The Shifting Use of Emotional Rhetoric by Labour and the Conservatives around the 2024 General Election Campaign
Henneböhl D, Tönnies M (2026)
Publication Language: English
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2026
Journal
Book Volume: 33
Pages Range: 75-92
Journal Issue: 1
Open Access Link: https://doi.org/10.33675/JSBC/2026/1/8
Abstract
From about 2022 onwards, British political rhetoric has been showing significant shifts in the strategic evocation of emotions compared with the discourses relating to Brexit and also the COVID-19 crisis. Drawing on an understanding of the sentimental as a communicative and relational code, our paper analyses the new ways in which sentimental scripts of the nation are currently being instrumentalised. One can detect a shift away from discontent in Conservative rhetoric, but it still draws heavily on emotions like fear, national pride, and nostalgia, so that the propagated confidence and optimism is often undercut at the same time. Drawing on an ethnonationalist emotional repertoire, the Conservatives construct Britain’s security as being threatened by outside forces and a potential Labour government. Labour, on the other hand, begins to appropriate some of the political opponent’s characteristic nostalgic strategies and integrates them into the party’s own ‘sentimental’ bid to form the next government, based on negotiations between discontent, compassion, and hope. In this context, future-oriented constructions of diverse, empowered (‘imagined’) communities become a key method of communicating a reassuring sense of agency and belonging.
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Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Henneböhl, D., & Tönnies, M. (2026). The Shifting Use of Emotional Rhetoric by Labour and the Conservatives around the 2024 General Election Campaign. Journal for the Study of British Cultures, 33(1), 75-92. https://doi.org/10.33675/JSBC/2026/1/8
MLA:
Henneböhl, Dennis, and Merle Tönnies. "The Shifting Use of Emotional Rhetoric by Labour and the Conservatives around the 2024 General Election Campaign." Journal for the Study of British Cultures 33.1 (2026): 75-92.
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