The U.K. General Election has seen the ruling party crushed in what has been the worst wipeout since WW2. Despite the coming-and-going of the Number 10 residents, the Tory Party was in power over the last 14 years. Today, we’ll discuss the Brits turning their backs on the Tories, the British electoral system making their plight even worse, and the new ruling party, Labour, led by Sir Keir Rodney Starmer taking over the reins of power. Let’s roll. Tory Wipeout The U.K. has a bicameral parliament consisting of two houses: the Lords and the Commons. The members of the former one are unelected and mostly include the retired political grandees. The Commons, though, is essentially the actual 650-seat parliament. To be eligible to form a new Cabinet, the winning party needs to win at least 326 seats. At the 2019 election, the Tories won 365 seats vs. 202 seats scooped up by the center-left Labour. Yesterday, the Conservatives lost almost 150 of their seats down to a meager 122 in what was their worst defeat in modern history in terms of the losses. Over the night, Labour has grown into a dominant presence on the British political scene. In what was a typical fair election in a democratic country, the party secured a whopping 412 constituencies, or 63% of the total number of seats up for grabs. They just fell short of their 1997 record-breaking performance when the Tony Blair-led Labour hoovered up a landslide 418 seats and went on to govern the U.K. throughout the 2000s. The result is eerily reminiscent of the United Russia electoral wipeouts, which isn’t exactly typical of the U.K. where the two major parties have been traditionally locked in a closely contested battle, with several minor parties trailing by what looked like an eternity. This time, however, the Tories have been trounced into a heavily outnumbered opposition. We’ll broach the political reasons later, but first let’s focus on the country’s electoral system, which is largely to blame for the outcome. Each of the 650 constituencies has several candidates running for office in a winner-take-all fashion. It doesn’t matter if you end up scoring 35% or, say, 30%. A win is a win. Whenever a party’s popularity starts to decline, let alone slump, this slumping backfires all over the map. You shed a couple of percentage points and get pipped by your opponent—you lose it all. The election can also be affected by a spoiler candidate that you'll wind up splitting your votes with, both of you losing to the hopeful that hasn't been impacted by the spoiler vote. Another important factor was the rise of Reform UK led by the eccentric Nigel Farage. It’s a far-right populist party, established in 2018 as the Brexit Party advocating an immediate no-deal Brexit. After Brexit was completed, the party began campaigning for a stricter immigration policy, lower taxes, and the reversal of the net-zero environmental targets. Ahead of the 2024 election, Reform UK’s rising popularity was largely at the expense of the Tories as the right-leaning voters could switch to a far-right force, something the Labour supporters apparently couldn’t. But because of the electoral system we’ve just described, Reform UK only managed to scoop up a couple of seats. True, the party candidates came second in multiple constituencies outperforming the Tories, but again, it’s the winner-take-all-system. Hence Reform UK’s measly four seats despite the party ranking third in the national vote count. However, these votes were mostly taken away from the Tories, which resulted in both parties’ archenemy, Labour, sweeping to power. Yet, if it’s any consolation, Nigel Farage has finally made it into the Commons at the eighth time of asking. Previously, he was the member of the European Parliament, where the election is based on proportional representation. His party’s showing produced a spoiler effect. In countries like the U.S., voters take it seriously and rarely vote for the minor parties. But the Brits prove to be more flexible and vote with their hearts, even though it may mean victory for their nemesis, which was exactly the case. The Tory drubbing led to the downfall of some Conservative big names. The U.K. is a parliamentary democracy where cabinet ministers are selected from among the MPs. Yesterday, many of the current cabinet ministers lost their seats, including the defense secretary Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt, the now-former Leader of the House of Commons. Liz Truss, the ill-starred former PM who stepped down in 2022 following a 50-day stint at No. 10, has been voted out of the parliament, too. And so has Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose anachronistic style and mannerisms earned him the moniker “Honourable Member for the 18th century.” But it wasn’t the Tories’ worst possible nightmare still, as PM Rishi Sunak has retained his seat. Now a short announcement! Another party to have enjoyed a “record-breaking” night are the Liberal Democrats. They’ve been around for quite a while as the third party harvesting the votes of the Brits equally unhappy about the Tories and Labour. The LibDems’ platform has included the European integration, the opposition to Brexit, a market economy, and personal freedoms. At the 2019, the party only won 11 seats, but yesterday’s Tory wipeout saw them jump to a respectable 71 seats in the new parliament. Notably, the LibDems won much fewer votes than Reform UK, and yet, the ones they did converted into a much larger representation. The success largely owes to their tactic of voting for the party in constituencies with lower Tory winning odds. The Reform UK voters, by contrast, were ideologically driven, which took a toll on both their pick and the Tories. In Scotland, the constituencies were mostly contested by Labour and the SNP advocating the country’s independence. In 2019, the nationalists won 48 out the 59 possible seats, but this time they were steamrolled by the resurgent Labour. Their seat count plummeted to just nine. Besides, Labour lost their four core constituencies to independent pro-Palestinian independent candidates, which means the pro-Palestinian cause has spilled over the confines of the cyberspace and cost the liberal-leaning pro-Israel Labour the seats in the real world. But the U.K.'s Israel policy is unlikely to change. The majority of Labour are supportive of the Jewish state One of the biggest takeaways from this election is that the British electoral system has a hard time adapting to a new reality. Constituency-based systems work best in a two-party environment. But the U.K. of 2024 has at least four major political forces, which leads to a salient imbalance between the number of votes won and the number of seats secured. That’s exactly what happened yesterday. Although Labour has won fair and square, they should’ve racked up much fewer seats. Reform UK's seat tally would, on the contrary, be much higher under the proportional representation. Besides, in many constituencies, the Labour candidates merely edged their rivals. Moreover, the victorious Labour MPs will now be worried about their constituency-specific opponents, whether LibDems or Reform UK. It means that to retain their seats, these MPs will be insistent on different agendas. Sir Keir Starmer has won an overwhelming majority of seats, which seemingly gives his party enough wiggle room. In reality, though, he’ll have a hard time dealing with various factions of his huge parliamentary representation and trying to factor in their interests. Why That Bad? Okay, with the electoral system sorted out, the question is: Why did the Tory support suffer such a nosedive? The Conservatives used to be referred to as the “natural party of government.” They seemed reliable enough to be put in charge of them currently. But all of a sudden, that trust slid to a dismal 24%. How come? Well, there’s a lot to be considered. The once “natural party of government” has recently devolved into a party of chaos. In the early 2010s, the Tories were doing fine. They won the general election, but having fallen short of the majority, they had to form a coalition with the LibDems. PM David Cameron wanted to have the full command. In order to win over the far-right and Eurosceptic vote, he pledged to hold a Brexit referendum. The pledge panned out, and in 2015, the Tories secured the coveted majority. In 2016, they held the referendum, and much to the surprise of literally everyone, including the PM himself, most Brits voted “Leave.” That was followed by a really rough patch for the Conservatives. Since David Cameron wasn’t supportive of leaving the E.U., he stepped down and was taken over by Theresa May who then oversaw a rocky negotiation with the E.U. In particular, she had to make sure there wasn’t going to be a physical border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. For decades, Northern Ireland had been an embittered battleground between the pro-Irish Catholics and the pro-British protestants. The deal between the warring sides implied that there would be no physical border. To make matters worse, both the Tories and the other political parties were divided on the procedural aspects of Brexit, including the U.K.–E.U. deal and the future format. In March 2019, the tensions reached a point where the lawmakers voted on the eight Brexit options. All of the scenarios failed. The party was then led by Boris Johnson who had to deal with COVID and the Ukraine war. On Jan. 2, 2020, Johnson jubilantly tweeted, “This is going to be a fantastic year for Britain.” It wasn’t. Boris had to resign in 2022 after the news stories surfaced showing Johnson and his colleagues and aides throwing lavish parties while the rest of the U.K. had endured the lockdown ordeal. Another reason for the ouster was Boris Johnson promoting the then-MP Chris Pincher who was later accused of sexual assault of which the PM was fully aware. The Tories then elected Liz Truss to succeed Johnson. But her spell at No. 10 proved disastrous. To reiterate, yesterday, Liz Truss lost her parliamentary seat in a super-favorable constituency. During her short-lived stint as PM, Truss came up with a tax-cutting plan that would’ve bored a huge hole in the government budget. The plan sent everyone into panic mode. The International Monetary Fund issued a critical statement bashing the move as if the U.K. were a third-world country. That’s when the Tory number saw a rapid decline while the Labour figures jumped to 50%. Seven weeks into her stint, Liz Truss stepped down as the country’s shortest-serving PM. The Daily Star tabloid began live-streaming an iceberg lettuce next to a photo of Liz Truss comparing the plant’s shelf life to Truss’s premiership. The lettuce ended up outlasting her. Finally, it was Rishi Sunak’s turn to move into No. 10. Although he wasn’t implicated in any bombshell rows, he didn’t do much to fix the Tories’ standing, either. One of his most notable steps was his plan to send the immigrants to Rwanda. The plan was to avoid the processing of asylum-seeking illegal aliens’ applications in the U.K. Instead, they were supposed to be jetted to Rwanda as their final destination. Rwanda agreed to be paid for the move, but the British opposition railed against it. Since Rwanda is an unsafe country, rerouting the refugees there was deemed inhumane. That’s all there is to Sunak’s track record. The string of incidents and failures has left the Brits gutted. The economy was stagnant, the country’s international reputation was sinking, not least of all because of Brexit, and the biggest news stories had to do with cabinet ministers and MPs getting into a mess. Labour had been leading the polls since late 2021. Following Liz Truss’s resignation, their numbers skyrocketed. Under the current legislation, PM Rishi Sunak could’ve scheduled the election for January 2025, but in late May, he seemed to have folded and slated the vote for Jul. 4. He must’ve seen the Tory plight was unrecoverable, and chose to call it a day much earlier. The Labour Rule So, what’s now in store for the U.K.? How will the new ruling party govern the country? What’s going to change? First and foremost, the U.K. already has a new PM. The country doesn’t dally with all those transfers of power, swearing-in ceremonies, etc. The winner arrives at Buckingham Palace, the king gives them the nod, and they then drive to 10 Downing St. to assume office. Sir Keir Starmer has already moved into his new residence. To secure the electoral win, Starmer moved toward centrism. His predecessor Jeremy Corbyn was a lifelong left-winger, much like Bernie Sanders in the U.S., and his radical stances scared away the moderate voters. In 2019, Corbyn resigned as Labour leader. In early 2024, he was expelled from the party for allegedly fanning out the anti-Semitic sentiment. Yesterday, nonetheless, Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected MP as an independent candidate. Labour fielded an opposition against him in Islington North, but the voters supported Corbyn. Keir Starmer, in turn, was big on making Labour dethrone the Tories as the “natural party of government.” The party campaign emphasized their ability to govern the country and its being better-equipped for the job than the scandal-ridden and embattled Conservatives. The message seems to have hit home. Brexit remains a hot-button issue for British politics. Although the Brits backed it, most are profoundly upset about the exit strategy and outcome. It hasn’t boosted the national economy. No lucrative agreements have managed to outmatch the European market. But Labour has no plan of rejoining the E.U. Starmer recently confirmed it by saying the U.K. would never make a U-turn on his watch. The thing is, the country has been exhausted by the recent Brexit. An attempt to overturn the decision may descend into years of drama, parliamentary tussles, and bureaucratic hell. Besides, the referendum took place less than a decade ago, and even though people have been increasingly disappointed by the outcome, overriding the popular will doesn’t sound like a smart move. Importantly, the E.U. itself isn’t necessarily longing for the U.K.’s return. The E.U. was unhappy with Brexit, and the negotiations took a toll on Europe, too. They’re faring quite well without the U.K. After all, the Brits committed to it, and so be it. As for domestic policy, Labour are likely to be reading cautiously. Above all, they’ll have to fix the fabled National Health Service, amously beloved by the generations of British people. That’s a publicly funded healthcare system offering free services. The trouble is, arranging an appointment can take forever, and the 14-year Tory rule has done little to improve it. As a center-left party, Labour are likely to prioritize government-funded healthcare. In addition, they are big on the green energy policy and public safety. These are all very complex matters that’ll take time to fix. But there are certain things Keir Starmer is planning to wade into right out of the gate. First, he seeks to repeal the Safety of Rwanda Bill. Second, he’s looking to lift the ban on the new onshore wind farms that ostensibly had to do with interfering with the local landscapes. As for the foreign policy, the key question is the Ukraine support. Despite the U.K.’s dwindling international standing, the British government assumed an unwavering stance on the Russia–Ukraine war. The then-PM Boris Johnson was of Zelenskyy’s biggest allies, and the U.K. keeps supplying Ukraine with a substantial amount of military aid. The country was also among the first to allow Ukraine to strike targets in Russia using its weapons. The British policy won’t budge. Keir Starmer has already announced he’ll abide by Rishi Sunak’s vows and keep aiding Ukraine militarily. Importantly, one of the first phone calls the newly elected PM is expected to have will be the one with Zelenskyy. An Overarching Trend The U.K. General Election results have been pretty much in line with the recent Western trend where people are increasingly dissatisfied with the current authorities regardless of their political line. Sure enough, in other European countries, it typically leads to a surge in the far-right sentiment, as was the case with the National Rally winning the first round of the French elections. However, the U.K. was long governed by the Conservatives trying to adapt to the far-right forces. This era is now in the books. Labour’s yesterday triumph has revolutionized the country’s political landscape. Following their 14-year stint as the opposition, they almost matched Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide win that to the party’s 13-year rule. Now it’s up to Labour to prove the Brits right. They know there’ll be no mercy. Given the overwhelming majority they’ve just won, they’ll be solely responsible for Britain’s development. As for the Tories, they’ll have to be figuring out whether they should try and reclaim their image as professional pols fit for the job or they’ll be better off drifting further toward the far-right and radicalizing. The next election is slated for 2029, and so, the Conservatives will have plenty of time to think it through. See you tomorrow!