At the 2024 general election, the Liberal Democrats won 72 seats while Reform UK Ltd took five. That’s the democratic baseline for parliamentary weight. Yet post‑election bookings for TV and mainstream newspaper coverage often treat Ed Davey as a sidelined contender while a much smaller parliamentary group is booked like a permanent headliner.
Who might be a real underdog? Who might be just framed as one? The Liberal Democrats’ 72 seats, showing political power, vs the attention given to Reform UK’s small group is the plain starting point.
Liberal Democrats campaign framing: how we got here
Loughborough University’s real‑time news audit shows where the frame started. In the first week of the 2024 campaign, Reform UK was the only party with more “good” than “bad” news, and Nigel Farage “stole the show”. Through June, Farage repeatedly sat just behind the two main leaders in prominence.
During the campaign, Ed Davey’s benign campaign theatre – bungee jumps, waterslides, paddleboards – was covered exhaustively. Editors often upgraded Reform UK’s controversy‑driven set pieces to hard news, while relegating Davey’s to light filler. The problem is the running order, not the stunts.
A tranche of Liberal Democrat gains in southern England’s Blue Wall, including Oxford West and Abingdon, flipped long‑held Tory seats that rarely get centred in national media booking decisions. Across Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, central England voters backed that shift, yet national booking often sidelines it.
After polling day: four MPs still attract media attention
On 9 September 2025, BBC Director‑General Tim Davie told MPs the BBC wasn’t trying to “ingratiate” itself with Reform, while defending increased coverage of the party, with Samir Shah noting they currently have only four MPs. The campaign spotlight carried straight into the post‑election running order.
The general election in 2024 returned five Reform MPs; since then James McMurdock resigned the whip and now sits as an independent, Rupert Lowe was suspended amid a bullying probe, and a May 2025 by‑election in Runcorn and Helsby added Sarah Pochin for Reform. Net effect by 9 Sept 2025: four Reform MPs.
The media’s role in prioritising Reform UK might be explained by:
- vote share: Reform took 14.3% in 2024, the third‑highest share, in an election where the two main parties’ combined vote hit record lows. That reflects real discontent but Parliament turns votes into seats, and media coverage should track power between elections.
- disruption news value: conflict and novelty create booking incentives and sell newspapers.
Fair enough. But in a parliament‑first regime, vote share doesn’t replace law‑making power. The Liberal Democrats hold 72 seats and real committee and legislative leverage; Reform UK holds four MPs today. The Scottish National Party, Sinn Fein, the DUP and independents individually gained more seats than Reform.
Media coverage: a practical fix
A political mandate should attract proportional airtime, with parliamentary seats allocated minutes accordingly. We need to see political outcomes getting fair coverage rather than giving a voice to divisive outrage.
The public should be kept informed by publishing weekly data in tabulated format per flagship TV show, listing guest, party, topic, duration and slot type. Release monthly aggregates with share‑of‑voice and question‑to‑answer time by party and topic.
Parliament should be the first baseline for routine bookings, with carve‑outs for breaking news and investigations.
None of this bans coverage of other political stories. It forces transparency so attention maps back to consequence.
Why it matters
If the information diet keeps treating a 72‑seat party as colour and a four‑MP party as the main act, accountability gets skewed. Voters can’t weigh performance and policy if the camera rarely sits where leverage lives. When is a political underdog not an underdog? When editors make the third‑largest party the warm‑up act. Fix the ledger, fix the frame.
