Election 2024: Catching up? Here’s five things you need to know

Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour has romped to a landslide victory in the General Election and will oust the Tories from power after 14 years.

In a victory speech in Central London this morning, the Labour leader said that the “country had spoken” and “change starts now”.

The result for the Tories marks the biggest electoral collapse on record after the party won an 80-seat majority just five years ago under Boris Johnson.

It was night littered with casualties for some of the most recognisable names in the Tory party, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt.

Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats meanwhile were on course to win around 61 seats, the SNP vote plummeted, and Reform UK guzzled up votes but undershot initial predictions.

If you missed all the action, here’s five things you need to know: 

Labour lived up to the polls and delivered a landslide

There were comments on the party’s vote share and the helpful influence of Reform, but Keir Starmer’s Labour party ultimately delivered a resounding victory and hoovered up seats across all corners of the UK.

Making his victory speech at the Tate Modern in London, Starmer offered the “sunlight of hope” and pledged change for the country after 14 years of Conervative rule.

“And now we can look forward, walk into the morning, the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day, shining once again, on a country with the opportunity after 14 years to get its future back,” he said.

It was a bloodbath for the Tory Big beasts 

Jeremy Hunt clung on to his Surrey seat but scores of his former cabinet colleagues were ousted in a bloodbath of some of the biggest names in Conservative politics.

The incumbent Chancellor, who has been the MP for South West Surrey since 2005, won the newly-created seat of Godalming and Ash by around 800 votes after stiff competition from the Liberal Democrat Paul Follows.

The result came after a record-equalling amount of cabinet ministers were ousted in the elcetion over the course of the night, including Grant Shapps, the defence secretary; Alex Chalk, the Lord Chancellor; Gillian Keegan, the education secretary; and Penny Mourdant, who had been talked about as a potential challenger for the leadership of the Tory party after the election. 

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former cabinet minister, also lost his seat.

The Tory heartlands have collapsed

The scale and significance of the figures ousted from parliament points to a collapse of support for the Tories in their traditional home counties heartlands.

Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats stole scores of seats from the Conservative party in the so-called Blue Wall, in a vindication of the party’s targeted electoral strategy through the campaign. 

It capped off one of the Liberal Democrats’ most successful election campaigns as the party looked on track to win more than 60 seats.

Nigel Farage’s Reform UK shook the political landscape but undershot initial projections

As the exit poll landed last night Reform UK was projected to land a remarkable 13 seats in parliament.

While it now looks likely to undershoot that number, Reform’s performance and the scale of its vote share has unsettled the landscape and could influence the direction the Tory party now takes in opposition.

Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson and Rupert Lowe all won their seats for the party and Reform came in second ahead of the Tories in a number of seats. In the first two declarations of the night, Reform UK counted a vote share of around 30 per cent and landed in second place.

Rise of the smaller parties

One crucial element of tonight was the evident rise of the smaller parties, from the resurgence of the Liberal Democrats to the success of Reform UK.

It’s an indication the UK’s usually steady two-party structure could be fracturing in the wake of tensions post-Brexit and over deeply emotive crises such as Gaza.

Similarly some big Labour names saw their majorities cut back by independent candidates – such as Sir Keir in Holborn and St Pancras, Jess Philipps in Birmingham Yardley and Wes Streeting in Ilford North. While Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth lost his seat in what’s being put down to rising tensions within the party’s support base over Israel’s and Gaza.

Labour also avoided their past issue of piling up votes in safe seats, such as inner cities, and instead delivered an efficient spread of votes, winning enough voters in enough places to deliver that majority.

It does mean, however, this support is characterised as broad rather than deep, meaning, like Boris Johnson’s 80-seat majority that did not land him a decade in power, increasingly changeable voters could choose to move away again.