UK under Labour [2024-2029(?)]

[Isgrimnur]

Labour sweeps to power

Keir Starmer is the United Kingdom’s new prime minister after sweeping away a 14-year era of Conservative rule by leading his center-left Labour party to a massive landslide election victory.
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Labour’s victory was seismic. It was very nearly unprecedented; only Tony Blair’s Labour Party has ever won more seats in an election.
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But Labour’s win was also fragile. The vote breakdown made clear that the election was as much, if not more, about the public’s anger towards the Conservatives as it was about excitement for Labour’s offer.
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In a sign of the potential fragility of Labour’s landslide, turnout is on track to be the lowest for more than 20 years. With all but two seats declared as of Friday afternoon, turnout was at 60% – down from 67.3% at the last election in 2019. If confirmed, it would be only the second time in more than a century that 40% of voters decided to skip the vote.
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And a line of high-profile figures – the faces of a 14-year era of power – stunningly lost their seats. Penny Mourdant, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Robert Buckland, Alex Chalk and others were dumped from power. The outgoing chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, narrowly clung on.

And the most sensational defeat was saved until last: shortly after 6 a.m. Friday, in one of the final seats to declare, former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her previously ultra-safe seat.
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Reform ... has ended up with five [seats].

Nigel Farage, the group’s leader who had tried seven times to win election to parliament, succeeded on the eight attempt and will become a noisy and trouble-making presence in Westminster.

[Kraken]

I find this encouraging in light of the overwhelming turn to the right happening elsewhere.

For those of us cheering from the cheap seats, is this mostly a reaction to Brexit and the ensuing poor economy?

[Max Peck]

I find this encouraging in light of the overwhelming turn to the right happening elsewhere.

Bear in mind that popular support for Labour hasn't actually increased all that much. The votes that the Conservatives lost didn't go to the more left-leaning parties. They largely went to Reform UK, or possibly weren't cast in the first place (voter turnout was lower than normal). This split in the vote on the right created opportunities for Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates to win seats that previously would have gone to the Conservatives, thanks to the all-or-nothing effect of first past the post, where the largest plurality of votes gets the win.

[Alefroth]

They largely went to Reform UK, or possibly weren't cast in the first place (voter turnout was lower than normal).

Really? The Tories lost 251 seats and Reform picked up 4. Even the Greens picked up 4.

[Alefroth]

Is Broin possible?

[Isgrimnur]

Britain will not rejoin EU in my lifetime, says Starmer

The Labour leader told reporters on Wednesday he did not think Britain would go back into any of the three blocs while he was alive, all but ruling out rejoining even if he wins a second term in office.
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Asked whether he could see any circumstances where the UK rejoined the single market or customs union within his lifetime, Starmer said: “No. I don’t think that that is going to happen. I’ve been really clear about not rejoining the EU, the single market or the customs union – or [allowing a] return to freedom of movement.”

He repeated, however, his view that Labour could achieve better trading arrangements with the EU in certain industries. “I do think we could get a better deal than the botched deal we got under Boris Johnson on the trading front, in research and development and on security,” he said.

[Isgrimnur]

[Max Peck]

They largely went to Reform UK, or possibly weren't cast in the first place (voter turnout was lower than normal).

Really? The Tories lost 251 seats and Reform picked up 4. Even the Greens picked up 4.

In 2019, Farage's Brexit Party polled about 2% of the popular vote, while in 2024 his Reform UK party polled about 14% of the popular vote. That increase in support almost certainly comes primarily at the expense of the Conservatives. This split in the vote on the right is a huge factor in the Labour landslide, courtesy of the FPTP electoral system -- in each riding, the party with the largest plurality wins the seat, even if they fall far short of a majority of the popular vote.

Paradoxically, this election outcome is, in part, due to a significant portion of the electorate shifting to the right (Reform UK is more extreme than the Conservatives) rather than a shift the left or centre.

[waitingtoconnect]

I find this encouraging in light of the overwhelming turn to the right happening elsewhere.

For those of us cheering from the cheap seats, is this mostly a reaction to Brexit and the ensuing poor economy?

Mostly it’s because the right wing have fractured. Basically a pro trump make Britain great again party has emerged. They tried to take over the main Republican equivalent party called the conservatives and failed. Then they ran against them and in usually right wing seats in many cases evenly split the vote allowing the left wing party, labour to win by default.

For example it was very common to see Labour 35%, Conservatives 30%, Reform (the new party) 20% in many usually conservative areas of the country.

If Reform take over the conservatives the way maga took over the republicans this is a false dawn and the Uk will be another maga stronghold in time.

It should be noted that the Conservative Party in the Uk drove inclusion in politics not the left and also embraced dei policies and there have been three female PMs, minority ministers and even a minority PM from that party. Many voters for the new party can’t cope with that.

[Daehawk]

Good for UK. If only the other half of our voters had a brain.

[waitingtoconnect]

They didn’t win big. Third parties meant they won. They actually lost vote share and had the conservative movement been unified it would have won.

The right wing vote was at 50% but was fractured between the centre right liberals, the right wing conservatives and the far right reform party.

Labor only got 34% of the vote. Bit like us they use first past the post so the one with the highest number of votes wins. They don’t need a majority.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nglegege1o

Also now the republicans are bullying them to help out their allies in reform. Relations could be about to break down completely. The world will change massively if trump is elected.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ar ... ear-weapon

What Vance is saying is identical to what Farange says about the Uk today. Our allies could well be bullied into the same situation as we are in. We aren’t above overthrowing democratic governments.

[Holman]

Is this our general UK thread? Because right now UK racists are attacking hotels where asylum-seekers are being housed.

[Holman]

And, naturally, Elon Musk is promoting the fascist line that this kind of violence is just decent Brits protecting themselves from dangerous foreigners who've come to replace them.

[Max Peck]

Labour launches bid to get rid of hereditary peers

Plans to get rid of the remaining hereditary peers from the House of Lords have been set out by the government, marking the biggest shake-up of Parliament in a quarter of a century.

Abolishing the 92 seats reserved for hereditary peers - who inherit their titles through their families - was one of Labour's general election promises.

The aim is to finish reforms introduced by the last Labour government, which in 1999 revoked the 700-year-old right of all hereditary peers to sit in the Lords, leaving just 92 as a compromise with the Conservatives.

One of the 92, a former leader of the Lords, Tory Lord Strathclyde, condemned the move as a "high-handed, shoddy political act".

Speaking in the Lords chamber, he argued it should be peers who rarely took part in debates who were removed, not hereditary ones, many of whom he said were very active participants and "some of our most senior and experienced" members.

Lords leader Baroness Smith noted that the measure had featured in Labour's manifesto and in the King’s Speech, which outlined the government's programme of laws.

She said there was nothing in the legislation to stop hereditary peers who were removed being nominated for life peerages in future.

She also observed that none of the remaining hereditary peers were women.