What does this election result mean for the future?
As the dust settles on the 2024 British election, let’s take a look at how this result will shape a new era.
So it’s all over. What a ride it's been. For those standing, campaigning or even just following, there is a universal relief that this protracted, sobering and frankly weird election campaign is over.
You will have seen the headline: a Labour landslide and a Conservative collapse, with a new era in British politics decidedly ushered in.
But hidden amongst the figures, the next episode of the soap opera is already in pre-production. Let’s take a peek inside, and see what last night’s results will mean for the future.
A new elected dictatorship
Labour’s margin of victory, with 291 more seats than his nearest rival, is one of the biggest in British political history. Not even Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives commanded such a big majority in the government.
Such are the dynamics of the British political system that once a party is elected with a strong majority, the PM effectively finds themselves with total power. The scale of Starmer’s parliamentary majority grants him the ability to carry out pretty much any change he so desires. This is a Bruce Almighty, Peter-Parker-to-Spiderman level of transformation.
To say the country is ready for change is an understatement – it needs it.
The paradox is that Starmer has been granted this ability to make sweeping, generational change on the premise that he won’t.
But it’s quite hard to foresee a situation where Starmer, or any leader for that matter, would let this opportunity slip and resist this temptation. Imagine Starmer as Norman Osborn, getting pulled in by the mask of the Green Goblin – a similar situation.
And speaking of self destruction, we can’t forget that Starmer victory wasn’t all his own doing.
Tory decimation – and it’s not over
You didn’t have to be Andrew Marr to foresee the Conservatives losing power, but the scale of the trouncing is certainly unprecedented. It is the worst electoral performance in the party’s 190 year history.
And there is almost a sense of Shakespearean circularity to it. After the lawbreaking, the lies, the violation of democratic norms and the batshit insanity, retribution has finally been delivered.
Some of the most prominent figures of the past few years have been booted out. Liz Truss, first slain by a lettuce, has now been given a resounding two-fingered salute by the people of South-West Norfolk, who overturned her monumental 26,000-vote majority.
Other casualties include Jacob Rees-Mogg, Penny Mourdant, Grant Shapps and Johnny Mercer. Others squeezed through on diminished majorities, like now ex-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and ex-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, with the latter already drawing the battle lines for another bloody civil war between the right and left of the party.
This defeat spells a new beginning, rather than the end, of Conservative party chaos – especially with the return of Nigel Farage.
An archaic electoral system
We have to talk about Reform UK. As it stands, they have received more than 4.1 million votes, making them the third-most popular party. Across the country they took votes from both Labour and the Conservatives, and were a sharp expression of dissatisfaction against the establishment.
However, their massive vote share has returned them only 5 MPs. This is part of a wider story, where on the night the undemocratic nature of our voting system, first past the post, was clearly exposed. In comparison, the Liberal Democrats won 600,000 fewer votes than Reform, but have 14-times more MPs (71). The Green Party and Plaid Cymru both received 4 seats, despite the Greens receiving almost 1.8 million more votes.
Labour’s 33 percent vote share is the smallest that has ever won a majority – and they’ve won a landslide.
Labour’s 33 percent vote share is the smallest that has ever won a majority – and they’ve won a landslide.
For years now, there have been calls for the UK to adopt a more democratic electoral system, where power is distributed in proportion to a party’s national popularity, rather than rewarding parties with concentrated regional support (Labour, Tories, Lib Dems).
A common argument in favour of first past the post is that it shuts out more extremist parties, like Reform. But this ignores a central reason why people vote for parties like Reform in the first place – they feel politics is not working for them. First past the post is plastering over the faults of British politics with an undemocratic voting system, rather than addressing them head on.
A future undecided
Unsurprisingly, but perhaps annoyingly if you’ve read this far hoping for an answer, the future is very much up in the air. To say the country is ready for change is an understatement – it needs it, in too many ways to list in this supposedly brief newsletter.
One glance across the channel and another across the pond will tell you that even the world’s most reputed democracies are not immune from the rise of neo-fascism. If it can happen in France and the US, what’s to stop it happening in Britain?
So what’s at stake, you ask? Nothing much. Only the future of democracy and the stability of civil society in Britain. Yikes. What a chipper way to end this series.
On a brighter note, at least we’re not ruled by billionaires anymore…