UK Labour Landslide?

[peemac]

Am I missing something? - All UK media are calling result as a Labour landslide.

Labour vote only up 1.7% (31.2 to 33.9) - considering the self destruction of the Tories, that has to be seen as a failure. Labour can probably thank Farage for a huge number of their seat gains. The gains did not come from a surge in Labour support. If anything, that was a failure

Greens seem to the biggest winners - more than doubled their vote. 2.7% to 6.8%

Lib Dems also not as good as some predicted in terms of percentage, (11.5 to 12.2) but due to the split conservative vote with reform, they managed to make huge seat gains.

Tories, despite their greatest efforts to self destruct, came in at 23.7% - better than all the polls were suggesting, whilst their even further right sided twin, Reform, aka "The Farage Show", took 14.3%, but because they had no planning and due to the archaic 1st past the post system, got a mere 4 seats.

Labour should not be too gleeful - if the Tories took back just half the reform votes it would be a hung parliament. So Starmer needs to prove himself and possibly even try and develop a likeable personality, otherwise its one term only for him

 

[Purple]

I like Rishi Sunak. I think he's been a good Prime Minister and good for this country. Unfortunately for him he got the job after the ship had hit the rocks.

 

[joe sod]

I think farage can kiss goodbye to his reverse takeover of tory party strategy. In any case he won't be facing the tories in house of commons but Labour therefore he will be chipping away at the Labour policies regarding migration. Sunak held his seat but truss and Rees mogg gone along with Ian paisley lost theirs and snp wiped out in Scotland by Labour!!

 

[Purple]

I was delighted to see Rees Mogg lose his seat. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

 

[Knuttell]

It was a real everything must go sale for warehouse Rishi.
The problem (one of them anyway) was a helluva lot of their MPs weren't Cons in the traditional sense. They belonged in Labour or lib dems.

 

[losttheplot]

No fun in the FPTP system.

 

[Purple]

Labour vote only up 1.7% (31.2 to 33.9) - considering the self destruction of the Tories, that has to be seen as a failure.

That's a very good point. Labour are in power because many of those who traditionally support the Conservatives voted for Reform.

 

[redstar]

Reform UK - 14.3% Vote = 4 seats
Lib/Dems - 12.2% Vote = 71 seats

FPTP indeed...

 

[thedaddyman]

That's a very good point. Labour are in power because many of those who traditionally support the Conservatives voted for Reform.

They would still have won but on a much smaller majority. In a lot of cases, the combined Tory/Reform vote would still be less then Labour. Turnout was lower then normal, that may have had an impact and possibly more people then normal stayed at home.

Labour still have internal issues to resolve, Corbyn not gone away and they did struggle in strong Muslim areas over their Palestine/Israel policies and lost at least 4 seats over that and came close to losing more, especially in East London. .

Interesting to see the Greens doing well and hitting close to 7%.

In general, I can't help but think that Labour won due to the incompetence of the Tories and SNP as much as anything else.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

Scottish independence is a dead duck. After Brexit it would be economic suicide to be in a different currency and trading bloc from Great Britain. Probably all Scots would be romantically in favour of independence (unlike our 32 counties) and so the unionist vote has always been a pragmatic one and that is now more than ever.

I would say maybe 4% of Reform are Labour leavers, so possibly a 6% increase in their vote share on a like for like basis.
Anyway Starmer is Tory lite or possibly an AI version of Blair.

 

[Knuttell]

UK has just elected a PM who cannot describe,in a few sentences, what a woman is.

 

[joe sod]

Labour still have internal issues to resolve, Corbyn not gone away and they did struggle in strong Muslim areas over their Palestine/Israel policies and lost at least 4 seats over that and came close to losing more, especially in East London. .

They had alot bigger problems in 2019 with corbyn and the large anti semitism element in the party , starmer has largely wiped that away, if he loses a bit of Muslim support in the process so be it, he has gained alot more than he has lost

 

[odyssey06]

It is more of a landslide on the ground the Tories were standing on... then one in favour of Labour alright.

 

[Deiseblue]

They had alot bigger problems in 2019 with corbyn and the large anti semitism element in the party , starmer has largely wiped that away, if he loses a bit of Muslim support in the process so be it, he has gained alot more than he has lost

Strangely under Corbyn in 2019 Labour amassed over 600,000 more votes than Starmer did this time albeit there was a smaller turnout this time .
Farage and Reform undoubtedly were the reason behind Labour’s landslide win - God bless them !

 

[odyssey06]

Strangely under Corbyn in 2019 Labour amassed over 600,000 more votes than Starmer did this time albeit there was a smaller turnout this time .
Farage and Reform undoubtedly were the reason behind Labour’s landslide win - God bless them !

Yeah, when you look at actual votes cast it is very different picture.

• Labour 9,700,000
• Conservatives 6,800,000
• Reform 4,100,000
• Lib Dems 3,500,000
• Greens 1,800,000
• SNP 708,000

 

[Ceist Beag]

You would have to question the first past the post electoral system if 33% of the vote wins you 63% of the seats.

 

[joe sod]

You would have to question the first past the post electoral system if 33% of the vote wins you 63% of the seats.

maybe, but in the UK it seems to be keeping the extremists out of power unlike whats happening on the continent. It is the consevatives, labour and liberals that control the levers of power still.
The wipeout of the SNP in scotland to be replaced largely by the labour party is also noteworthy. In fact the success of the labour party is actually making the union stronger whereas farage and the brexiteers were making it weaker

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

The wipeout of the SNP in scotland to be replaced largely by the labour party is also noteworthy. In fact the success of the labour party is actually making the union stronger whereas farage and the brexiteers were making it weaker

Well Farage and the Brexiteers are really English nationalists and not unionists at all. But, as I argue in post #10 Brexit has made Scottish independence a non runner - the SNP are redundant.

 

[joe sod]

I would say maybe 4% of Reform are Labour leavers, so possibly a 6% increase in their vote share on a like for like basis.
Anyway Starmer is Tory lite or possibly an AI version of Blair.

they were saying that starmer was a hard leftist in his 20s but obviously now he is a moderate centrist that has pulled labour back from the extremes of corbynism. Its interesting though that the UK has moved back to the moderate left whereas many of its continental peers are moving to the right and even hard right.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

they were saying that starmer was a hard leftist in his 20s but obviously now he is a moderate centrist that has pulled labour back from the extremes of corbynism. Its interesting though that the UK has moved back to the moderate left whereas many of its continental peers are moving to the right and even hard right.

But the same themes are at play, notably fears about immigration. Labour have won this by default and ironically because of Brexit. As I said Brexit has delivered them a lorry load of Scottish seats but more significantly the hard-right leavers of Reform together with disenchanted Red Wall leavers have decimated the Tories. @odyssey06 et al are right - this is not a landslide for Labour but an implosion for Tories/SNP.
Jeremy Corbyn would have won this election for Labour - let us thank the good lord that didn't happen.