Have gaffes and mistakes ever changed the course of an election?

Boris Johnson’s campaign has got off to a terrible start but, asks John Rentoul, will such negative stories have any effect on the outcome?

(LBC)

Most missteps in election campaigns seem to excite journalists more than the general public. Boris Johnson’s election campaign has got off to a terrible start, but we should recall the Daily Mail’s “most disastrous few hours in campaign history” from the last election.

That was because Jeremy Corbyn’s car ran over someone’s foot on the way into the meeting to sign off Labour’s manifesto, which had been leaked overnight. Only dedicated collectors of political ephemera remember the events of that day, which not only did Labour’s standing no harm, but actually boosted the party’s popularity.

The leak of the manifesto meant that journalists reported what was in it without any of the distractions of media questions to Corbyn on the day of the formal launch – and many of the policies turned out to be more popular than expected.