Labour's landslide victory in the British election can bring more stability in domestic politics, assesses political scientist Nicholas Aylott.
Aylott believes that the UK will get a government where the incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer will enjoy greater internal authority than his Conservative predecessors Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, and Boris Johnson.
What I think many British citizens have hoped for, and probably will get, is more stability. The story of the recent Conservative governments has been one of instability, turbulence within the party, divisions, and difficulties in agreeing on a consistent line on major domestic issues, says Aylott, who is a lecturer at Södertörn University and affiliated with the Foreign Policy Institute.
No major political changes
However, despite the fact that there will be a change of government for the first time in 14 years, it is not certain that it will be followed by major political upheavals.
Labour was very cautious in its election platform not to promise too much, especially things that could cost money and thus potentially lead to tax increases. They are very careful not to promise to raise taxes for ordinary citizens.
It is described as a protest vote, but despite Labour's big win, preliminary figures show that the party does not have a majority of the votes. In each constituency, it is only the candidate with the most votes who wins, and today there are more parties than before, which according to Aylott makes the system unpredictable.
The electoral system greatly exaggerates the support that Labour has received among voters. The share of votes does not seem to be higher than 36 percent. For example, in the 2017 election, Labour won 40 percent but still lost the election.
Challengers on the right
The crushing defeat for the Tories can also be attributed to the party's major challengers – the right-wing populist Reform Party led by Nigel Farage. Preliminary results indicate that several Tory leaders have lost their seats in their constituencies.
This means that there are now two parties on the right that split the right-wing votes, which can potentially create big problems for the Conservatives.
At the same time, the regionally leading Scottish nationalist party SNP has lost the majority of its seats, which could indicate a collapse for the party, according to Aylott.
The British Parliament's House of Commons has 650 members, elected in single-member constituencies for five years at a time. According to the exit poll, the seats are distributed as follows (with changes in parentheses):
Labour: 410 seats (+209)
Conservative Party (Tories): 131 (–241)
Liberal Democrats: 61 (+53)
Reform Party: 13 (+13)
Scottish National Party (SNP): 10 (–38)
Plaid Cymru (Wales Party): 4 (+2)
Green Party: 2 (+1)
Others: 19
Sources: BBC, ITV, and Sky News
The UK is divided into 650 constituencies. Each constituency elects a Member of Parliament to represent its population for up to five years. Most candidates represent a political party, but some stand as independents.
Voters vote only for their local Member of Parliament.
The political party that wins the most seats in the House of Commons, which has 650 seats, usually forms the government. The party leader then becomes the Prime Minister.
Constituencies were redrawn before the 2024 election to better reflect changes in the population.
A parliament can sit for a maximum of five years from the day it first met. The current parliament first met on December 17, 2019, and would have automatically dissolved on December 17 this year if it had not been dissolved earlier.
The British Parliament consists of two chambers, the elected House of Commons and the non-elected House of Lords, which has limited political power.
