United Kingdom elections: Labour's devastating victory

LondonChange of political cycle in the United Kingdom after fourteen years of conservative governments. Keir Starmer's Labour Party has achieved a resounding victory in Thursday's general election. With the results of two constituencies still to be announced, Labour has secured 412 seats, well above the threshold for an absolute majority, which stands at 326. The party led by Starmer since spring 2020 has thus brought about a spectacular turnaround from the figures of the last election, held in 2019 (202 MPs), at the peak of Boris Johnson's popularity.

Labour has only increased its vote share by 2%. For their part, having lost 20% of their votes compared to the previous elections, the Conservatives' result is the worst in their 190-year history and, even so, they can feel relieved, as some polls predicted fewer than a hundred MPs. The still provisional data suggests they will obtain, at most, 122, although for now they have only reached 121.

has thus given a spectacular turn to the figures Tories only take 18%. A distortion that greatly harms the interests of Nigel Farage's Reform Party, which with 15% of the votes obtains only 0.6% of the parliamentarians (4 seats for 4.1 million votes), roughly the same figures as the Greens (4 MPs for 1.9 million votes). On the opposite side, the Liberal Democrats benefit greatly from this: with 13% of the votes, they have secured 11% of the representatives. This landscape will once again open the debate on reforming the system for allocating representatives in the House of Commons.

The reactions to the Tory disaster have not been long in coming. Shortly before five in the morning, local time, in his acceptance speech for his seat as an MP, the still Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, announced that he had already spoken to his successor to congratulate him. Mid-morning this Friday, he presented his resignation to Charles III after a brief speech in front of the door of number 10 Downing Street. In his last act as prime minister, Sunak apologized for the defeat, announced that he would resign as party leader as soon as the mechanism to find a successor had been put in place, boasted about the stability achieved in the last 20 months, and also stated, "It is important that, after 14 years in government, the Conservative Party rebuilds itself, but also that it assumes its crucial role in opposition in a professional and effective manner."

Events then accelerated, as the monarch immediately asked Keir Starmer to form a new government. Shortly after noon, local time, he arrived at Downing Street, thus becoming the fifth Labour prime minister in the country's history.

If the projection that the BBC is currently making is accurate, Labour will have 166 more MPs than the rest of the parties combined. Tony Blair's majority in 1997 was 179.

Addressing supporters from the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in central London, Starmer highlighted this morning what the main purpose of his government should be: "We have achieved it. Change begins now," he said. And he added: "A mandate like this carries great responsibility. Our task is, nothing more and nothing less, to renew the ideas that sustain this country. And together we must do it. We must undertake a national renewal so that whoever you are, no matter where you started in your life, if you work hard, if you play by the rules, this country should offer you good opportunities".

The elected premier has admitted the challenges that await him, however. "I tell you that it will not be easy to change the country, it is not like flipping a switch. It is hard work, patient work, determined work, and we will have to hurry. But even when things get difficult, I will remember this night. We said we would end the chaos. And we will. We said we would turn the page and today we begin a new chapter to rebuild our country".

The suicide of the 'Tories'

The devastating night for the conservatives, "difficult" in the words of Rishi Sunak, is, as has already been pointed out, the worst in the 190-year history of the party. To the point, for example, that it has not obtained any representation in Wales and only three in Scotland. Sunak's strategy of advancing the elections has proven to be suicidal. Up to twelve government ministers have lost their seats and no fewer than eight secretaries of state have also fallen in the cull. Among the most relevant casualties, the defeat of the ex-premier Liz Truss, who has lost her seat as a deputy in southwest Norfolk (eastern England) by only 630 votes, stands out particularly.

resignation, last year, of Nicola Sturgeon, the ongoing police investigation for alleged fraud in the party's finances affecting her husband, and with the change, Two different parties from 2019

Beyond the MPs, the British have chosen between different parties from those that ran in 2019. The Conservatives have moved away from the centre and have shifted to the right or far-right. Labour is also not Jeremy Corbyn's – he has revalidated his seat, now as an independent – who had excited young sectors of the population, but whom the majority of the country did not trust. The return of Labour to the centre, added to the exhaustion of fourteen years Tory, many of which were chaotic due to Brexit and continuous internal disputes, has resulted in a radical change of the islands' political landscape, just four and a half years after Boris Johnson achieved 365 MPs.

The other relevant piece of information of the night was the first entry into the Commons of the xenophobic and extremist Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party. It was the eighth time he had tried, so far without success. The group has achieved four representatives. And Farage's objective, as he expressed in his acceptance speech for the mandate, is to become the "true" opposition to Labour, to which he has almost declared war, assuring that "we are going for them".