Labour has won an historic landslide in yesterday’s general election. The latest forecasts expect Keir Starmer to come to power with 410 seats, with the Tories reduced to a rump of 131. North of the border the SNP have faced disaster and are predicted to retain just six seats.
Perhaps the story of the night, though, will be how well Starmer does with a relatively small share of the vote: 36 per cent. If that number holds true for the rest of the results then that will be lower than the vote achieved by Corbyn in 2017.
The night started with the exit poll that lead to audible gasps in the Sky News studio:
Labour’s vote share is only up a couple of points across the country but Starmer has made real gains in Scotland, where the exit poll suggested that Labour’s vote was up by 18 per cent vs 2019. The SNP are the only victims of this and as it stands are on course to hold just six seats. John Swinney’s future is very much in doubt.
How many Brits bothered to vote? As it stands, turnout is sitting at 59 per cent – down by around 8 per cent since 2019. If these numbers bear out, we’re heading for the lowest turnout since 2005 and the third-lowest turnout this century.
We’ll be tracking the results across the night and updating this article as the seats are counted. Here’s the national picture:
And here’s the gap between Labour’s vote share and share of seats won:
Comments