As seen on Politics UK in collaboration with Theo Griffiths
Now that the dust has settled and we’ve had the chance to begin to recover our sleep schedules here at Politics UK, it’s time to rewind to Thursday night and Friday morning and take a look at all the key moments.
Kicking off with the exit poll, the first true moment of suspense of election night, curated throughout Thursday by BBC, ITV and Sky. As the infamous BBC election theme played, the nation waited in suspense with just minutes to go until the exit poll was released. A Labour victory was fairly predictable, but the size of the landslide, and the state of other parties had been fairly difficult to call. And as Big Ben chimed, the poll was projected onto screens across the nation, with the following projections:
Labour – 410
Conservative – 131
Liberal Democrats – 61
Reform UK – 13
SNP – 10
Green – 2
So, a pretty large Labour landslide – slightly smaller than some pollsters had predicted, but monumental nonetheless, especially considering their 2019 result. It was looking to be a tough night for the Conservatives, with their worst defeat in recent history. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems had also fallen short of projections, the Greens weren’t looking to win half of their four target seats, and the SNP were on course to lose basically every gain they made in 2019. The headline of the exit poll was Reform’s projection of 13 seats, a number significantly higher than many polls and predictions.
As with all election nights, things got pretty slow for a few hours after the exit poll, as verification got underway and counts began. Despite a monumental victory in the pipeline, Labour candidates and party representatives took a cautious approach to press across the country in this gap, as did the Conservatives, presumably considering the gravity of their impending defeat.
However, once results began coming in at around half 12, a steady stream of results (which would quickly become a completely untameable tide) began coming in. One of the early headlines of the night was how long it took the Conservatives to gain their first seat, with no victories until Labour were already into double digits. Around 3am, things started to really pick up, with as many as 15 results coming through a minute at peak. Media coverage bounced between returning officers across the country (some of whom had certainly dressed to impress – Blyth returning officer, we see you!), and here were some of the key headlines (timings approximate).
2.30am – Rochdale
In a crushing night for the Workers Party, leader George Galloway lost his seat to Labour candidate, Paul Waugh. Galloway, who won his seat in a by-election little more than a few months ago, refused to take the stage at the Rochdale count to give a speech conceding defeat. In conversation with LBC earlier in the night, a Workers Party candidate said the election had been “rigged against [Galloway] from the start”.
3am – Leicester South
Perhaps the real Portillo moment of the night, Labour’s former shadow Paymaster General faced defeat at the hands of independent candidate, Shockat Adam. Losing his seat, and presumably his impending cabinet position, by just less than 1000 votes.
3.15am – Welwyn Hatfield
One of the expected defeats of the night came around 3.15am, when Grant Shapps lost his seat to Labour’s Andrew Lewin.
3.30am – Islington North
One of the major sub-plots of the night was whether former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was going to be ousted by Islington North’s imposed Labour candidate, Praful Nargund. Following a Survation poll in the run-up to the election, Corbyn looked set to lose by 14 points, ending his streak of 10 general election triumphs. However, in a shock landslide, Corbyn retained his seat by 14.8% – almost the complete opposite of the Survation poll, and will now begin his 11th term as the MP for Islington North.
3.30am – Clacton
In a whiplash moment immediately after Corbyn’s victory, media coverage turned to the returning officer in Clacton, where Nigel Farage’s long-awaited victory was announced. This was the second Reform victory of the night, following Lee Anderson’s re-election in Ashfield.
4am – Bristol Central
Following a tight race between Labour’s Thangam Debonnaire and Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, the Greens triumphed by a strong margin in Bristol Central. This was their first victory of the night.
4am-6am – Tight races, shock victories and the end of the former Conservative front bench
Labour’s Wes Streeting narrowly avoided defeat, gaining a vote share of around 1% more than independent candidate, Leanne Mohamad in Ilford North.
Labour’s Jess Philips faced a similar problem, narrowly defeating Workers Party candidate Jody McIntyre, by 500 votes. She went on to condemn the intimidation and aggression her and her campaign team have faced at the hands of the Workers Party over the last six weeks, labelling it the ‘worst election’ she’s ever been a part of. After being heckled throughout her speech, she explained that she’d even had to decline Jo Cox’s family’s request to campaign with her in Birmingham Yardley, not wanting them to see the apparent backwards step that this election season has seen in relation to violence and aggression towards MPs.
Jacob Rees Mogg, Liz Truss, Jonathan Gullis and Gillian Keegan all lost their seats, decimating the former Conservative front bench.
The Green Party successfully exceeded the predictions of the exit poll, winning all four of their target seats. This saw Sian Berry elected in Brighton Pavilion, Adrian Ramsey in Waveney Valley, and Ellie Chowns in North Herefordshire.
Reform also went on to succeed in Boston & Skegness, awarding party chair, Richard Tice, with a seat in the Commons. They also won seats in Great Yarmouth and Basildon South later on.
Some key things to note:
- Labour finished on a lower vote share than they did in both 2017 & 2019
- Sunak and Starmer both had significantly smaller majorities than in previous elections
- Starmer had a smaller majority than Corbyn won in Islington North
- There are no Conservative, Green or Reform seats in Wales
- There are no Green or Reform seats in Scotland
- Labour is the only party to win a majority in England, Scotland and Wales in recent years
Incidentally, due to a few recounts, we didn’t actually get the final results until Saturday morning.
The final scores were:
Labour – 411
Conservative – 121
Liberal Democrats – 72
SNP – 9
Reform UK – 5
Green – 4
PC – 4
Independent – 6
Workers Party – 0
Sinn Fein – 7
DUP – 5
SDLP – 2
Alliance – 1
UUP – 1
TUV – 1
Speaker – 1
From these results, we can see that Labour exceeded the exit poll by one seat, whilst the Conservatives fell 10 seats short of it. Lib Dems won 11 more than projected, and Greens won two more. Reform fell eight seats short of the exit poll, and the SNP fell one short – gaining just nine seats.
The Count Accounts
Matt Daniel – @mattdaniel01 – Altrincham & Sale West and Stretford & Urmston
Whilst Stretford and Urmston wasn’t expected to be even remotely contentious, with Labour’s Andrew Western facing an almost certain re-election following his 2023 by-election win, the same couldn’t be said for Altrincham and Sale West. Strong campaigning from former trade unionist, Connor Rand, made flipping Graham Brady’s former seat very possible, with the former head of the 1922 Committee making the decision to stand down.
Former Stretford and Urmston MP and current Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester, Kate Green, took charge of Labour’s media rounds for the night, with Rand not arriving until the last minute, and Western refusing interviews all round. Matt’s interview with Kate Green is available on our X page.
When results finally came in, half an hour later than expected, Labour flipped Altrincham by just over 4000 votes. Meanwhile, Western retained Stretford with a majority of over 1600.
Now for the real important stuff… media room snack selection!
10/10 for effort from Trafford Council and GM Electoral Services – from Pringles to pastries, and more than enough cookies and Haribo’s to go around – couldn’t have asked for better. Only one complaint – £3 for a coffee on an election all-nighter is criminal!
Theo Griffiths – @theo_griffiths – Boston & Skegness
Boston and Skegness was always going to be an interesting night. Having grown up here, it has always been Conservative heartland in rural Lincolnshire. This is the constituency that voted most in favour of Brexit after all.
But not anymore.
When I predicted Richard Tice would stand here 30 minutes before he announced he would at the start of the campaign, the image of him winning was very much a possibility. This constituency is ready-made for Reform, so much so that Tory incumbent Matt Warman accused Tice of picking this place “on a spreadsheet” after his initial failed runs in Hartlepool. People here are disillusioned with politics and despite an active and by all means effective Tory MP who had been in place since 2015 after being parachuted into one of the safest seats in the country, many felt promises had not been kept. Matt Warman was accused by Tice at one point of effectively being a “Liberal Democrat”, and he had a huge presence as a leading member of the One-Nation group of the party.
Tice’s campaign has been fascinating to observe after growing up with little political coverage and campaigning here. My first interaction with the slick businessman was at a rally held in a Community Centre just days after the election was announced, where he and then Honoury President of Reform UK Nigel Farage appeared and spoke passionately to an audience of over 200. At this point, I became confident they were in for a real shot here. Over the next few weeks, Tice’s young team, many of whom were paper candidates nationwide, made their presence known. From a bright turquoise bus driving around to a Union Jack-coated taxi with a loudspeaker, and market and car boot stalls, as well as a phenomenal ground game which initially pledged to knock on every door in this huge rural area. Having the privilege to have followed them on this and covered updates with exclusives for Politics UK, it was clear they became increasingly confident as time moved on.
For me, the real moment that secured the deal for them would have been Nigel Farage’s return as leader. Without it, it was hard to see Reform winning here. Farage made stops here, holding a second rally a week before polling day as well as enjoying both towns. Their campaign was hard to miss and truly spoke to their core and gathered momentum, with little competition from other candidates on the ground. It’s clear that plans for Tice’s candidacy were in the works long before the election was called, with such a well-organised campaign and strategies in place.
On the night itself, local journalists including the BBC team, ITV and many other outlets piled into the dingy room at the counting centre. Sadly, unlike Matt’s count, no snacks were provided from the Council and neither was access to national TV coverage, with myself and a BBC journalist live-streaming it from iPlayer via our laptops whilst at work, something that Tice enjoyed watching Nigel Farage’s victory speech in Clacton from. The atmosphere was exciting, journos chatting and working with one another, sharing snacks and resources, and a general buzz of excitement and true team spirit as we shared tidbits, information and updates with each other.
It was a slow night, with initial thoughts being that a low turnout of 54%, down from 60.1% in 2019, would be bad for Reform, quickly dispelled. Going into the count, many were saying we would be in recount territory. However, as Tice’s entourage watched over proceedings like a hawk, and the chipper arrival of the man himself with partner Isabel Oakeshott just after 2AM, as well as a solemn-looking Tory candidate and campaign, it became clear to the media what the result would be.
As is practice, candidates and their agents were told the result before it was made public. But it was clear, with some breaching protocol and leaking to myself and others the result, and the celebrations from the Reform campaign whilst the Tory staffers were in tears.
The result was declared a few minutes ahead of the expected time of 4AM, a 2k majority, phone calls were made, and Tice made a victory speech. An emotional Matt Warman, the defeated candidate, interrupted handshakes at the end to say “sorry”, and hoped that Richard Tice would keep the promises he felt he couldn’t make.
Following this, Tice and their team celebrated, and then the media circus began, with the team utilising the press room for down the lines to TalkTV and GB News before filming with BBC, ITV, Politics UK and locals. After this, the newly elected MP treated his team to breakfast at the nearby McDonald’s.
Richard Tice as an MP will certainly be an interesting and exciting one to watch in the new parliamentary dynamics, with him being the Chairman of Reform and one of their 5 newly elected MPs. Time will tell, but it seems almost certain the Tories will come back swinging here in 2029 after a lacklustre campaign in comparison this year.
You can read Theo’s full live X thread of updates from the count here
Matt Daniel 
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