Which politicians got the most media coverage during October?

Following up our coverage of which senior politicians were the best gatherers of media coverage during their party conferences, Mandate has now been tracking their successes and failures at getting print media coverage during October.

The Conservative top ten is much the same as during their conference, with just Andrew Lansley replacing David Willetts in the top ten whilst the top five places are unchanged:

1. David Cameron
2. George Osborne
3. William Hague
4. Ken Clarke
5. Chris Grayling
6. Michael Gove
7. Liam Fox
8. Eric Pickles
9. Andrew Lansley
10. Theresa May

For Labour, Jack Straw moves up in to the top five and Bob Ainsworth replaces Andy Burnham in the top ten. Given the stories that Bob Ainsworth has been associated with, it is perhaps a case of not all publicity being good publicity. Peter Mandelson’s dominant role in the Government is reflected by him finishing second once again and by a very clear margin:

1. Gordon Brown
2. Peter Mandelson
3. Alistair Darling
4. David Miliband
5. Jack Straw
=6. Alan Johnson
=6. Ed Balls
8. Harriet Harman
9. Bob Ainsworth
10. Ed Miliband

Finally, the Liberal Democrats see the most change. Although the top three places are unchanged, only one of the other seven was in their conference top ten:

1. Nick Clegg
2. Vince Cable
3. Chris Huhne
4. Norman Lamb
5. Alastair Carmichael
6. Norman Baker
7. David Laws
8. Nick Harvey
9. David Heath
=10. Simon Hughes
=10. Don Foster

Seeing David Laws (children, schools and families) and Norman Lamb (health) enter the top ten is unsurprising give the prominence of the policy areas they cover. But perhaps most surprising in the list is the high showing for Alistair Carmichael, the party’s Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

One final observation: across the 31 names (11 from the Lib Dems as two people tied for 10th place), only two are female. Although all parties have put great efforts into improving their gender balance, when it comes to high profile public roles there is clearly still a long way to go.