In Focus: Labour’s 2024 Landslide: A Fragile Victory
| Published date | 01 September 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058241282456 |
| Author | Benjamin D. Hennig |
| Date | 01 September 2024 |
24POLITICAL INSIGHT•SEPTEMBER 2024
In Focus
‘We did it!’ – Keir Starmer’s
jubilant victory speech
was not a muted
one, given that the
parliamentary majority that his Labour Party
achieved at the 2024 UK General Election
was nothing short of a landslide victory. The
political map of the United Kingdom changed
considerably in this election, with the Labour
Party gaining (and regaining) ground across
large parts of the country, including in Scotland.
The new political map of the United Kingdom
is one has not looked like this in a long time,
not even during Tony Blair’s victory for Labour
in 1997 where the Conservatives still managed
to hold on to 50 seats more than in the 2024
election. This change in the political landscape
is clearly visible in the maps below. In each the
pink areas represent those parts of the country
where Labour managed to win seats from the
incumbent Conservative party, winning back
not only the ‘red wall’ in the North of England
that Boris Johnson managed to break at the
2019 election, but also most seats in Scotland,
previously held by the Scottish National Party
(SNP).
The Liberal Democrats equally beneted
from the downfall of both the Conservatives
and the SNP, geographically mainly in the South
and Southwest of the country, as well as to a
Labour’s 2024 Landslide:
A Fragile Victory
Benjamin D. Hennig plots the contours of a General Election that
saw Labour make huge gains but barely increase its vote share.
smaller degree in Scotland. The Conservative
Party’s existence was reduced mainly to
suburban fringes and some rural constituencies,
restricting their visibility in political mappings
mainly to areas that are geographically large yet
low in population.
Yet Starmer’s victory was a deceptive one,
which once again showcased the peculiarities
that the rst past the post electoral system
generates. The voting system worked well for
Boris Johnson in 2019, securing an absolute
majority of 56 per cent of the seats with 43.6 per
cent of the votes, yet Starmer was even more
successful with 63 per cent (or 412) of seats in
the House of Commons secured with a vote
share of just 33.7 per cent. This is just slightly
up from the 32.2 per cent that Jeremy Corbyn
achieved at the 2019 election (securing less
Political Insight September 2024 BU.indd 24Political Insight September 2024 BU.indd 2421/08/2024 16:2321/08/2024 16:23
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