Dubai: With Britons going to the polls in a general election on May 7, the Conservative’s inclusive expat campaign, and strong relationship with the UAE, has Britons hoping that they will come back to power — this time with a majority government.

“Tories (Conservatives) are much more friendly towards the needs and wants of expats,” Jonathon Davidson, chairman of the British Business Group (BBG) told Gulf News.

“[Cameron] represents well to the international community and I’m not quite sure if Miliband has the same gravitas, especially when dealing with foreign policy. So from our perspective as global citizens now, I think Cameron would have a better result for us.”

For BBG co-chair David Burns, a long-time resident of Dubai, the fact that within days of winning the 2010 election Cameron was on a plane to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, showed the magnitude of his commitment to the Middle East, and that was enough to win his vote. When the 2010 election resulted in no party winning a clear majority, talks began immediately with the Liberal Democrats aligning with the Conservatives in the first coalition government in Britain since the Second World War

Burns, who was never been a fan of a joint government, believes the UK needs a leader to stand up and take control, a single decision-making body that won’t have to tip-toe and take more than one opinion into consideration.

Though it meant the government had to hold back on some policies, Davidson believes it worked better than he thought it would. However, he said, a standalone government would always be preferable.

For expat Bea Bowles, the Conservatives’ pledge to combat debt is particularly attractive to her so that “they’ll be able to alleviate other taxes and improve the benefits systems,” she said. That way, money is going back to benefiting citizens instead of paying off interest on debt.

The Scottish National Party (SNP), a Scottish independence party, which only runs candidates in Scotland, has been garnering a lot of attention in debates this election.

Having garnered momentum in the Scottish referendum last September, on whether Scotland should separate from the UK, the party has created a platform for it to narrow voting down to where “there may have to be some coalition deals done very close to D-Day,” Davidson said.

As the possibility of another close vote looms, coalition talks may now have to take on a new perspective.

“You’ve got Tories potentially talking to Ukip and you’ve got Labour potentially talking to SNP,” Davidson said.

But given that the SNP has been dominating Scotland, which has a strong history of Labour voters, “I think it would be a pretty frosty relationship,” he added.

Even those who never had an interest in Scottish politics have been paying attention to the SNP. “It seems to me that they have more power in England than the English do in Scotland,” Burns said.

— Samantha Long is an intern at Gulf News