STATE OF PLAY UK 7 July 2024: If you were wondering what all the fuss was about.....

On General Election UK polling day, 4 July 2024, the official exit poll released at 10pm UTC — predicting Labour would win 410 seats, securing a majority of 170 to the Conservatives’ 131 — revealed that it was all over bar the shouting.

The Independent UK interactive mapping clearly showed the Conservative Party rout and the Labour Party win by the next evening.

Click on image to enlarge

This 650 constituencies electoral map covering all of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, represents a seat distribution of 412 for Keir Starmer’s Labour Party representing a gain of 211 seats with a estimated effective working majority of 188 seats and 121 for Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party representing a loss of 244 seats.

While the remaining seats went to:

Liberal Democrats 71

Scottish National Party 9

Sinn Féin 7

Independents 6,

Democratic Unionist Party 5

Reform UK 5

Greens 4

Plaid Cynru 4

Social Democratic Party 2

Trade Unionist Voice 1

Alliance 1

Ulster Unionist Party 1

The Speaker 1

Workers Party of Britain 0

Heritage Party 0

Others 0

[U.K. Parliament, House of Commons Library, retrieved 7 July 2024]

To say that Labour supporters were jubilant would be an understatement, but it was mixed with a realisation that the coming weeks, months and possibly years would not suddenly wipe out all the economic, environmental & social devastation left behind by those just now booted out of national government.

In the words of one supporter.....

"Hallelujah and hosanna! (If not now, when?) At the stroke of 10, the country knew it had liberated itself from the most contemptible government in living memory. The wreckers, destroyers, bullies, incompetents, cronies and crass self-servers are gone. The Tory reign of error is over; they have no God-given right to rule after all. Torn down by the people’s revenge, they were felled by their own hubris. Since the days of tumbrils and defenestrations are over, the loss of seats and ministerial cars are small punishment for the suffering they deliberately inflicted on millions. The rise in infant mortality is only the most measurable indicator of the large numbers who have died needlessly during their great austerity."

They will skip away to City and company boardrooms unpunished; some prime architects of the worst cruelties had already escaped today’s final humiliation. George Osborne, chief villain, lives high on investment banking and podcasting – the axeman of the arts is now chair of trustees at the British Museum. Before the 2010 election he called accusations that he would cut public spending “a pack of lies”, then made an abattoir of health and education, bankrupted cities, denuded councils, stripped the courts, skinned defence and ripped benefits until food banks became the nation’s social security safety net. For the next 14 years the only growth was in public service decrepitude. That can be repaired in time, but Brexit caused irreparable harm, David Cameron putting the country at risk with a referendum to appease his party’s Europhobes.

Today, revel in this almost unbearably rare moment of pure political joy....

[The Guardian UK columnist Polly Toynbee. Friday 5th July 2024]

Postscript

5 July 2024 tweet from an interested party

Rishi Sunak has offered his resignation to The King but Keir Starmer has yet to be appointed as Prime Minister, so who's in charge? Me. pic.twitter.com/fWJ8tT5cpv

— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) July 5, 2024