Labour Landslide and SNP Slaughter: Key Takeaways from 2024 General Election

On Thursday 4 July, the UK’s general election polls marked a staggering turn in the history of British politics. 

After fourteen years and five elections, the Conservative Party has lost its majority and faces the repercussions of its biggest defeat ever, following a loss of 251 seats. Indeed, many high-profile members lost their seats, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, and Leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt. 

With one seat still to declare, Labour has won a landslide majority of 86 seats, and with a total of 412 seats. Perhaps the most important takeaway is that Starmer’s party has gained 211 seats from the previous election in 2019. 

Meanwhile, in Scotland, the headlines are dominated by the political weakening of the SNP. The party received a meagre nine seats, down from its previous 47 seats. The mass decrease saw the SNP lose its third largest party status to the Liberal Democrats who celebrated an increase of 63 seats from their eleven seat result in 2019.  The Liberal Democrats are, however, seeking to take one more seat, from the SNP, in the remote constituency of Inverness, Skye, and West Ross-Shire, which is yet to be declared due to an unexpected recount, with the result expected as early as Saturday. This is due to a discrepancy between the provisional number of counted votes and the total verified votes. An initial recount was called upon but was deemed to have not resolved the issue, leading to a second recount this Saturday. 

Two unexpected victors of this election were Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, who quadrupled their seats from zero to four, levelling with the Green Party, who increased their number of seats by three. 

In the St Andrews seat of North East Fife, the incumbent Liberal Democrats not only held onto the seat, but vastly increased their vote share. In the 2019 election, the Lib Democrats won North East Fife by only a slim majority, with just over 1,000 votes between them and the SNP. Five years later, incumbent MP, Wendy Chamberlain gained a majority of over 13,000. Chamberlain reportedly was confident of a victory, but was “shocked” by the size of it. Unlike most seats in the UK, the Liberal Democrats won an outright majority of votes in the constituency, gaining 54% of the vote. The party’s success in North East Fife formed part of their incredibly successful night nationwide, seeing their best result in a general election since 1923.

Upon his maiden speech as Prime Minister, Keir Starmer stated that “politics can be a force for good”, a heartwarming sentiment that marks a new era for British politics. 

Image from Wikimedia Commons