Since Wednesday, 22 May when a rain-soaked Rishi Sunak went to the country outside 10 Downing Street to call a UK General Election, election fever has gripped the nation. With polling day set on Thursday, 4 July, our premium publishers have covered every inch of the campaign trail – and we’ve been following the action too.

From fiery TV debates and the PM’s D-Day debacle to a foamed, frothy Farage and policy promises at the many manifesto launches, online readers across Ozone’s Premium Web platform have turned to trusted sources for insightful information, carefully considered comment and acute political analysis.

In the four weeks since the election announcement, our weekly Reading the Nation insight series has included additional in-depth insights into how our nationwide audience of more than 40m online adults are engaging with Politics content and Elections editorial, including their interest in the parties, party leadership and main policies that are being debated.

Week 1: Rishi Sunak goes to the country

• Reader engagement with Politics grew +23%, driven by 4.3x higher Elections page views

• During the past three years, in weeks when major events have dominated the political agenda, Politics engagement is typically nearly two-fifths higher than normal

Week 2: Main parties tease policy pledges talk gets tough

• Politics engagement grows +6% week on week, with 67.3m page views almost a third higher than 2024 average

• In May, 263m page views for the content grew by a fifth, with engagement +60% higher than the monthly average

Week 3: The PM’s D-Day debacle drives record engagement

• More than 75m Politics page views – a record high for the content – rose by +12%

• Nigel Farage candidacy announcement saw the Reform UK leader’s share of voice grow by +15%

Week 4: Manifesto week puts policy promises into focus

• Manifesto launches drive readership growth of +43% and +17% for neutral and positive sentiment editorial respectively

• Younger readers index more highly for Climate policies; Older readers are more likely to read about the Economy and Healthcare

Week 5: Improper betting allegations shift focus away from Sunak, but grows negative sentiment for the Conservatives

• Allegations of betting on the election date saw attention shift away drop for Rishi Sunak (-6%), but increased negative sentiment for the Tories by +15%

• Nigel Farage maintained a 28% share of voice among the party leaders thanks to his controversial claim that the West provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Week 6: Reform’s racism row spikes negative sentiment, while major parties fail to differentiate on climate policy

• Reform UK’s racism row drove negative sentiment for the party to 61% (equal with the Tories), with positive sentiment coverage declining to 8%, behind the Tories’ 12%

• While Immigration indexes as a key issue among all demos – and is reflected in coverage – high interest in Climate issues is not reflected due to the lack of policy differentiation between the major parties