Good afternoon. As I’m writing to you, Nigel Farage is on a TV about 12 feet from my head in a striplit office, shouting “BORING, BORING, BORING” for reasons which were not immediately obvious. It’s making a vein in my right temple throb in time with his “ing” sounds, and I’m wondering if it would be weird to work in sunglasses.
I say all this to explain that this will be a pretty short email: I really think dork machismo about staying awake for elections is the worst kind of dork machismo there is, but it’s time to go to bed. Still. It was exciting, wasn’t it? More on how to grapple with that feeling, and how the dust is settling at the end of day one of a Labour government, after the headlines.
One other thing – this is the last Election Edition for this cycle – I really hope you’ve enjoyed it, or found it useful, or at least opened it occasionally to check the debate schedule. Nimo Omer and I will of course be bringing you plenty of Westminster coverage in First Edition, our daily 7am newsletter. Just click here to sign up.
What happened today
Labour | Keir Starmer was formally appointed as Britain’s first Labour prime minister since 2010, and in his first address to the nation from outside No10 said that “the work of change begins immediately”.
Conservatives | Rishi Sunak confirmed his resignation as prime minister and apologised to the country, saying: “I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss”. He said he would step aside as Conservative leader once a plan was in place to select his successor.
Cabinet | Appointments are now under way, with senior Labour figures including Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and David Lammy already announced. Follow the latest on Andrew Sparrow’s live blog.
Analysis: ‘The sunlight of hope, pale at first’
Here’s a strange thing about this election for those who wanted more than anything to see the back of the Conservatives: for one reason or another, and even with a Labour landslide in the bag, many of them have felt edgy. And there are good reasons for a bit of unease.
You’ll have heard most of them by now. Reform is undoubtedly on the rise; Labour’s support is wide but shallow; the Conservatives did not lose as many seats as the most dramatic MRP polls; Keir Starmer’s programme for government is not widely viewed as inspiring. An electoral system built for two big parties looks to be creaking under pressure from a multiparty democracy that it cannot adequately represent. (More on that below.) It’s hard to know where all of this will lead, but some of the outcomes are ominous – and we don’t have to look very far beyond our own borders to see them.
It was some mix of those factors that left many unmoved by an exit poll that showed the Tories on course for the smallest number of seats in their history. Personally, as the exit poll came through, I couldn’t take my eyes off the (wrong) Reform number of 13. There have been few more unanswerable demonstrations of the power of expectations management than the way the MRP projections shifted how people think about this election, and left some underwhelmed by obviously exceptional events.
Through the night, though, there was some sort of shift. Obviously a lot of this will depend on your politics, and all of these things might be totally disagreeable to you – but some people got excited at (now education secretary) Bridget Phillipson’s victory speech very early on, which felt like the first formal-ish acknowledgment of victory; others as the Tory dominos started to fall, with speeches from Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt cementing the reality. Or, on the other hand, it was Jeremy Corbyn’s victory and the defeat of four Labour candidates by pro-Palestinian independents, or the remarkable success of four Green candidates, in all of the party’s target seats.
I’m pretty basic, so I went route one, and found my typing getting vastly more energised as Jacob Rees-Mogg fell even as Labour crossed the majority line. Liz Truss was almost too much – an event so giddy and ludicrous that it immediately became clear that this was the absolutely inevitable way for her political career to end.
Today, Keir Starmer’s been trying to dissociate himself from all this intangible excitement, at the same time as leaving it a little room to breathe. “The sunlight of hope, pale at first,” he said, sounding like he meant the reservation very strongly. As he also said today, with the same muted and vaguely religious sort of lyricism, he believes that the best way to restore public faith in politics is to do things in realistic increments: “This wound, this lack of trust, can only be healed by actions, not words.”
That’s Starmer’s vision of hope, and it’s one that has helped him win this election. To many of his critics, it’s not enough. Today, though, as the dust settled on the night before, it felt like he has left space for a remarkably wide range of people to be hopeful, even if they quite strongly disagreed about why. Even the Tories are imagining a better future.
What’s at stake
While Labour’s victory will have significant consequences for policy almost immediately, political scientist Paula Surridge argues that it also tells us worrying things about fragmentation, and how the electoral system needs to change. “The relationship between the number of seats won by the parties and their vote shares was one of the most disproportionate ever,” she writes for the Guardian, pointing out that the Lib Dems got 71 seats on 12.2% of the vote against Reform getting four on 14.3%.
She goes on:
The election had the lowest combined party share for Labour and the Conservatives since 1945. The combined effect of the Lib Dem recovery, the Reform UK vote share, and an increase for the Green party, as well as a higher than usual vote for independents of various kinds. This fragmentation has been a feature of British electoral politics for at least two decades but in earlier elections different parts were less successful, masking the overall impact. It is why the electoral system is creaking …
Whatever the next parliament brings, understanding the different party competitions happening within different geographic and demographic groups will be critical for when we do this all again.
Winner of the day
Labour’s Sam Carling, 22, who becomes the first MP born in the 21st century. Keeps his room nice and tidy, too, and he’s so nice to his granny when she comes over.
Loser of the day
This is hard because there are a great many obvious ones and I’m trying to surprise you. What about the lettuce? Can I say the lettuce? Gigs are definitely drying up for the lettuce now, that works. Can I go to bed when I send this?
Unanswered questions of the day
Was Michael Portillo up for Truss? If he was, did he know that the 26% swing against Truss and towards Labour was an all-time record, and too big to be recorded on Jeremy Vine’s enormous swingometer? Did he experience the complicated mixture of pride, nostalgia and regret that a retired Olympian does when someone finally breaks their longstanding record?
Trite observation made about all departing prime ministers* which it is time to retire of the day
“We’re finally seeing the prime minister’s decency and human touch today. If only they had found this tone sooner, everything might have been different”.
Oh yeah? Are they also great in small groups, but it somehow doesn’t translate to the campaign trail? Blow me down. I guess what we’ve learned is that it’s easier to seem approachable and generous when you’re admitting you failed and wishing your successor luck than when you’re setting out a plan to send families to Rwanda!
*Excluding Johnson and Truss, obviously
Headline of the day
Courtesy of the Daily Telegraph. I know it’s a deliberate ruse at this point – any remaining doubt evaporated when columnist Allister Heath published a piece with the headline “Armageddon is upon us, and Britain will never be the same again” a couple of weeks ago – but I absolutely respect it and it works.
Quote of the day
You say you’re not counting your chickens. What kind of chickens might they be? What kind of chickens would you like to see?
The BBC’s Clive Myrie to Angela Rayner at 10.09pm, who said silver-spangled Hamburg. Just kidding, she said “Well, look, I’ve been dealing with” etc etc …
Number of the day
***
98
Number of seats in which Reform came second. 89 of them were won by Labour. And there are 180 constituencies where, had all the Reform votes gone to Conservative candidates instead, the Conservatives would have won.
Dubious photo opportunity of the day
Here’s Barmy Brunch, who won 211 votes, and a recently unemployed Old Etonian. Barmy Brunch is on the right.
And one last dubious photo opportunity of the day for luck
At his constituency speech, Rishi Sunak congratulated his opponents “on the energetic and very good-natured campaigns that they have run.” Just behind him is Niko Omilana, a YouTuber, holding up a great big L throughout.
Read more
Listen to this
Today in Focus | Labour’s landslide victory
Labour have won a resounding victory making Keir Starmer prime minister with a thumping majority. Helen Pidd tells the story of the night with the help of Guardian reporters from around the country
What’s on the grid
Tonight | Ministerial appointments continue.
Tonight, 8pm | BBC Question Time is in London.
Tomorrow | Do anything you like.
• This article was amended on 8 July 2024. Reform UK came second in 98 seats, of which 89 were won by Labour. An earlier version incorrectly gave these figures, respectively, as 103 and 93.
