DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Sir Keir Starmer must govern on behalf of the 80 percent of the country who did NOT vote for him as well as the 20 percent who did
The British people delivered their verdict yesterday on the state of British politics. For the Conservative Party, it was a crushing and emphatic verdict of guilty.
Guilty of failing to listen to their concerns. Guilty of breaking its promises on migration, tax and much else.
Worst of all, guilty of putting internal feuding and personal vanity before the national interest.
The anarchy that brought about the downfall of Boris Johnson and its chaotic aftermath was something the electorate could not and would not forgive.
In their collective judgment, the most successful political party in modern history had relinquished the right to govern.
The British people delivered their verdict yesterday on the state of British politics. For the Conservative Party , it was a crushing and emphatic verdict of guilty. Pictured: Newly elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer with his wife, Victoria
From the South coast to the North of Scotland, from the Severn to the Wash, Tory seats fell like dominoes to Labour
From the South coast to the North of Scotland, from the Severn to the Wash, Tory seats fell like dominoes.
In the 'Red Wall' constituencies of the North, Midlands and Wales, the main beneficiary of this outpouring of rage was Labour. In the shires it was the Liberal Democrats.
But across the piece, the Tories' most sanguinary nemesis was Reform UK.
Nigel Farage and his party may have won just five seats but, by splitting the right-of-centre vote, they cost Rishi Sunak dozens, if not scores.
This was by no means the only catalyst for the Conservatives' historic drubbing.
They lost 251 seats, saw their vote crash by nearly 20 per cent and were left with just 121 MPs, their lowest total ever.
This was repudiation on an epic scale. The voters' main motivation seems not to have been who they wanted to win, but who they wanted to lose.
Across the country, they turned to Labour, Lib Dem, Reform, Greens, an array of independents, even Jeremy Corbyn – anyone who could beat the Tory candidate.
At his North Yorkshire constituency early yesterday, Mr Sunak described the result as 'sobering' for his party.
There are more accurate words. Lacerating. Humiliating. Potentially existential.
What the coming months will determine is whether this abject defeat will go down in history as their Yorktown, or merely Dunkirk. Wipe-out, or trigger for renaissance.
Their biggest comfort is that although Labour won plenty of seats, they clearly have not won hearts and minds.
Nigel Farage and his party may have won just five seats but, by splitting the right-of-centre vote, they cost Rishi Sunak dozens, if not scores
Despite Sir Keir Starmer's vapid cliches about Britain being bathed in 'the sunlight of hope', this was a loveless landslide.
Only one in three voters backed Labour on a pitifully low turnout of under 60 per cent.
So, supported by little more than 20 per cent of those eligible to vote, Sir Keir's sizeable majority is built on sand.
His gloating 'Starmtroopers' need to understand that their margin of victory is a freak of the electoral system caused by the collapse of faith in the Government. It is not an enthusiastic mandate for radical change.
His share of the vote was the lowest for an incoming Prime Minister with an outright majority since the Great Reform Act of 1832.
At 33.7 per cent, it was eclipsed by the 40 per cent Jeremy Corbyn managed in 2017 – and was substantially less than the combined share of the Conservatives and Reform UK.
Embittered Remainers, including Sir Keir, love to complain that 'only' 52 per cent of the country voted to leave the EU.
That was a ringing endorsement compared with Labour's vote share at this election.
Indeed, Sir Keir himself has the dubious honour of becoming the least popular opposition leader to win a General Election in recorded history.
His landslide is a consequence of massive changes in the political landscape and the extraordinary fragmentation of the mainstream vote.
In the 2017 General Election, a whopping 82 per cent of votes cast went to either the Conservatives or Labour. This time around, it was merely 58 per cent.
There was no single party of protest or dissent. This is testament to the volatile times we live in.
The breaking of the historic voting link, first in the EU referendum and then again when Boris Johnson secured an 80-seat Tory majority in 2019, means the electorate is no longer bound by party tribalism.
In the 'Red Wall' constituencies of the North, Midlands and Wales, the main beneficiary of this outpouring of rage was Labour. In the shires it was the Liberal Democrats. Pictured: Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey
Voters are prepared to abandon their traditional political homes as never before.
Bizarrely, some are more interested in what happens overseas than in their own back yard, as evidenced by the four constituencies which elected pro-Palestinian candidates.
The arrival of sectarian manifestos and voting along ethnic-religious lines in England is new and deeply troubling, with major ramifications for our democracy.
Two female Labour MPs described in their victory speeches the intimidation, threats, and harassment they faced from mostly male pro-Gazan activists during the campaign.
Some will argue Labour is reaping what it has sown, having indulged minority identity politics for decades.
So, what will a Starmer government look like?
The big question: Will Sir Keir keep to his promise not to raise taxes, or will he cave in?
We already know from the spiteful VAT raid on private schools and proposals to ban the country pursuit of trail hunting that Labour has a class war agenda.
In the next few weeks we can expect all the single-issue cranks and loudmouths on the Left of British politics to be bending Sir Keir's ear on everything from just stopping oil to allowing trans women access to female-only spaces.
Striking unions will be expecting bumper pay rises, while councils, cultural institutions, the care and education sectors and every quango under the sun will be holding out the begging bowl.
Will Sir Keir keep to his promise not to raise taxes, or will he cave in?
He has pledged not to hike headline levels of income tax, National Insurance, VAT and corporation tax. But that leaves many other opportunities.
Pension raids, capital gains and inheritance tax increases, a rates revaluation, fuel and green levies are all in Labour's sights.
But Sir Keir must govern on behalf of the 80 per cent of the country who did not vote for him as well as the 20 per cent who did.
If he raises taxes, allows unchecked immigration, fails to make the crumbling NHS work and kowtows to wokery, then discontent, discord and civil unrest will be the price he pays. He has a large majority but the flimsiest of mandates.
So, to paraphrase Leo Tolstoy, what then must the Tories do to rise from the ashes? The first imperative is not to panic.
They can bounce back but it will take hard work, careful planning, iron discipline and – above all – unity of purpose.
Rishi Sunak's farewell speech was a model of dignity and good grace. He deserved better
This administration has been marked by factionalism and disloyalty. This must end.
The most depressing recent example was former Home Secretary Suella Braverman's eve-of-poll attack on her party and its leadership. It was an unforgiveable breach of faith.
Mr Sunak is a thoroughly decent man who can be proud of the way he refloated the Tory ship after the madness of the Truss interregnum.
His farewell speech yesterday was a model of dignity and good grace. He deserved better.
He has said he will stand down as soon as the process for electing a new leader begins. Then it must be back to the drawing board.
This is a party that has lost its bearings in recent years. It needs to decide what it is for.
For too long, it has tried to be New Labour-lite – a post-Blairite party of social democracy and wishy-washy Third Way politics.
As Reform has shown, this has left a vacuum on the Right of the political spectrum.
There is a desperate need for the Conservative party to rediscover its core values – low tax, free markets, controlled borders, strong defences, rewarding hard work and thrift, and a state that supports families without interfering in every aspect of their lives.
At the time of the 2005 election, the Conservatives' third consecutive heavy defeat at the hands of Tony Blair, the political writer Geoffrey Wheatcroft published a book entitled The Strange Death of Tory England.
Not for the first time, the party's demise was greatly exaggerated. Five years later, it began an unbroken run of 14 years in power. Such a regeneration is possible again.
Yes, the 2024 election has been a traumatic and humiliating experience. But if the party learns its lessons well, it can yet be a beginning, rather than an end.