priority for the HOPE not hate campaign, which was set up to prevent the BNP from getting elected in local or national government. Labour’s Margaret Hodge retained the seat with more than half of the votes, whilst Maloney polled fifth with 2.9% of the vote. She can be seen here delivering campaign leaflets early one morning on Blackborne Road with election agent, Kerry Smith (right). Kerry ran as a candidate for UKIP in the South Basildon and East Thurrock, where he came fourth.”
  • A photograph of campaigners in front of the Houses of Parliament’s Big Ben (AKA Elizabeth Tower), which is in the centre of the photo in front of a grey sky. On the left the outside of a modern building with four grey industrial style chimneys and lots of glass windows sits. A white lorry is just pulling in front of the building and driving nearly out of shot. The campaigners are stood in two groups. One of the left of the image includes, left to right, an older white woman with shaded glasses in a green wax coat and a brown handbag; an older white man with white hair and a Harington jacket and patterned shirt just visible; talking to them stood in profile an older white man with a black pork pie hat and a wax jacket, blue shirt and blue striped tie; in the centre an white older man in a pink scarf and grey utility jacket draped in a St George flag and holding a St George flag on a thin pole. An older white man with a moustache and slicked back hair in a black jacket and dark blue tie looks towards them and next to him, holding one end of a large banner is a younger man in a leather jacket with long brown hair and jeans. The large banner reads “Campaign for an English Parliament, 07071 220234” with a St George flag. The other end is held by a white man facing away from the camera wearing a woolly hat and fleece and combat trousers. The right hand group stand in front of a van with a billboard on it reading “The English Democrats, putting England first” written onto a stylised st George flag logo, on the right reading “A party built […] people who […] England. Join us Help […] Please vote English democrats.” Some words are obscured by a St George flag and a traffic sign. From the right, a white man with long hair and a neck beard in a red baseball cap holding a newspaper stands next to an older man in a flatcap holding the flag, wearing a brown jacket and brown shoes and grey smart baggy trousers. In the centre, an older white woman with a walking stick wearing a black scarf, long brown coat, ugg boots, and holding a handbag; to her right, a bald, white adult man with a red rosette holds a sign reading “Frank Roseman” with a photo and some other text; to his right another bald adult white man with a red rosette in a shirt and jumper with smart trousers and shoes holds lightly onto a flag pole in front of which another white man, older with grey hair, glasses, and a dark jacket, gesturing as though in the middle of talking with his right hand, holds a flag cap and a walking stick in his left. To the very right of the image, a structure covered in political ads stands, reading on the facing wall, “Holiday in Sri Lanka… Visit Death Camps . com” and on the front a parody of Tesco advert reading “Tamil” and “Gaza” with a black and white man in a suit holding a carrier bag.
    Frank Roseman’s campaign team, English Democrat Party, Westminster, 29 March 2010, Cities of London and Westminster constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7136. “Supporters of Frank Roseman’s election campaign canvas on Parliament Square in Westminster, alongside members of the ‘Campaign for an English Parliament’. The Cities of London & Westminster constituency covers the commercial, historical and tourist heart of London, including the Square Mile, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Houses of Parliament and some of Europe’s wealthiest residential districts. Even during the Labour landslide of 1997, it returned a Conservative with a majority of several thousand. The last non-Conservative to represent the area was the economist John Stuart Mill. Understandably the seat was retained by the Conservative candidate, Mark Field. Labour’s David Rowntree, and drummer in the band Blur, came second with 22.2% of the vote. Roseman came fifth. The English Democrats are committed to the formation of a devolved English Parliament with at least the same powers as those granted to the Scottish Parliament. They consider themselves the English equivalent of the Scottish National Party in Scotland and Plaid Cymru in Wales.”
  • A photograph of a busy market street. Individuals walk up and down while three in the centre of the image gather and talk. One is an adult South-Asian man wearing a light grey suit with a red rosette and holding in two hands an A4 leaflet. He talks to an older south Asian man wearing a white kufi (a hat worn by some people of Muslim faith) with a long white beard, a long grey coat and brown shoes, with a walking stick in his right hand. To the left, a young man in a blazer, jeans, and black shoes, also wearing a red rosette, looks on and holds in his right hand more A4 sized flyers with blue strip over the heading. ON the left, market stalls with pastel striped tarpaulin covering them sell clothes, which are strung out on hangers. On the immediate left, a sign reads “Locking Repairs” and on the front of the awning, “… Accessories, Unlocking & Repairs.” In the near left of the photo, a woman in a purple headscarf wearing a black jacket and with a black shiny handbag pulls an item of clothing towards her to inspect it. On the right, a slightly blurry woman walks with a grey wheely suitcase, wearing a black leather jacket, jeans, and a brown bag. On the right, an older man in a flatcap leans on a wall with his hand on his hip, in tracksuit bottoms and trainers, while the other side of a shop sign a man is on a mobile phone, wearing a baseball cap. The street is filled with people walking to and from the camera angle, with lots of street signs along the tall buildings on the right. In the distance, behind a sparse tree, the top of a glass hospital block is just visible and the right-hand side of the Gherkin building at the end of the street.
    Abjol Miah, Respect – the Unity Coalition, Whitechapel, 12 April 2010, Bethnal Green & Bow constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7137. “Respect party candidate and Tower Hamlets councillor Abjol Miah (right) and his election agent Abdulla Almamun (left) campaign on Whitechapel High Street. This area of East London had been Labour for decades before George Galloway snatched the seat for the leftwing Respect from 2005 until 2010, riding a wave of opposition to the Iraq war. The constituency, which includes Brick Lane, is one of the poorest in London, with an ethnically diverse population, 40 per cent of which is Muslim and 34 per cent of which were born outside Britain. It returned to the Labour fold when having been won by Rushanara Ali, one of first Muslim female MPs to enter the Commons in the 2010 election who grew up in Tower Hamlets having emigrated from Bangladesh aged 7. Abjol Miah came third.” Miah later joined the Liberal Democrats party but was suspended following news that, the party explained, he ‘had shared content in 2014 that contained anti-semitic sentiment.’
  • A photograph taken from the roadside, from a small hillock, of a traffic jam with roadworks. A small ditch runs through the middle of the image towards some orange road barriers and a 30mph sign. In the middle of the ditch a telegraph cable is visible. Cars, vans, and lorries line up along the road. On the left of the hill, away from the road, a white woman with blonde or brown hair in a blue jacket holds a banner of a white squiggly tree with “Conservatives” written underneath. On the right by the roadside, from left to right are: a white man kneeling down holding another banner reading “Robert Halfon” with the picture of a white man and under it written “Conservatives.” The man holding it has two crutches by his side. Behind him, another white person holds a large sign reading “Robert Halfon, Conservatives”; behind them, two East Asian men, one hands in pocket and slouched and the other with a hat and scarf, hold a sign of a squiggly tree with “Conservatives” written under it. In the distance behind the road are fields and trees.
    Robert Halfon, Conservative, Harlow, 13 April 2010, Harlow constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7138. “Harlow was a key super-marginal seat for the Conservatives (ranked number 5 in their target list), where Labour’s armed forces minister Bill Rammell was defending a wafer-thin majority of 230. In the photograph the Conservative candidate Robert Halfon (seated) is joined by members of his election campaign team, which included his Brazilian partner, Vanda Colombo (far left), canvassing motorists commuting to work early one morning on the A414 London Road, heading onto the M11 motorway. Halfon won the seat with a 5.9% swing at the third attempt, having contested it in the 2001 and 2005 General Elections. He is the former Chief of Staff to Oliver Letwin and current Political Director of Conservative Friends of Israel. An investigation by The Independent newspaper survey found that in the Harlow constituency, the Conservatives received £121,800 (of which £29,084 came from party headquarters) over two years. That is equivalent to over £1,000 for every voter the Tories needed to change his or her mind.”
  • A photograph of a large crowd in the carpark of a Tesco extra. Amid the crowd are two people holding microphone booms towards the face of Nick Clegg, a white adult man with cropped brown hair and the collar of a suit visible. In the background, the large glass plated front of a Tesco Extra, with the words written on the room in large red and blue letter. On the left, the Liberal Democrats campaign bus sits, covered in yellow with a stylised bird logo, a photo of Nick Clegg (again, a white man with cropped brown hair here wearing a suit with a tie and white shirt), written on it “Liberal Democrats, change that works for you”. Most visible among the crowd in the foreground is the back of a woman with brown hair folded over one shoulder in a black jacket and brown boots, holding a camera in her left hand, an older white man with a flatcap and a white jacket, trousers, and a camera in his right hand, and the back of a man with brown hair holding a video camera, in jeans and shoes and with a bag of materials strapped around his waist. In the foreground to the left is the top of a metal fencing unit.
    Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat, Warrington, 16 April 2010, Warrington South constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7139. “Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, makes a speech during a visit to The Halliwell Jones Stadium, home of the Warrington Wolves Rugby League club. Clegg was in the Warrington South constituency the morning after the historic first televised Leaders’ debate. All of the national polls showed that he was the overwhelming winner of the debate by offering himself up as the fresh and honest alternative to two tired old parties. In this photograph Clegg can be seen stood on a soapbox beside the party’s battlebus in a Tesco car park, besieged by the media and local Liberal Democrat supporters. Warrington South has previously been seen as a bellwether seat, often reflecting in its choice of MPs the fate of the major parties nationally. In the 2010 General Election Conservative MP David Mowat won the seat from Labour. The Liberal Democrat candidate Jo Crotty came third with 27.5% of the vote.”
  • A photograph of a housing estate and small park. In the distance, there is a row of two-story terrace houses with roofs in different shades of red or grey and small brick chimneys. Behind and above them in the distance is a large metal structure like a stadium, arena, or shopping centre. To the right of the image, in front of the row of houses, is a brick hall with four large arched windows with green frames, the hall having a grey slate roof with red tiles across the top. On the end is another small hut adjoined, with a green fascia and drainpipe. In front of the hut , before a green fence, is a small patch of green grass surrounded by small rectangular metal arches set into the pavement, acting as fence posts. In the foreground, another patch of green with the same fences is worn away with a path through it. An older white man walking his dog is about to leave the grass to join the pavement near a large, ginger-haired man walking along the pavement. Just up on the same road, an adult white man and a young white boy cross the street, the man wearing a leather jacket and holding a long multicoloured pole, the boy in a tracksuit top holding something in his right hand. In the distance, on the wall in front of one of the houses, a woman is sat down.
    John Manwell, Christian Peoples Alliance, Liverpool, 16 April 2010, Liverpool Walton constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7140. “In the constituency of Liverpool Walton, the Christian People’s Alliance candidate John Manwell delivers campaign leaflets with his son, John, in the shadow of Liverpool FC’s Anfield stadium. The Merseyside constituency covers the north of the city and although it was held for decades by the Conservatives, it has come to be considered one of Labour’s safest constituencies. This election was no different with the seat being won by Labour’s Steve Rotheram with an overwhelming majority of 72% of the vote. Manwell can be seen here carrying his shepherd’s rod, which he sees as symbolic of God’s role of leading people out of oppression into liberty and hope. He has the 23rd psalm by King David engraved down the length of the rod, which starts: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack’. He polled 297 votes. The Christian Peoples Alliance is a party rooted in the historic Christian faith that seeks to demonstrate the love of God through political service.”
  • A photograph of a suburban housing estate, with a picket fence in front of front garden grass running along the two houses either side of a small road. In the middle of the road, three white men in jackets holding papers or leaflets walk towards the camera angle. Behind them on the left of the road are three parked cars, and in the distance the cul-de sac with some other cars just about visible and fronts of the brick terraced and semi-detached houses. On the right is the corner of a brick house, the left hand side visibly an extension, in a lighter coloured brick, comprised of an upstairs window and below it a white garage door. A four-door car is parked in front of it. Round the side of the house, a white man in shorts and a t-shirt carries a bucket past some bins towards the front garden. In the open doorway of the house, with the sign number 24 by it, a white boy in shorts and a t-shirt and a woman in a rugby top look out. On the left of the road entrance is a sign reading “Baker Crescent” with a dead end sign in the shape of a T. The sky above the estate is a pale blue.
    Chris Beverley, British National Party, Morley, 17 April 2010, Morley and Outwood constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7141. “The British National Party candidate Chris Beverley (front left) and fellow party members deliver election campaign leaflets in the West Yorkshire town of Morley on a Saturday morning. Despite some sympathy for the BNP locally (figures released by the BNP showed that Morley and Outwood had the highest number of party members in the country) and fears that a painful recession would only further increase the party’s support, Beverley received only 7.2% of the vote, coming forth. The seat was won by Labour’s Ed Balls and has been represented by former Labour home secretary Merlyn Rees (Morley and Leeds South) and former Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell (Leeds South).”
  • A photograph taken from a carpark looking over a valley or large spread of land with houses and trees in the distance. In the foreground, a group of young men in sports shirts stand at the edge of a gravel area looking out towards a green pasture or field. On the field, young children in sports shirts with numbers on the back run about, as a white adult man in a suit has his right leg extended mid-way through kicking a ball. To their right, a figure in black takes a photograph. On the right of the carpark in the foreground is the back end of a car, a small fenced off picnic area, and a group of men stood texting or looking on, with two adult woman leaning against the fencing and another talking to some people sat on one of the picnic benches.
    Ed Balls, Labour, Drighlington, 17 April 2010, Morley and Outwood constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7142. “In this photograph, Labour candidate Ed Balls plays rugby with young members of the Drighlington Rugby League club during a campaign visit. The Tories had made defeating the Schools Secretary a priority, hoping for an upset similar to the ousting of Michael Portillo in 1997 on a 17.4% swing to Labour. The Tories needed a 12.3% swing to take the constituency, which Balls fought after his previous seat, Normanton, was abolished in the boundary changes. He held the seat with a majority of only 1,101. Figures released by the Tories showed that of all the seats that Labour were contesting in the election, 148 had received cash from the Unite union, representing one fifth of all seats. Ed Balls received the second highest donation from Unite.”
  • A photograph of a suburban street of large two-storey semi-detached 1930s-style houses with red tiled fascias above the downstairs windows. Three cars are parked on the left hand side of the street, which has no markings, and two on the right, with more in the distance. A man in a suit with an orange rosette rummages in the boot of a red car. On the pavement, at the side of a house, another adult man in a suit, wearing an orange rosette, talks to a woman in a white t shirt stood behind a gate. In her front garden is a triangular orange sign reading “Ian Swales to win!” with a small bird logo underneath. Two dog walkers move up the street in the distance and middle distance. In the very far distance, a power station chimney rises into a grey sky with some greenery in front of it.
    Ian Swales, Liberal Democrat, Redcar, 19 April 2010, Redcar constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7143. “At around 4am on Friday 7th May 2010, the counting of the votes had finished at Eston Sports Academy in Redcar and Liberal Democrat candidate Ian Swales was elected as MP for the constituency, the first MP in the area from the party for 86 years. Swales overturned Labour MP Vera Baird’s 12,116 majority with a huge swing of 21.8%. This was England’s largest swing and the largest swing between any of the three major parties at the 2010 general election and was seen as a significant result in what has long been considered a Labour stronghold. Swales is pictured here talking with Liberal Democrat supporter, Josie Crawford, outside her house on High Street West in Redcar. Swales’ election agent, Chris Ward, collects campaign literature from the back of his car. In the distance are the smokestacks of Corus’ Lackenby steel plant, which was mothballed in early 2010 with the loss of around 1600 jobs locally. The plant had become a key political campaign issue for all of the parties.”
  • A photograph of a council estate of three tall concrete tower blocks with small arches in the very top floor. In the foreground, a street and pavement with a few people walking on it turns into a right road with more pedestrians and people pushing buggies. To the right above the foregrounded pavement is a bank of grass, at the foot of which a man and a South Asian woman discuss a leaflet with a person in a large coat holding a patterned personal pull-along shopping bag or trolley. Above them is the back of a bank of terraced houses with a red roof and fencing running around their perimeter, with a few trees dotted in between.
    Hamira Khan, Conservative, Glasgow, 20 April 2010, Glasgow East constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7144. “Hamira Khan is a PR and communications professional who ran for the Conservative Party in Glasgow East, the constituency where she went to school and grew up. This was her first time standing as a candidate. Here she is seen campaigning with her assistant, Shaukat Sultan, in Cranhill, a housing estate in the east end of Glasgow, which was built in the early 1950s on the outskirts of the city to alleviate the post-war housing shortage. The constituency has some of the worst social deprivation in the UK and a decade ago it was in the midst of a drugs epidemic and had earned the nickname "Smack City" after 13-year-old boy died of a heroin overdose and became Britain’s youngest drugs victim. Glasgow East was regarded as a safe Labour seat, until the Scottish Nationalist sensationally captured it at a by-election in 2008. In the 2010 General election, Labour’s Margaret Curran won the seat back from the SNP with 61.6% of the vote. Hamira came fourth with 4.5% of the votes.”
  • A photograph of a shopfront with a long bright red side with white writing reading “Woolworths.” Under the left hand entrance of the shop is a blue sign reading “Perth” and on the right hand side of the entrance a map. In front of the shop, a large crowd of mainly older adults in coats stand around or hold up yellow signs with a looped logo (like the letter X but joined with a loop at the bottom) with the letters “SNP”. One holds another sign reading “Pensioners for” and the final word obscured by the head of an adult white man in a suit with a yellow rosette. He is stood next to a brass statue of a man with arms crossed leaning against a metal barrier. To his right,. Alex Salmond—a large white man wearing a suit with receding dark hair and a blue tartan tie, his left hand in his pocket—looks towards a group of photographers. In the foreground on the right, a grey-haired man in an electric wheelchair talks to another white grey-haired man standing above him in green trousers, a gilet vest, and a red jumper. In the foreground on the left, a blond-haired white adult woman in a grey coat with a yellow and black rosette, hands a leaflet with the Scottish flag printed on it to a person with short-to-medium white hair holding an M&S bag. Above the Woolworths shop are mid-century concrete panels and Crittal-style metal windows.
    Pete Wishart, Scottish National Party, Perth, 21 April 2010, Perth and Perthshire North constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7145. “The First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, joined local SNP candidate Pete Wishart (seen here in the purple stripped tie) on the campaign trail in Perth. Along with other members of the party, they gathered outside the former Woolworths store on Perth High Street targeting elderly voters and pledging to secure a "fair deal" for older people. Here they pose for the media in a sculpture featuring statues of dancers. The large, rambling Perth & North Perthshire constituency is a marginal seat with similar support for the Scottish Nationalists and the Conservatives. It was won by Wishart, with Peter Lyburn, the youngest ever Conservative to stand for Scottish Parliament, coming second.”
  • A photograph of a small seating area by the side of a building. A small red brick wall surrounds a paved area with benches and umbrellas and a snack van that reads “Jaks: tea, coffee, breakfast rolls, cold drinks, snack bar.” Sat in front of it is a person in an orange superhero suit with a gold cape and gold boots and gloves, a gold and red soldiers’-style hat, gold glasses, and their face painted orange, with an orange rosette. Opposite them are sat three white women with red, brown, and purple hair respectively wearing white t-shirts, the front of which show pictures of the man with the orange face and gold glasses, with red and yellow rosettes, one wearing a baseball cap holding a nearly-empty pint glass. Some orange balloons are tied to one of the benches and four large pink balloons are held under the table. There is a stick on the table. In the right of the area, either side of the wall, is a white woman in a flat cap and a bald white man in a white t shirt stood in front of some bins and by a carpark space. Above the snack van on the side of the building is a large billboard, the bottom half made up of small company adverts and the top being a large advert with the orange man with glasses on, against a cartoon sky and with a black X in the top right, with the word “Beany” written in red on the left. IN the distance are rows of three or four storey shopfronts or house fronts with a road an a van and in the very distance a hill with scrubland.
    Captain Beany, New Millennium Bean Party, Port Talbot, 23 April 2010, Aberavon constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7146. “The constituency of Aberavon is centred on the town of Port Talbot. It’s a very working-class seat and has returned a Labour MP since 1922. Captain Beany, seen here outside the party’s headquarters (the Red Lion pub) and underneath his only campaign poster is the sole leader and political campaigner of the New Millennium Bean Party, which was formed in 2000. The 54-year-old former BP Chemicals worker from Port Talbot, who changed his name by deed poll from Barry Kirk, has stood on all political campaign levels from local, borough, constituency, European, bye-elections and the Welsh Assembly. In the 2010 General Election he came second to last, polling 558 votes (69 more than the UK Independence Party). The constituency was won by the sitting Labour MP Dr Hywel Francis.”
  • A photograph of a high street with a large mixed crowd, all holding Plaid Cymru banners, stood around a balding man in a suit and red tie on a plinth before a microphone. The street raises slightly into the distance and is covered with three or four storey shopfronts or houses in blue, green, or beige and white, with a few looped street lights. Some cars move down the distant hill and into the foreground. The crowd is made up of various ages and genders and many are holding green and yellow banners, reading Plaid against a green background with a yellow figurative daffodil and underneath a yellow background with Plaid Cymru written in green. Several green balloons are held by those in the centre of the crowd.
    Penri James, Plaid Cymru, Aberwyswyth, 24 April 2010, Ceredigion constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7147. “Plaid Cymru, which is Welsh for The Party of Wales, held a street rally in Aberystwyth with Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid president Dafydd Iwan, Westminster leader Elfyn Llwyd in support of Ceredigion candidate Penri James (who can be seen standing on the soap box). The rally was a bid to counter Liberal Democrat momentum in the election race for the Ceredigion constituency, Wales’ most marginal seat and the number one target for Plaid Cymru. It is a rural, Welsh-speaking Cardiganshire seat, created in 1536 when Henry VIII incorporated Wales within England. Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. Penri James came second in the poll, with the Liberal Democrat candidate, Mark Williams, securing victory with 50% of the vote.”
  • A photograph of six houses on a large country road opposite a hedgerow and tree-lined field. A small red car drives down the road, which has two driveways at the far and near end of the image and an inset bus stop. On the right of the road are six semi-detached houses in pairs of three, with modern Georgian-style fronts (with stone bordering around the edge and above and below windows, as well as a triangle fascia at the top with a round window in it). The doorways are covered by a small tiled awning or porch and they have small front lawns with some bushes and trees. The nearest house has a fore sale sign in the front garden. Down the road, seven adults in blue shirts wearing blue rosettes walk with leaflets. Nearest is a white woman in a black leather jacket with sunglasses, then, crossing a drive, a bald white man in sunglasses and light trousers and a short-sleeved blue shirt. Behind him on the pavement is an adult white man with thinning hair and a long-sleeve shirt with cufflinks, a windswept tie, holding several papers. Beyond the sale sign is the back of a man walking the other direction, also in a blue shirt. An older white man in a buttoned up suit and a bald south Asian man in a buttoned up suit with a dark tie, both wearing rosettes and carrying papers, walk towards the camera in the middle distance. By the furthest house is a white man in a dark shirt and blue tie, writing something on a clipboard. The sky is hazily grey-blue. In the distance is rolling countryside.
    Nadhim Zahawi, Conservative, Salford Priors, 26 April 2010, Stratford on Avon constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7148. “Nadhim Zahawi and members of his campaign team knock on doors and deliver campaign literature in the village of Salford Priors. Zahawi was born in Baghdad, Iraq, to Kurdish parents, and his family fled the country during Saddam Hussein’s rise to power. He is the co-founder of the international internet-based market research firm YouGov of which he was Chief Executive until February 2010, when he won the candidacy for the safe Tory seat of Stratford on Avon. He replaced the outgoing Tory MP John Maples (who had a 12,000 seat majority). When Zahawi was chosen as the Conservative party candidate in February 2010 he was one of five preferred candidates – the other four were women – shortlisted by Tory Central Office in an attempt to transform the party’s fusty image. Of the six candidates, only one was local, which angered the local Tory party members. David Cameron’s desire to impose his will on local associations in the name of modernization of the party frustrated many of the party faithful outside London.”
  • A photograph of a plate glass building three or four storeys high, adjoined to a concrete building with blinds on the outside of the windows by large overhead, looping brackets. In the foreground, a road with double yellow lines at each side swerves past the buildings and on the pavement there is a small raised area with a barrier, with a no-smoking sign on the right (a red circle with a diagonal line through it and a picture of a smoking cigarette within). In the raised area on the right, a white adult man in a red t-shirt holding flyers talks to a bald man in a light shirt whose back faces the camera. A group of young white teenagers sit on the barriers with others stood facing them, one holding a flyer in their left hand. At the left-hand edge of the barrier, a white man in a baseball cap wearing a white vest and shorts, and white socks and sat in a wheelchair holds his left hand to his mouth. In the near front of the image, looking down the pavement out of shot, an adult white woman stands in knee-high black boots, a long black dress with a grey suit jacket over it, and browny-red hair parted so it stacks heavily over the left hand side of her head and obscures her left eye. She wears a black string network with stones and a yellow and red sticker on her lapel and is holding a stack of flyers.
    Jacqui Smith, Labour, Redditch, 27 April 2010, Redditch constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7149. “Jacqui Smith served as the Labour MP for Redditch since the party came to power in 1997 and was the first ever female Home Secretary, one of the most senior roles in Government. She was also one of the most high-profile of the MPs investigated by the parliamentary commissioner for standards over a variety of inappropriate expense claims. On 5 June 2009, she stood down as Home Secretary in the Cabinet reshuffle, after she was found to have broken the rules on second home expenses and ordered to apologise. In this photograph Smith can be seen campaigning outside New College 6th Form in the centre of Redditch. Smith was beaten by her long-time political rival, the Conservative candidate Karen Lumley, who seized the seat with a majority of 5,821 on a swing of 9.2%. For Miss Lumley, it was a case of third time lucky – she had narrowly lost out to Smith in 2001 and 2005.”
  • A photograph of a woodland path behind a row of houses and at the side of a pavement and street. At the turnstile, made of metal fencing, is a fenced-off square in which stands a white man with blonde hair holding a microphone boom aloft, the back of an older man with grey hair holding a camera on his right shoulder visible from the back, a white woman with blonde hair wearing a blue jumper and trousers, and a white man with brown hair in a suit, holding a notepad, talking over the fence. The man is talking to Gordon Brown—a white man with grey flecked hair in a black suit with a burgundy tie, grinning. Either side of him are two white men in blue suits. Around the paddock are various people in suits or casual clothing looking on, some with cameras. On the far side of the paddock by the woodland footpath are dotted several men in high-vis orange jackets, from middle distance into the far distance obscured by trees. The brown-red garden fences of the houses are visible along the right hand side of the woodland path into the distance.
    Gordon Brown, Labour, Rochdale, 28 April 2010, Rochdale constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7150. “Rochdale was brought to national attention when reigning Prime Minister Gordon Brown was caught on a tape recording describing a local woman (Gillian Duffy) as a "bigot" after having a conversation with her while campaigning. The Prime Minister had been visiting a community re-offender project in the Lancashire town when Mrs Duffy called out to him and asked why he was not addressing the debt crisis. As part of the Labour Party’s ‘real voters’ strategy, she was ushered by an aide to speak directly to the Prime Minister. The discussion was destined to get little coverage on the day’s election broadcasts. But Mr Brown was still wearing a microphone provided by Sky News, which recorded him saying to his aide Justin Forsyth: “she was just a sort of bigoted woman who said she used to be Labour.” In this photograph Brown can be seen being interviewed live on the 1 o’clock news by the BBC News Correspondent, James Cook who was asking the Prime Minister about the economy, crime and cancer care. Gillian Duffy (dressed in the blue coat with red collar) started shouting in the background questioning where the money was going to come from. Sue Nye, Brown’s closest and most loyal aides, is stood next to Mrs Duffy. Iain Bundred, Brown’s Chief press spokesman, is stood next to Mr Brown. Despite the unfavourable publicity, Labour still managed to narrowly win the seat from the Liberal Democrats with a swing of 0.3%.”
  • A photograph of a residential close or street with large semi-detached brick houses on either side of the road. The photograph is centred on the front garden of the nearest visible house, most of it just obscured from the shot. The garden is covered in red, pink, and yellow wildflowers edged in with bricks away from a brick-laid red driveway. On the edge of the driveway, an older white woman in a white T-shirt and trousers and a white man with grey hair an da t-shirt and jeans talk to Esther Rantzen—an adult woman with shoulder-length brown hair, earrings, and wearing a black trouser suit, pearl necklace and bracelet, and a red, purple, and white rosette. By the garden wall, an older white man with grey hair in a suit and glasses reaches out towards one of the flowers. Behind him, an adult woman with white-blonde hair wearing a pink scarf and a purple, red, and white rosette, holding leaflets in her left hand and a black handbag in her right, looks towards the figures on the driveway. Behind her, an older thin white man with thinning white hair and glasses, wearing a light blue-grey suit jacket and grey trousers, a tote bag on his right shoulder, holding leaflets and an umbrella tucked under his left arm and another rosette looks on. A man in a blue shirt and tie with another rosette and black hair looks towards the ground, his jacket looped over his left arm. Behind, on the driveway of the neighbouring house is an old blue car and on the next drive a parked white caravan. The road has a marking, upside down, reading “20” and next to it is a road sign reading “30” in a white background, with a red ring, and a yellow outside square. The sky is overcast.
    Esther Rantzen, Independent, Caddington, 1 May 2010, Luton South constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7151. “Luton South has for years been a Labour safe seat in a predominantly Asian area. More recently it has become synonymous with the MPs’ expenses scandal, and a target for high-profile independent candidates. Margaret Moran, its MP since 1997, was found to have ‘flipped’ the designation of her second home three times, and claiming £22,500 on her parliamentary allowances for dry rot treatment at a house 100 miles from her constituency. She insisted she had done nothing wrong despite public anger and attempted to stay on, prompting Esther Rantzen, the former That’s Life presenter and consumer campaigner, to announce that she would stand against her on an anti-sleaze ticket. The problem for Rantzen was that Moran stood down, while Labour’s replacement candidate, Gavin Shuker, a 28-year-old church pastor, cast himself as a local. It worked. Rantzen failed to oust Labour, who held the seat with a majority of more than 2,300. With just 1,872 votes she also lost her £500 deposit. Here Rantzen meets Leslie and Sylvia Young during a walkabout with her campaign team in The Crescent, Caddington.”
  • A photograph of a roundabout with a flower bed inside it, surrounded by a plastic edging with black and white wave design. The roundabout has several small shrubs and tall grasses in it. two yellow, white, and blue directional bollards sit on the left and right and are visible in small pedestrian islands in the background, too. A large post with security cameras on rises from the middle of the roundabout. On it are several billboards, including one of a white adult man with glasses, under which is written “Kelly” with an X next to it and “Sinn Fein” written above it. Below it is a small yellow sign reading “police CCTYV in operation”. In the background, fencing is covered with adverts and two large billboards with a white man in a hat juggling reading “Culture and creativity at every turn” is visible and one just out of shot with some women playing rugby reading “Tackle These” the rest not visible. Two blurry cars drive out of shot down a suburban street. Behind the billboards is a municipal brick building with two towers rising from the middle of it, with green triangular roofs, each with a cross on top.
    Political posters, Ardoyne roundabout, Belfast, 2 May 2010, Belfast North constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7152. “The constituency of Belfast North includes the Protestant Shankhill area and a substantial Catholic minority. It suffered the highest level of violence in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and covers many areas synonymous with the conflict – the New Lodge, Ardoyne, Rathcoole and Woodvale. On the Ardoyne roundabout, Crumlin Road, political posters adorn lampposts and telegraph polls canvassing support for several candidates including Nigel Dodds (Democratic Unionist Party candidate), Gerry Kelly (Sinn Fein candidate), William Webb (Alliance Party candidate) and Martin McAuley (Independent). The constituency has usually returned a Unionist MP, with Sinn Fein in second place. The 2010 General Election results were no different with Nigel Dodds taking the seat with 40% of the vote and Sinn Fein’s, Gerry Kelly coming second. In the distance is the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church, which has seen sectarian disputes between the pupils and parents of Holy Cross R.C. Primary School and the residents of a loyalist area that was on the route to the front entrance of the school. This was one of the only areas in Belfast where election posters for candidates from the nationalist and loyalist communities could be seen hanging in the same place.”
  • A photograph of a light blue Jeep or Land Rover with horns or tannoys strapped to the roof parked on the driveway of a farm house. The vehicle has a red and white sticker on the side that reads “DUP Paisley” and an X next to it, with a headshot of an adult white man. On the far side of the car, a man with grey hair leans on the bonnet and looks towards four other figures. They are an older man in a suit and waistcoat with a tie, with grey hair and wearing glasses scratching his nose and looking at the ground. Next to him a white man in a suit and tie talks to an older white man in the doorway, wearing a fairisle knitted jumper. To their left, a man in a fleece and jeans, with several camera lenses hanging at his side, takes a photograph. The houses is a clean, smooth fronted or pebbledash building with wooden window frames and a tidy slate roof. Attached, is a long outbuilding with corrugated roofing and ramshackle doors and windows, extending out of view. In front of it is some old metallic machinery or farm apparatus. A small patch of grass is just about visible in the foreground of the photo.
    Ian Paisley Jnr, Democratic Unionist Party, Portglenone, 3 May 2010, North Antrim constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7153. “Born in Belfast in 1966, Ian Paisley Jnr is the youngest child of the Reverend Ian Paisley, the unionist firebrand and former First Minister of Northern Ireland. Paisley Jnr ran to succeed his father as the Democratic Unionist Party Westminster MP for North Antrim, a seat his father had held since 1970. Despite forecasts that Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice party could seriously dent the Paisley vote in their own heartland, the DUP took nearly half of the 42,579 ballot papers, out-polling their former party colleague by almost three to one. On the 3rd May Paisley Snr joined his son on the campaign trail and here they can both be seen meeting with Samuel Bole in Portglenone, Ballymena. They were joined by a local press photographer.”
  • A photo of a suburban green space capturing the back of some semi-detached houses and warehouses and a large bridge, recognisable as the Dartford Crossing, in the distance. The green patch slopes down towards wooden fencing at the back of a row of large semi-detached brick houses with chimneys and red tiled roofs. To the right of the green patch there are a row of 8 garages with red or white doors and a small glimpse of a parking area. In the green patch, walking towards the camera, are four white men holding leaflets. One is wearing a suit and tie and a yellow rosette; to his right a younger man with headphones around his neck and a yellow rosette wears skinny-fitting clothes and a t shirt, with brown medium length hair. At their back, another young man in a yellow shirt holds a jumper in his right hand a cardboard box in his left. Next to him, a man with scruffy brown hair and a goatee beard, wearing jeans, an orange t shirt, and a brown overshirt, looks towards the ground. Two blurry birds fly in the centre of the cloudy sky overhead.
    James Willis, Liberal Democrat, Dartford, 4 May 2010, Dartford constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7154. “Dartford constituency is an industrial Thamesside seat on the M25 river crossing south-west of London in Kent. It was contested unsuccessfully by Margaret Thatcher, then known as Margaret Roberts, at the 1950 and 1951 General Elections. Since the Second World War, Dartford has been a key Labour-Tory marginal and is known as a bell-weather seat owing to the fact that since 1964 the party winning it has gone on to form the government. This election it went Conservative, having been won by Gareth Johnson, with a swing away from Labour of over 10%. Liberal Democrat candidate James Willis can be seen here canvassing with three young party volunteers around the Temple Hill of Dartford, in the shadow of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.”
  • A photograph of a green by the side of the road, a sign by the roadside reading “Overn Avenue”. Next to the sign a small black car and a slightly larger red car are parked, the red car with a yellow flag flying from its right window. On the side of the lawn, a figure recognisable as Nigel Farage—a white man in a suit with receding grey-brown hair—holds both his arms outstretched before him as though gesturing in mid-sentence. Leaning against his shin is a purple and yellow sign reading “Vote Nigel Farage. Straight talking. 01280 822 228 VoteNigelFarage.com, with a Pound sign with UKIP across the centre of the logo. Five people wearing yellow and purple rosettes look towards him. Three are sat on a bench: an old large white man with a beard in a sweater vest with a green bag on his lap; an older white man with balding hair wearing a jumper and dark jeans, a dark bag sat on his lap; next to him, a white woman with dark hair over the side of her head wearing a scarf and dark jacket, blue jeans, and brown shoes, with a bag and a white piece of paper on her lap. Stood to their left is a man wearing dark glasses, with thinning brown hair and a suit with a jumper under it, holding purple leaflets; to his left another man with slicked back hair wearing a long cream-coloured trench coat and also holding leaflets.
    Nigel Farage, UK Independence Party, Buckingham, 5 May 2010, Buckingham constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7155. “Buckingham, which once elected Robert Maxwell, is the seat currently held by John Bercow, the Speaker of the Commons. The Speaker gives up his/her party affiliation (in Bercow’s case Conservative) upon taking office, and there is an inconsistently followed convention not to oppose him/her at the election. However, UKIP’s Nigel Farage stood against Bercow in the 2010 General Election as did John Stevens, an ex Conservative MEP who ran under the title of ‘Buckingham’s Campaign For Democracy’. In this photograph Nigel Farage can be seen directing his campaign staff before they knock on doors around Western Avenue in Buckingham on the last full day of canvassing. ‘Straight talking’ his poster says, and this message seems to be reflected in the straight-armed gesture he is making. On polling day, Farage survived a plane crash in the constituency after an election banner got tangled in the engine.”
  • A photograph of a road junction populated by people along the banks and pavements, with photographers and microphone booms. In the foreground, a silver car is parked by the side of a small town hall made from stone with signs reading “Polling Station” attached to the white railings. Next to it is a black car just in shot. Several policemen stand in the distance and up the road, and one in the foreground near the photographers. They are looking towards two figures holding hands walking down the left hand pavement: a white man in a suit recognisable as David Cameron—an adult man with combed brown hair—and his wife Samantha—a white woman with shoulder-length brown hair wearing a blue dress, both looking towards a cameraman behind them, the man waving with his left hand. Stone cottages follow the road to the distance, with bankside verge in grass on the right and a pavement on the left. A street barrier is just about visible at the top of the road. The sky is very grey.
    David Cameron, Conservative, Spelsbury, 6 May 2010, Witney constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7156. “Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron and his pregnant wife Samantha Cameron wave to photographers and well-wishers after leaving the polling station in Spelsbury Memorial Hall, Oxfordshire. Their visit to the polling station was delayed by a couple of hours until two men, one dressed in a blazer and boater, holding up a large banner featuring a picture of the Conservative Party leader with the slogan ”Britons know your place: Vote Eton – vote Tory,’ had been removed from the roof of the Memorial Hall. Also visible in the photograph is a Ladbrokes blackboard showing the odds for each party, a woman’s Jack Russell terrier being held up by its owner and the Daily Mirror’s election mascot, a reporter dressed by a chicken, surrounded by police officers, who had stalked Cameron throughout the election campaign trail, trying to add "much needed silliness to a po-faced campaign." Poignantly, given the outcome, there is a ‘Liberal Democrats Winning Here’ poster in the bottom left of this photograph.”
  • A photograph of a suburban road focused on a green patch at the side of the street with a pavement going through it. At the left of the image, a portacabins its on the grass just off the road, with a ramp towards the entrance and a sign on the side reading “Way In”. A woman with shoulder-length dark hair wearing a jumper and smart trousers, with a handbag on her right shoulder, is about to walk through. In the foreground stood on the pavement by the green, next to a road sign,a white woman and a white man, both wearing jeans and white trainers and a dark jacket, smoke cigarettes. The woman is also holding a white slip in her right hand. On the green, two south Asian men are sat on chairs next to each other with their legs crossed: one in a suit with a red rosette and glasses on his head and a red clipboard on his lap; the other with a kufi (headwear worn by some Muslim men) on his head and a long grey blazer and brown shoes, with a blue rosette and a clipboard on his lap. To the right by some garden fences, another south Asian man in white clothes and a black jacket with a red rosette, wearing a kufi and with a long white beard, holds a phone to his ear. In the distance, two white women, one visibly pregnant and wearing white and the other pushing a pram with a baby in it, smoking a cigarette and wearing a black leather jacket, walk up the pavement. Cars are parked along the street. A road sign in the very foreground to the right of the image reads “Victoria Road” with a sign for a dead end (a white line crossed by a red line at the end).
    Goodman Park polling station, Slough, 6 May 2010, Slough constituency, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7157. “The Slough constituency comprises not only the industrial town itself but also its dense suburbs, with a large Asian community and was held by Labour’s Fiona Mactaggart, who has been the Member of Parliament for Slough since 1997. In protest at the urbanisation of the area in the 1930s, Sir John Betjeman, the late Poet Laureate, wrote of the town: "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough/It isn’t fit for humans now/There isn’t grass to graze a cow. Swarm over, death!" In this scene Labour and Conservative election tellers monitor voters outside a temporary polling station set up in a portacabin near the entrance to Goodman Park on Victoria Road. Several polling stations around the country were overwhelmed after turnout reached 65 per cent — up from 61.4 per cent in 2005 and 59.4 per cent in 2001, with some voters turned away at 10pm when polling stations officially closed.”
  • A photograph of a visibly Georgian or Victorian urban close or street—surrounded by three or four storey town houses with large white bay windows and arched or pillared doorways. The street is filled with photographers and people in suits or backpacks. On the left, several cameras and microphone booms (with fluffy grey ends) are set up in a melee, with lots of figures stood around looking down the street. In the foreground, the back of a woman with dark hair in a dark suit is visible, stood on some matting run over cables along the street. On the right, leaning against an ornate black fence, a white man with fair hair, wearing headphones and with a bag of wires around his neck, looks at his phone with his foot resting on the barrier. Next to him a man in t shirt and work jeans reads a newspaper. Two black cars are visible towards the end of the street.
    Coalition talks, Liberal Democrat HQ Westminster, 7 May 2010, Photograph by Simon Roberts ©UK Parliament WOA 7158. “The Conservatives won the most seats in the 2010 general election, but not enough to secure an overall Commons majority, resulting in a hung Parliament and an "historic" Conservative-led coalition government. After days of talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats a deal was reached on Tuesday 11th May that resulted in Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown resigning. The Liberal Democrat parliamentary party and its federal executive endorsed the coalition agreement by the required three-quarters majority. The coalition is the first time the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have had a power-sharing deal at Westminster and the first coalition in the UK since the Second World War. My last, unexpected photograph in the series, depicts the scene outside of the Liberal Democrat headquarters on Cowley Street in Westminster as the press waited for an announcement by Nick Clegg as to whether he would be taking up David Cameron’s “big, open and comprehensive offer to the Liberal Democrats.”

The full title of each photograph in this series includes the election results of the seat depicted. You can view the full titles of all 25 photographs in this PDF.

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