Post-election: Consulting with churches

Labour won the general election, with the largest majority of any party in modern history.

The composition of the Houses of Parliament looks very different from after the 2019 ‘Brexit’ election, when Boris Johnson secured a majority of 80 seats. Commentators at the time struggled to see how Labour could get back into power, but five years is a very long time in politics.

Labour’s campaign can be summarised in a single word: Change. Unlike 1997 though, when the party came to power on a wave of optimism, the overriding emotion of this election was cynicism. The electorate wanted to punish the Conservative Party, and they did so. Keir Starmer’s landslide was achieved with a lower popular vote than Jeremy Corbyn secured in 2019 when Labour suffered its worst result since 1935.