Rampant Negativity in British Politics: An exploration of digital campaign strategies during the UK 2015 general election.

Negative campaigning has been the subject of significant research, notably in terms of voter engagement, political trust (Valentino et al. 2001; West, 2005) and campaign tactics (Adam & Maier, 2010; Russmann, 2014). Whilst this body of research is extensive, reflecting the common use of negative campaigning by contemporary political actors, Walter and Nai (2015) asserted that there is a substantial void in the literature as to why and how UK political figures implement negativity. This paper responds to this contention by examining the use of negative political campaigning by the Conservative and Labour Party during the 2015 general election campaign. Content analyse of a range of digital communication channels utilised by both parties during the election campaign will advance existing research on negative campaigning by developing our understanding of the digital campaign strategies utilised by UK political actors