The polls weren’t wrong. Not that anyone thought they were. But… well, again, they weren’t wrong.
Rishi Sunak and the Tories were wiped out on Thursday, when UK voters handed Conservatives their worst ever election loss.
“Worst ever” is really — really — saying something in this context. The Tories aren’t just the oldest political party in the UK. They have a solid claim on being the oldest political party anywhere. Depending on how you define “success,” they’re also the world’s most successful surviving political party.
But it all came to a crashing halt this week. Exit polls suggested Labour will claim 410 Commons seats to Conservatives’ 131. That’d be the worst showing for the Tories in 200 years, give or take.
This was, of course, a foregone conclusion. But the scope of the Tory loss was nevertheless astounding. The result appeared to fall slightly short of the “extinction-level” event some feared, but the rout raises serious questions about the party’s long-term viability all the same.
14 years of Conservative rule were uniquely imbecilic. Against the odds, the Tories managed to one-up themselves on the dolt-o-meter in three successive governments, culminating in Liz Truss’s fleeting premiership, which stands as a feat of inanity with no modern historical precedent. Sunak’s competent enough, but by the time he moved into No. 10 is was far, far too late.
The reversal of fortunes is remarkable. Just five years ago — less, actually — the Tories ran away to their largest victory since Margaret Thatcher. Now, the very existence of the party hangs in the balance. Jeremy Hunt looked poised to lose. Grant Shapps too.
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party was projected to win 13 seats. If that’s accurate, it’d be a better-than-expected result. Although the Labour landslide makes for a stark juxtaposition with Europe’s shift to the far-right, Reform’s outperformance is a reminder that the undercurrent’s still there in the UK.
It seems very likely that the Tories will need to align themselves more with Reform’a strain of populist conservatism if they want to rebuild and compete. As one UK pollster put it, “Much of the damage to the Conservative Party is being done by Reform, even if it is Labour that proves to be the beneficiary.”
It’s also worth noting that the SNP underperformed badly, claiming a mere 10 seats, a fraction of what they held five years ago.
Bottom line: Labour went from its worst showing in a century to one of its best performances ever, driving the Tories to the brink of an existential abyss in the process.
“To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party — thank you,” Keir Starmer said. World, meet the new prime minister.
The SNP was similarly crushed. Woe to be an incumbent, I guess? Or were Scottish voters rethinking independence?
14 years of your agenda destroying the country and, eventually, even the average voter will catch on…
But I don’t know how Labour can really undo the vicious circle. No one middle class in the UK will be happy to pay taxes and, apparently, millionaires are already exiting London at high velocity…
The 2 strengths I can think of – the higher educational system, with Oxbridge and the University of London various branches still world famous. And, biotech. I’m not super plugged into that part of tech but apparently the UK has an edge there.
It’s slim to rebuild an industrial base for a 67M people country…
Labour was elected with some pretty big/unrealistic expectations to fix the economy, inflation, energy costs, the NHS, immigration and military/defense- without raising taxes or having a specific plan.
Good luck!
Yeah, sneer as you will. I know it stings. You’re a conservative. Even though you’re in the US, you can’t help but feel a little residual nausea at the prospect of your ideological brethren getting buried under an epic, once-in-200-years landslide. You’ll get over it, though.
Good luck!
I hate to be abrasive, but come on. How much are UK voters supposed to take? It’s been 14 years. This idea, cultivated in America and in the UK since Reagan/Thatcher, that no matter how suboptimal the outcomes, we should all just blindly vote conservative because anything liberal/socialist is a one-way ticket to hell is pernicious. Particularly considering that some of (most of, even) the most popular US government programs are socialist, even if we don’t call them that.
And the Mayflower Compact, signed at Plymouth Rock by some of our earliest colonists was a promise to share our worldly goods, our food and shelter, for the benefit of the entire community was decidedly very Christian and certainly socialist (even if they/we wouldn’t have called it that). We must remember that whether we admit it or not Jesus was a pacifist and a socialist. Loaves and fishes, folks, loaves and fishes and turn the other cheek.
I am skeptical- but I am certainly no fan of the Tories, either. The Tories had more than enough time to fix these problems, which unbelievably got worse under their leadership.
I love England- and sincerely hope that my skepticism is proven wrong.