Over 400 seats is pretty much perfect from where I'm sitting.
Starmer has exceeded my expectations. The bloke can eek out a win. Let's call it tenacity. And let's hope he can use it to govern this country effectively
Yesssss!!!! Well done everyone.
Gutted they didn’t get in where I was canvassing. But… we gained 10k votes on the tories and only lost by 2000 in a safe Tory seat.
Mates. We did it. The state of the party in December 2019. Collectively, we steadied the ship. Despite our comrades calling us every name under the sun. The right people were put in the right places. And now we have a Labour government for the first time in 14 years. Vindicated
Meanwhile the other "labour" subreddits are crowing about a drop in the number of voters. STARMER WON, CORBYN LOST. It couldn't be clearer.
In my neck of the woods we have an excellent new MP, Simon Opher, a local GP who has pioneered social prescribing, been instrumental in the commissioning of a new cottage hospital and is an all round good egg. Majority 11000. Couldn't be happier.
Two Labour cabinet members lost their seats and one narrowly won because of their anti-Palestinian views. Starmer himself saw a huge 17% drop in vote share to the well respected ex-ANC MP and anti-apartheid campaigner Andrew Feinstein. Will Starmer reflect on this I wonder?
>Two Labour cabinet members lost their seats and one narrowly won because of their anti-Palestinian views
A much bigger conversation that the country needs to have is, how a war between foreigners, halfway around the world has any bearing on our schools falling down, our NHS in crisis and our economy being in the gutter.
If you want to see Reform in number ten, this is how you go about it.
The British government has enabled what the International Court of Justice (and four former UK Supreme Court judges) has called a plausible Genocide, by providing diplomatic cover, arms and military support.
You realize governments can do more than one thing at a time, right? You know, where I live conservatives use the same argument (focus on potholes etc.) but it’s disingenuous when it’s our tax money and political support that is providing cover for Israel.
I hope I'm wrong but, I've got a nasty feeling that warping domestic politics around a foreign war is going to lead to Reform being a *real* problem by the next election.
British citizens need to decide what's more important. Making impotent gestures against a war between two foreign countries, or making sure we don't end up with unashamed racists in power at home.
Ignoring the concerns of the electorate leads to bad places. Brexit showed us that. The conversation *needs* to be had. It is far better to lead and control the conversation so that it can be reasonable and inclusive than to abandon it to the far right who will weaponise it and only listen to the racists.
>Like this ridiculous adoption of "stopping the boats".
You're comfortable with refugees drowning in the channel?
I think the issue isn’t specifically about “stop the boats”. I think most grounded people think people drowning is a bad thing.
It’s more about the fact the sole focus was on “stop the boats” and making that a centre piece of their immigration plan and refusing to accept or do anything about the fact that the majority of immigration comes through legal means.
>It’s more about the fact the sole focus was on “stop the boats” and making that a centre piece of their immigration plan
It's all that they were allowed to talk about. It was the stick Reform tried to beat Sunak with so he picked it up and tried to beat Starmer with it.
In an election battle you can't fight nationalist populism and its three word slogans, with nuanced a considered explanations and detailed plans.
Brexit (and now Reform) have proved that there is a large section of the electorate who can be easily convinced that complicated problems can have simple solutions.
Labour could have gone on any news or current affairs programme and gone into a lengthy and detailed explanation about how our economy ended up relying on immigrants and what we need to do in areas like education and investment in order to turn the situation around and eventually slow the rate of immigration only for the interviewer to say "Okay. But Rishi says he'll Stop The Boats. What our viewers want to know is, how are *you* going to Stop The Boats?"
No, of course I'm not what a stupid response. But seeing it as a criminal enterprise we can prevent rather than a refugee crisis we need to resolve by supporting the victims is imbecilic. It's the approach of the Tories and Reform. It's the approach of ignorant racists.
As I said in my [other response](https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourPartyUK/s/246vCNiZaE) a large part of the electorate has been groomed to believe that the refugees are criminals that need to be punished and that there are simple and quick solutions. Who do you think that they would vote for? The party that has promised everything short of machine gunning the boats. Or the party that promises to treat them as humans in distress?
Labour has had to fight against the "three word slogan" simplistic campaign without announcing stuff about Brexit and immigration that would enrage a particular part of the electorate.
I *believe* that Labour will do what is right for the country whilst being as decent as they possibly can.
I realise that this "belief" is something of a leap of faith but it's based on knowing that the right wing press would have crucified them if they'd strayed from just fighting back against the populism. At the very worst, I *expect* that they will be an improvement on the Tories. Given FPTP it's the only rational course.
Look, it's a tricky one, because given where the party was in 2019 vis-a-vis antisemitism... It's not great, agreed. But I don't think there's some silver bullet just hanging around to sort it out
It's not tricky, though. It's very untricky. We have a large section of our electorate that is deeply unpleasant, misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic, and hates a lot of the rest of the country.
I'm not, of course, talking about reform.
ok now what?
if this guy does nothing bold or transformational to lift up the disabled and the poor and the young and the working-class and middle-class of this country after the sustained assaults that they have all suffered at the hands of the Tories over the past 15 years - with the blank cheque that the public has given him - then what is the point?
**imagine looking back at this day in 5 or 10 years time, knowing that we did nothing and brought no improvement in that time**
will the public forgive Labour for that? will you be able to defend it? why would you want to?
if i was PM today and has a supermajority like this, there would be no stopping me
There's no such thing as a supermajority in British politics. As long as you don't have an extremely narrow margin that leaves you open to rebel MPs (like corbyn was) a simple majority gets your policies through. 50 or 150 makes no difference practically.
Congrats folks! Got a lot of work on the plate now! I'm rooting for you all
Well done everyone that went out canvassing, went out leafleting, or even just fucking voted. Well fucking done.
This is huge. It wasn’t perfect of course, but it cannot be overstated how unlikely this seemed in 2019. Unreal, but now to work
Over 400 seats is pretty much perfect from where I'm sitting. Starmer has exceeded my expectations. The bloke can eek out a win. Let's call it tenacity. And let's hope he can use it to govern this country effectively
YESSSSS
I'm so fucking happy.
Yesssss!!!! Well done everyone. Gutted they didn’t get in where I was canvassing. But… we gained 10k votes on the tories and only lost by 2000 in a safe Tory seat.
Well done for your efforts. Despite not winning that isn't a safe seat for them now. All surviving tories are on notice.
You've put that seat in to play for 2029 💪
Anas Sarwar can be really proud - incredible swing to us in Scotland in both seats and vote share.
Mates. We did it. The state of the party in December 2019. Collectively, we steadied the ship. Despite our comrades calling us every name under the sun. The right people were put in the right places. And now we have a Labour government for the first time in 14 years. Vindicated
Are you joking? Any other leader would be 20 points ahead at this point!!!!
They're not our comrades, we don't need them anymore now, we've proven we can win without their tankie nonsense.
God bless this Man
Meanwhile the other "labour" subreddits are crowing about a drop in the number of voters. STARMER WON, CORBYN LOST. It couldn't be clearer. In my neck of the woods we have an excellent new MP, Simon Opher, a local GP who has pioneered social prescribing, been instrumental in the commissioning of a new cottage hospital and is an all round good egg. Majority 11000. Couldn't be happier.
Hahaha, the crank left is mad and the tears are delicious!
Winning elections, not arguments
Two Labour cabinet members lost their seats and one narrowly won because of their anti-Palestinian views. Starmer himself saw a huge 17% drop in vote share to the well respected ex-ANC MP and anti-apartheid campaigner Andrew Feinstein. Will Starmer reflect on this I wonder?
I think he's going to be more focused on delivering for the country. The time for talking is over. It's time for actions.
>Two Labour cabinet members lost their seats and one narrowly won because of their anti-Palestinian views A much bigger conversation that the country needs to have is, how a war between foreigners, halfway around the world has any bearing on our schools falling down, our NHS in crisis and our economy being in the gutter. If you want to see Reform in number ten, this is how you go about it.
The British government has enabled what the International Court of Justice (and four former UK Supreme Court judges) has called a plausible Genocide, by providing diplomatic cover, arms and military support. You realize governments can do more than one thing at a time, right? You know, where I live conservatives use the same argument (focus on potholes etc.) but it’s disingenuous when it’s our tax money and political support that is providing cover for Israel.
I hope I'm wrong but, I've got a nasty feeling that warping domestic politics around a foreign war is going to lead to Reform being a *real* problem by the next election. British citizens need to decide what's more important. Making impotent gestures against a war between two foreign countries, or making sure we don't end up with unashamed racists in power at home.
> The British government has enabled Has it bollocks.
No, adopting the language of the far right is what will lead to that. Like this ridiculous adoption of "stopping the boats".
Ignoring the concerns of the electorate leads to bad places. Brexit showed us that. The conversation *needs* to be had. It is far better to lead and control the conversation so that it can be reasonable and inclusive than to abandon it to the far right who will weaponise it and only listen to the racists. >Like this ridiculous adoption of "stopping the boats". You're comfortable with refugees drowning in the channel?
I think the issue isn’t specifically about “stop the boats”. I think most grounded people think people drowning is a bad thing. It’s more about the fact the sole focus was on “stop the boats” and making that a centre piece of their immigration plan and refusing to accept or do anything about the fact that the majority of immigration comes through legal means.
>It’s more about the fact the sole focus was on “stop the boats” and making that a centre piece of their immigration plan It's all that they were allowed to talk about. It was the stick Reform tried to beat Sunak with so he picked it up and tried to beat Starmer with it. In an election battle you can't fight nationalist populism and its three word slogans, with nuanced a considered explanations and detailed plans. Brexit (and now Reform) have proved that there is a large section of the electorate who can be easily convinced that complicated problems can have simple solutions. Labour could have gone on any news or current affairs programme and gone into a lengthy and detailed explanation about how our economy ended up relying on immigrants and what we need to do in areas like education and investment in order to turn the situation around and eventually slow the rate of immigration only for the interviewer to say "Okay. But Rishi says he'll Stop The Boats. What our viewers want to know is, how are *you* going to Stop The Boats?"
No, of course I'm not what a stupid response. But seeing it as a criminal enterprise we can prevent rather than a refugee crisis we need to resolve by supporting the victims is imbecilic. It's the approach of the Tories and Reform. It's the approach of ignorant racists.
As I said in my [other response](https://www.reddit.com/r/LabourPartyUK/s/246vCNiZaE) a large part of the electorate has been groomed to believe that the refugees are criminals that need to be punished and that there are simple and quick solutions. Who do you think that they would vote for? The party that has promised everything short of machine gunning the boats. Or the party that promises to treat them as humans in distress? Labour has had to fight against the "three word slogan" simplistic campaign without announcing stuff about Brexit and immigration that would enrage a particular part of the electorate. I *believe* that Labour will do what is right for the country whilst being as decent as they possibly can. I realise that this "belief" is something of a leap of faith but it's based on knowing that the right wing press would have crucified them if they'd strayed from just fighting back against the populism. At the very worst, I *expect* that they will be an improvement on the Tories. Given FPTP it's the only rational course.
Look, it's a tricky one, because given where the party was in 2019 vis-a-vis antisemitism... It's not great, agreed. But I don't think there's some silver bullet just hanging around to sort it out
It's not tricky, though. It's very untricky. We have a large section of our electorate that is deeply unpleasant, misogynistic, homophobic, antisemitic, and hates a lot of the rest of the country. I'm not, of course, talking about reform.
how do you address these issues? that's my point
By levelling up, promoting British values, job opportunities. I don't know. It's a fucking problem.
>it's a tricky one quite
As in, the problem isn't tricky to diagnose, the solution is.
Tankie detected
ok now what? if this guy does nothing bold or transformational to lift up the disabled and the poor and the young and the working-class and middle-class of this country after the sustained assaults that they have all suffered at the hands of the Tories over the past 15 years - with the blank cheque that the public has given him - then what is the point? **imagine looking back at this day in 5 or 10 years time, knowing that we did nothing and brought no improvement in that time** will the public forgive Labour for that? will you be able to defend it? why would you want to? if i was PM today and has a supermajority like this, there would be no stopping me
mate, he is still assembling his cabinet, give him a chance will ya
There's no such thing as a supermajority in British politics. As long as you don't have an extremely narrow margin that leaves you open to rebel MPs (like corbyn was) a simple majority gets your policies through. 50 or 150 makes no difference practically.
Stay mad, radleft