Only a couple weeks back the UK election campaign was almost not worth covering, with a tired Labour Party limping towards the polling booths with an apparently revitalised Tories looking forward to 10 Downing Street after 13 years in the political wilderness. And then along came the country's first-ever televised leadership debates and pretty much overnight the opinion polls had the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - the darkest of dark horses - running down the other two from behind. The upshot is that next Thursday's election result is no lay-down misere. It's developed into a genuine 3-horse race, with both the pundits and the public tipping a hung parliament for the first time in 35 years. Not much in this suddenly unpredictable election has been political business as usual, and that's certainly what Sophie McNeill discovered on the campaign trail in London just as Nick Clegg's wave of popularity was about to break.

 

 

REPORTER:  Sophie McNeill

It's early on a Sunday morning and these Conservative Party faithful are ready to roll.

 

DAVID GOLD, TORY CANDIDATE: We'll start wherever you think.

 

David Gold is the Tory candidate here in the constituency of Eltham. Current polling tips him to win this seat from the sitting Labour MP.

 

DAVID GOLD: We lost it in 1997, on the tidal wave of support for Labour and I think that right now people are swinging back now to the Conservatives. It's time for a change - and that's a slogan that's been used time and time again but this time it's really resonating with people. They're really saying "We need a change of face, we need a change of direction - we need a change of mood, really."

 

Over the past five years, the Tory party has taken a new direction. Under the leadership of David Cameron, the Conservatives have tried to reinvent themselves.

 

DAVID CAMERON, CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE:  Thank you for coming together today. Let me tell you what I think this election is all about. There is today, a modern Conservative alternative that has got the leadership, that's got the energy, that's got the values to get this country moving.

 

Tim Montgomery is a Conservative commentator and pollster.

 

TIM MONTGOMERY, CONSERVATIVE POLLSTER: David Cameron is actually pursuing an incredibly interesting attempt to redefine conservatism in the post-Thatcher -Reagan -Howard era. We knew exactly where conservatism was when those three great giants of international conservatism were on the political stage. But where is it now? And what David Cameron is trying to say is it isn't enough for conservatism to be about crime, and tax, and immigration, and national security. It has to be more.

 

Cameron's new look is about to be judged by the UK public. And after 13 years of Labour government, they are desperate to win.

 

 DAVID CAMERON: You know, it's not just about the leaders any more, which is good. It's also about the individuals. We sort of have a countdown clock on the website to remind us how many minutes we have got to go - how many hours, how many days. All I know is we've got to win this time!

 

JULIAN GLOVER, POLITICAL JOURNALIST: They want this new sort of happy clappy land where everybody does their bit, and it's all very jolly, it's all very cuddly and very progressive and very green - not really traditionally Tory at all.

 

'Guardian' political journalist Julian Glover has been following the Conservative's transformation.

 

JULIAN GLOVER: They are very tolerant on social issues. They are quite tolerant on gay rights and on race. So they were embarrassed by what the party was. They felt they needed to change because they believed in it. But the other reason was polling. They tested with the public after the 2005 election. They tested with the public - what do you think of the Tory party? And people just hated it. They quite liked Tory policies when they were told what the policies were, if they didn't know the party. But as soon as they found out the party, they opposed the policies.

 

DAVID GOLD: Good morning, how are you?

 

MAN: You've been around more than once.

 

DAVID GOLD: You've had this already? We're obviously bombarding you with literature. You've got this one, have you? You've probably had Labour's I would imagine.

 

In many ways, David Gold appears like a typical Tory.

 

MAN: I hope you come in. I wish you all the best.

 

DAVID GOLD: With your support, we will, sir - all the very best to you both.

 

He was privately educated, has a background in law and worked for the former Conservative Party leader, William Hague. But David was also the first Tory to stand as an openly gay candidate.

 

DAVID GOLD: I mean the difference has been that in the past Tory MP's might get elected and then it would emerge that they happened to be gay, so it was seen as something of a dirty secret and a bit of a scandal. I was very upfront about it.

 

David's key helper out on the campaign trail is Mark, his long-term partner.

 

MARK: David and I have been together for about 10 or 11 years now and in the whole 10 or 11 years we have been doing it, I don't think it has ever attracted anything other than an, "Oh, OK". It doesn't seem to be an issue, which if I'm honest with you, surprises me a little bit sometimes.

 

If the Tories win a majority at this election, they will have more than 16 openly gay MP's.

 

DAVID GOLD: So, have you been out delivering this morning?

 

CHILD: Yes.

 

DAVID GOLD: Where have you been delivering, do you remember?

 

CHILD: Elshore road.

 

DAVID GOLD: Oh have you? I'm going to get done for child labour!

 

After a busy morning door-knocking, David Gold joins his supporters at the local Conservative club

 

MAN 2: You saw yesterday, we had 20 people out delivering. We've got posters up in some areas. We get a lot of thumbs up. And I think a lot of people are very much behind us.

 

DAVID GOLD:  I think it comes to something when an openly gay man, who is in a civil partnership with his male partner, can stand for parliament in a marginal winnable seat in South East London, in a working-class area, and not have any sort of prejudice against them at all. So I think that not only has the party changed, I think the country has changed.

 

LOANNA MORRISON, CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE: People like to say that it's only rich people that vote Tory but that's not true.

 

Immigrant, single mother of two, Loanna Morrison is another of David Cameron's 'new look' Tory candidates.

 

LOANNA MORRISON: I'm Loanna Morrison, your Conservative parliamentary candidate.

 

Just a few miles away from David Gold, but in a very different constituency - this is Bermondsey and Old Southwark. A safe Liberal Democrat seat, Loanna Morrison faces an uphill battle to gain conservative votes in this area.

 

SCHOOL BOYS: I don't like you! I don't like you! These Conservatives are no good!

 

LOANNA MORRISON: But I'm a Conservative. Do you think I'm no good?

 

SCHOOL BOYS:  You're good looking but... Labour! Labour! What's David Cameron going to do for us?

 

LOANNA MORRISON:  Most people presume that because I'm black, I must be Labour. But I've never been a socialist. I think I must have been born with a Conservative spoon in my mouth! Good afternoon. I'm your Conservative parliamentary candidate.

 

MAN: Who's the conservatives again?

 

LOANNA MORRISON: David Cameron.

 

MAN: That's right, David Cameron that's the one.

 

LOANNA MORRISON: I don't see what the Labour government has done for black people and I think they need to question their commitment to the Labour Party, really and I'm hoping that my presence in this campaign will wake people up. Wake especially black people up, wake them up and say "Listen, we need to see what these people's policies are, don't just go out and vote blindly."

 

If the Conservatives come in then you'll get a chance to make money. You'll get a chance to fulfil your ambitions.

 

MAN: How will I do that?

 

LOANNA MORRISON:  Because we will open up everything. We will allow people to go back to learning. Go back to training. There will be training opportunities which you don't have to pay for. The Labour Party can't take you any further than where they've taken you. Look, they've been in power for 13 years and black people are still poor! So, let's try a change.

 

MAN: I don't think the Conservatives can change that to be honest, I think it will take an act of God!  

 

Tonight Loanna is launching a job opportunity program for young people in her area.

 

LOANNA MORRISON:  All the members of the gold card and the platinum card will have their details circulated to businesses which will give you a fast track into jobs and into interviews.

 

The Conservative shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, has come along to show his support.

 

CHRIS GRAYLING, SHADOW HOME SECRETARY: This is a great city, there are lots of really good opportunities out there. And I'm absolutely confident you can use this job club to make a really great next step in your life.

 

Questions have been raised over the commitment of high-level Tories like Chris Grayling, to Cameron's new philosophy. Two weeks ago, Grayling made a comment that put the party's stand on gay rights under scrutiny.

 

CHRIS GRAYLING: Be in networks, support each other, give each other ideas….

 

JULIAN GLOVER: One of the things he said was that people who own a bed and breakfast, a private couple who have a house, shouldn't be compelled to take gay clients or a gay couple if they want, into their private home. Now that obviously, I think in British law, is probably illegal now. Of course it was an incredibly stupid thing to say just before an election and stupid to say in the age of the internet when somebody was filming it on a camera phone.

 

The Tory's other big change was to try and position themselves as a green party.

 

LOANNA MORRISON: Here comes a green Tory!

 

But this green tinge may split the new Tory party, the way it did the Liberals in Australia.

 

TIM MONTGOMERIE: Malcolm Turnbull and David Cameron are probably similar characters in a way. David Cameron has made a big deal of being a green Conservative Party that focuses on climate change. Actually, when we asked Conservative candidates what their priority was, climate change was right at the bottom of the league table of their priorities, so should there be a Conservative government, there's potentially a conflict there on that issue.

 

It became evident that the 'new Conservatives' might not be the change the British people are looking for when for the first time ever, the UK held a live television leaders' debate. Nick Clegg, the leader of Britain's third-largest party, the Liberal Democrats, was widely agreed to have outperformed both Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

 

NICK CLEGG, SPEAKING AT THE DEBATE: Now you're going to be told tonight by these two that the only choice you can make is between two old parties who have been running things for years. I'm here to persuade you that there is an alternative.

 

Overnight, the Conservatives lost their lead in the polls, and the race has suddenly been thrown wide open prompting speculation of a hung parliament.

 

TELEVISION REPORT: No-one predicted these headlines and no-one knows how long the Nick Clegg effect might last.

 

JULIAN GLOVER:  A years ago, they were going to be the clear winners in the election. Everybody looked at David Cameron and said "You're the next prime minister - you're modern, you've changed your party, Britain loves you.  We'll just sit out the dying Labour Government." And now everything has changed. We've had Nick Clegg come into the contest. Suddenly the Lib Dems, the third party, have become the first party in some opinion polls. Nobody but nobody predicted that

 

WOMAN: It's so easy for Kate to get up there and promise the earth, the moon and the stars because she's never going to have to deliver it

 

The Liberal Democrats' sudden surge in the polls is causing a stir among these Conservative voters.

 

WOMAN: The Labour will lose more seats than the Lib Dem than we will. Yes, definitely.

 

DAVID GOLD: I think that ultimately people do want change but I don't think they want the kind of change that results in a weak government. I don't think people want a hung parliament. It's a small little fling with the Liberal Democrats. It's not a long-term love affair.

 

Morning, Sir. Do you live in Southwark?  Hope you're going to support me in the election.

 

The sitting member that Loanna Morrison is challenging is Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes. He's confident his party will record a historic high vote and possibly even help form government.

 

SIMON HUGHES, LIBERAL DEMOCRATE: The polls at the moment are showing us ahead of that, and the polls have always said that if people thought we had the chance of being in government then our vote would soar. It's because of the electoral system - it's always been very difficult to translate our support into seats. We may this time be making the breakthrough.

 

Hughes scoffs at the notion that Cameron's Tories represent change - and says the new polls are evidence they haven't fooled anyone.

 

SIMON HUGHES: I think that people realise, if they think about it, that we've had red, blue, blue, red, Conservative, Labour, Labour, Conservatives for 65 years. And it hasn't been a huge success. Whether we get 30% or 25% or 35% or 40%, it doesn't matter. There is no limiter to our ambition. And I say to people very confidently, "If you really want a real change, not just the old order, now is the time to seize it."

 

If the conservatives fail to win this election, it will be their fourth consecutive loss and there will be massive soul searching within the party.

 

TIM MONTGOMERIE:  And to lose and election at a time where we probably have one of the most unpopular governments in British history. Gordon Brown has doubled the national debt, he has sent our troops to war without proper equipment, he failed to regulate the banks properly and we have had this major financial collapse. So people will ask, if the Conservative Party cannot win in this situation, when can they win?

 

David Gold is confident the Conservatives have changed for the good and whatever happens at this election he says there is no turning back.

 

DAVID GOLD: I certainly think that after the previous election defeats where we concentrated on issues of politics of old and where we failed so spectacularly to gain ground, that there is no going back now. I think we are now going firmly in the right direction and I don't believe that looking backwards is the answer at all. 

Reporter/Camera

SOPHIE MCNEILL

 

Producer

ASHLEY SMITH

 

Researcher

MELANIE MORRISON

 

Editors

DAVID POTTS

WAYNE LOVE

2nd May 2010