Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Josquius]

I'd rather us be back under His Majesty Charles III and a Labour government than a Trump presidency 

We'll take some of you. Masachusettes seems nice. But leave Florida.

[Sheilbh]

T May!

That's a given though. She's a former PM (and broadly I actually quite like former PMs either continuing as MPs or becoming peers if for no other reason than they have to declare their finances - which Blair, Major, Brown, Johnson do not have to do).

Although I feel like you should have been in office for at least, say, two months before you get the auto-peerage

[garbon]

T May!

That's a given though. She's a former PM (and broadly I actually quite like former PMs either continuing as MPs or becoming peers if for no other reason than they have to declare their finances - which Blair, Major, Brown, Johnson do not have to do).

Although I feel like you should have been in office for at least, say, two months before you get the auto-peerage

Did Cameron have to do his little stint in govt again to get his?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Lord Failing of Grayling 

[Sheilbh]

Did Cameron have to do his little stint in govt again to get his?

No, he would have been offered one immediately after he left the Commons. It's more or less pro forma.

I think, like Blair, Brown, Major and Johnson, he wanted to leverage his time as PM to earn money in the private sector that he didn't have to report publicly because he wasn't in parliament.

I far prefer May's approach of staying as an MP after losing and then moving straight to the Lords. No gap in the requirement to report the sources of her income.

[garbon]

It is weird seeing all these fairly recent fails like Kwarteng and Sturgeon.

[Barrister]

Any ideas for online live results?  Preferably video?

I'm a sucker for election results. 

[Sheilbh]

I'd probably recommend Sky:
https://news.sky.com/uk

But also BBC News.

Edit: Should say we won't get many results for the next couple of hours. There'll be a few from the North-East (handle with care), where they take a lot of pride in really quick counts. But then I'd expect results to properly start coming through 2am-ish UK time.

[FunkMonk]

Going to need to see some Lord Buckethead-esque pictures before we can say this was a proper election night.

[Sheilbh]

Always love when a returning officer cracks out a ceremonial outfit (from Blyth)


I had been a bit confused by the exit poll showing the Tories and Reform doing quite well. I think John Curtice has said that based on the first two seats - strongly Labour seats - it looks like the Tory vote has held up a little better and Reform's actual performance is a little lower.

Separately always striking how much expectations matter. Lots of Labour people a little dissatisfied at their best result since 1997 (and, I think, biggest ever swing in a single term), while Tories are a lot more pleased with (apparently) their worst result since pre-Great Reform Act

Edit: Also think it's shaping coverage a bit. A big Labour win was priced in - but unclear how well Reform would do. So I get the focus on Reform because it makes sense from a narrative perspective, but I'm not sure it's the right frame compared to Labour gaining over 200 seats.

[HVC]

Huh, guess Prince was British.

[Valmy]

So...how long until we know how close the Lib Dems are to government?

[Sheilbh]

First Labour gain with Heidi Alexander (former MP and deputy mayor in London), winning Swindon South from Sir Robert Buckland (who I quite like - and very gracious concession speech). She won just over 21,000 to his 12,000 - at the last election he won 26,000 to Labour's 20,000. So a swing of 16%.

Buckland's speech also aimed clearly at parts of his own party. The next round of the Tory wars starting.

Edit: Worth adding, Alexander's acceptance speech was also very good.

Edit: Also having wildly extrapolated about Reform based on those seats in the North-East (bit better than the MRPs a bit worse than the exit poll), Swindon's more useful for wildly overextrapolating about Labour v Tories and it looks a bit better than the exit poll but a bit worse than the MRPs.

[PJL]

Early days yet, but have plugged in the changes since the last election based on the results so far in the Electoral Calculus user-defined prediction and looks like Labour (425), Lib Dems (66) & SNP (19) might do a bit better than the exit poll suggests. Conversely Tories (105) & Reform (9) doing worse.

[Sheilbh]

In generally good news (probably), it sounds like Labour about to get first trans MP. Emily Brothers, who is also disabled and registered blind, is apparently on course to win Isle of Wight East (almost as shocked the Isle of Wight might have a Labour MP).

I think she'll also be Parliament's first trans MP to be elected - Jamie Wallis, a Tory MP, came out as trans a couple of years ago but after the election.

Edit: Also - if I had to guess first area to elect a trans MP, I would not have gone for the Isle of Wight

Edit: In other generally good news - Labour sounding very confident they've won Rochdale from Galloway.