Why are people saying it's a Labour landslide when Labour under Corbyn got more votes?

[Appalonia]

I think this is what's shocked me, there hasn't been a sudden swing to the Left, it's that the Conservative vote has been massively impacted by support for Reform. Ironic really, so many pp voting for a more right wing party than the Tories and Labour get in!

I think Labour will have to be very careful, they don't have the mandate they think they do. And think they've been handed a bit of a poisoned chalice, considering the mess this country is in. Will be interesting seeing how this plays out...

I think it has just been highlighted this election, mainly with Reform and Greens getting lots of votes and few seats when seen next to the Lib Dem's many seats but not really a lot of votes.

Reform aren't the only ones to take Conservative votes, plenty have gone to the Lib Dems. What scares me is that Conservatives will look at the results and lurch to the right rather than look at the actual reality of the situation being that lots of centre right voters have voted Lib Dem or Labour instead. I vote Labour but the thought of an even more right wing Conservative Party scares me.

It’s all about seats. The vote share wasn’t a landslide, but the seats are.

🙄

Frankly who cares?

They have a huge majority in parliament now and are getting with doing the job they were elected to do and off to a good start with a decent cabinet.

Anything else is pointless noise by client media and opposite parties who did not do as well...

Don't forget, tactical voting. There are lots of swing voters who vote tory or Labour (yes not everyone is die hard) and who would have just voted against Tory and now have a non Tory I.e. lib dem in their area.

I don't think Labour are unaware that they have to government for the whole country.

Loads of tactical voters for Labour too though, who'd have voted Lib Dem or Green if we had PR. Balances out.

A landslide basically describes the proportion of seats won, which is irrespective of the overall vote share for the winning party. One of the foibles of our First Past The Post System. It seems bonkers but then there is an argument for why it is the lesser of the two evils compared to proportional representation.

This election had a low turnout because so many people were disillusioned with the Tories but couldn't bring themselves to vote for any of the other candidates. The vote share is very interesting. Labour won a landslide for sure, but this election was never about lots more people suddenly keen to see a Labour government, it was about millions of previous Tory voters no longer wanting the Conservatives, or at least not these Conservatives. It was also about the scales falling from the eyes of the Scottish and casting the SNP adrift.

Analysing the results and comparing them to previous GEs is fascinating and very telling.

True!

Why is a majority government worrying?

SE Cornwall was already showing strong support for Labour, long before the election was announced. The LibDems trailed in 4th, only ahead of the Greens. Reform were narrowly third behind the Tories, but without them, the Tory MP would likely have held onto the seat.

Because there won't be a counter argument to anything they want to bring in.

Whereas it can be frustrating trying to get a bill through parliament when it is something you agree with and want to happen, having a relatively balanced house means that most bills passed are relatively central and moderate - which is what you would hope for would happen if the party in power leaned the opposite way from yourself.

The issue with this Parliament is that, EVEN IF every other MP in the house all disagreed with something (which in itself, is very unlikely), they can't outvote the Labour MPs.

Because they won over the swing voters. The same ones that swung to Boris in 2019 swung back plus more. I remember when the “red wall fell” pundits saying it would take decades for Labour to rebuild from that (based on historic data) and they achieved it in one election cycle. They also benefitted from thr SNP shambles in Scotland.

they don’t have any room to be complacent and with that majority have no excuse for not executing all they’ve promised

But this is utterly normal to have a majority government who can outvote all the other parties. That’s what we usually have.

I guess we are going to have this for at least the next five years

The turnout was much lower, Labour know they have to appeal across the board, which they did not just to middle class hand wringing socialists, the militant left or those overly invested in idealism of what the Labour Party should be

The left leaning Labour Party under Corbyn failed to win an election not once but twice in the end that is what matters

This result surprised me. Cornwall has traditionally been either Conservative or Liberal Democrat and Labour rarely had a look in.

Aside from a shit show of a Conservative Gov for the last 14 years I wonder what has changed demographically at this election to switch support from the LibDems to Labour.

Who has moved to Cornwall in the last 20 years.

Where from?

Many from the SE moving from London.

Also. The timing of the election is interesting. It's out of university time, so all the students who otherwise would have had their votes 'stacked up' in fewer seats (university towns) had all gone home to Mum and Dad's in Cornwall.

This could have made a difference.

You've also got the pissed off farmers wanting better relationship with the EU seeing Labour as a better option than the LDs who were solidly proEU (as in the Brexity Farmers who dont want to rejoin).

Some pretty unique issues going on in Cornwall.

Our village is fairly typical in SE Cornwall, and we've had a lot of new arrivals in the last 20 years. Many came from the SE as young or early retirees, some WFH, taking advantage of the differential in property values but politically generally quite progressive. It was disproportionately the naicer houses sporting Labour placards.

The Reform vote came solidly from those who have been outpriced by the incomers and the second home/AirBnB operators. This is not the worst place for second homes (not like further west) but it's a factor.

Majorities are completely normal in this country though! The last government held a majority of seats so could pass whatever it wanted without needing to win the opposition over. So could the government before that, and the government before that.

There is only one recent example where the government has not held a majority, and it's the 2010 Con/Lib coalition.

Yes, but there is a big difference between the usual majority (eg in 2019, Conservatives had 365 seats) and one that is as big a majority as this.
It is quite unusual for ALL MPs to take part in a vote, so there have previously been more opportunities for challenge.

I think it FPTP is surprisingly responsive to the mood of teh country. Think of 2010 when no one was enthusiastic for Brown or for Cameron. Cameron didn't get a majority and had to go into coalition.

I think the country wanted a Labour govt. There was a lot of tactical voting and a lot of people voting green who arguably would not have done if they felt they had to vote Labour to keep the Tories out. They knew there would be a big enough majority.

Corbyn could have piled more and more votes in progressive seats and yet never have won. The Labour party ran an incredibly skilful campaign to spread the vote across as many constituencies as it could.

I thought Starmer saying in his first speech 'we are here to serve you especially if you didn't vote for us' was incredibly refreshing

I agree Reform and the rise of independent candidates does mean that they will have to fight for every seat again in the next election, they won't be able to take anything for granted. But I do think they have a strong mandate for now.

Landslide relates more to MPs so in that sense it was one for Labour

Vote share is different but it sounds like there is awareness that the whole electorate is a factor for next time