New Delhi: The Conservative Party in the United Kingdom was the victim of a Thursday night massacre as it lost a record 250 seats, with 11 cabinet members and a former prime minister losing their own seats, as the Keir Starmer-led Labour Party stormed to victory in a landslide reminiscent of Tony Blair’s 1997 triumph.
Starmer has been formally appointed prime minister by King Charles III after his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, resigned. Earlier, Sunak spoke with Starmer and publicly conceded victory to the Labour Party. He has also announced that he would step down as leader of the Conservative Party.
“We did it. You campaigned for it, you fought for it, you voted for it and now it has arrived. Change begins now. It feels good, I have to be honest. Four and a half years of work changing the party, this is what it is for — a changed Labour Party,” declared Starmer as the results indicated a Labour landslide in the elections.
The snap elections called by Sunak on 22 May ended in devastation for his party, which has run the country for a large part of the last 200 years.
The Labour Party, which was in opposition for 14 years, has won 412 seats out of 650, with two results yet to be declared. The Conservatives have won 121 seats. The last time the Tories suffered a defeat on this scale was in 1906, when they lost 246 seats under the leadership of Arthur Balfour.
Ex-PM Liz Truss lost her own seat, the first time in nearly a century that a former leader of the country failed to be reelected to the House of Commons. Her mini-budget in September 2022 had set off a short financial crisis that has been identified as one of the reasons for the Conservatives’ tribulations in 2024.
The party also hit a historical low in its vote share, winning only around 23 percent of the total votes polled — a depth it has not plumbed since it was formed in 1834.
Nigel Farage, the totemic Brexiteer and far-Right leader of the Reform UK party, was elected to the House of Commons for the first time after seven previous failed attempts. With his party winning four seats to break into Parliament, Farage has promised to go after Labour over the next five years.
The fragmentation of the votes across the UK is a major takeaway from the election. While Labour has won over 400 seats, its overall vote tally is lower even than in 2017, an election it lost under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
A total of 12,877,918 votes were polled in favour of the Corbyn-led Labour Party in 2017, while in 2024, the party is expected to win less than 10 million. This is an indication that the results are more a wave against the Conservatives than one in favour of Labour. The party is on course to win about 34 percent of the votes this time, compared to 43 percent in 1997, when it won 418 seats.
Another takeaway is that the centrist Liberal Democrats won 71 seats, an increase of 63 since 2019 — the party’s best showing since it was born from a merger of the Liberals and the Social Democrats nearly four decades ago. However, its vote tally is roughly the same as in 2019 at about 3.5 million.
A dented Labour
While Labour has a nearly 170-seat majority in the House of Commons, it has faced losses in certain constituencies where it was favoured to win as a result of factors including Starmer’s pro-Israel stance and his purge of the Labour Left.
Jeremy Corbyn, who led the party between 2015 and 2020, was blocked by Starmer from standing as the Labour candidate in Islington North, a seat he has won since 1983. Corbyn, however, decided to stand as an Independent — which led to his expulsion from the party — and defeated the Labour candidate to win the seat by about 8,000 votes.
In a similar fashion, another Left-wing candidate, Faiza Shaheen, was blocked from standing in the Chingford and Woodford Greens seat. However, she stood as an Independent and won over 12,000 votes, syphoning votes from the Labour candidate, Shama Tatler and allowing former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith to retain his seat.
Shadow cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth was one of the casualties of pro-Palestinian Independents who ran against Labour candidates in seats with significant Muslim popularions. Ashworth’s seat — Leicester South — had a 35 per cent Muslim population, and he lost by 979 votes to Shockat Adam, a pro-Palestinian candidate.
Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Mohamed and Ayoub Khan are the three other Independents who beat Labour candidates on a pro-Palestinian platform.
Also read: Will Starmer-led Labour score landslide win? Britons vote to seal fate of Sunak’s Tories
Scotland’s dramatic shift
The Scottish National Party (SNP), which has led Scotland since 2007, faced a wipeout in the general election, winning only 9 seats — a loss of 37 seats from 2019. The last time the pro-Scottish independence party won less than 10 seats was in the 2010 general election.
The Labour Party, which had been reduced to just one seat in Scotland in 2019, has picked up 37 in 2024.
“This is a very, very difficult night for @theSNP. I am sorry for the valued colleagues who have lost their seats. We need to learn from this setback, listen to the public and pick ourselves back up. We have to do that because we want to do the best for Scotland,” said John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland and the leader of the SNP.
This is a very, very difficult night for @theSNP. I am sorry for the valued colleagues who have lost their seats. We need to learn from this setback, listen to the public and pick ourselves back up. We have to do that because we want to do the best for Scotland.
— John Swinney (@JohnSwinney) July 5, 2024
The SNP electoral juggernaut has come to a halt after nine years of dominating performances in the general elections, following the failed Scottish independence referendum in 2014. The party’s hold in Scotland — which it has ruled since 2007 — will be further tested in the next Scottish election, due by May 2026.
Resurgent Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats led by Ed Davey saw their most successful election results since the party’s foundation in 1988. The party won 71 seats and about 12 percent of the total votes, overtaking the SNP to once again become the third largest party in the House of Commons.
Davey, who ran an outlandish campaign including rollercoaster rides, bungee jumping and paddle boarding, all with the message of vote for the party. Party supporters also got on a boat and sailed down the river Thames to interrupt one of Sunak’s campaign stops.
Tim Farron, the former leader of the party, also retained his seat. In a dig at the Conservatives, Farron on X said, “We have recalled Agent Truss from the field, her work is complete.”
We have recalled Agent Truss from the field, her work is complete.
— Tim Farron (@timfarron) July 5, 2024
Truss, the former prime minister, started her political career with the Liberal Democrats.
The entrance of Farage
Farage, who once led the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP), has finally made it into Parliament on his eighth attempt. He overturned a Conservative majority of over 25,000 votes to win by 8,000 votes in Clacton in Essex.
According to media reports, in all four seats that Farage’s Reform UK party won, over 70 percent of the populace voted for Brexit.
(Edited by Rohan Manoj)
Also read: Lack of party discipline, first domino fell with Brexit — what went wrong for UK’s Conservatives