“Starmer tsunami”: Voters want to ruthlessly dump the Tories

This is a spectacular victory for Labour.

Spectacular, considering where they came from – from the doldrums. Their result in 2019 was the worst since 1935.

But it was also spectacular by any standard, at any time, in any context, because the challenge of winning by a tiny margin was heavenly.

It is the “Starmer tsunami”, as one shocked opponent put it.

This election is the story of an electorate that shows a relentless determination to drive the Conservatives out of the party.

In many areas that meant voting for a Labour MP. In quite a few other areas it meant voting for a Liberal Democrat. And there are a hell of a lot of votes for Reform UK.

This morning, the brutality of the election campaign gave way to the civility of its consequences.

The winner and the loser publicly exchange warm words.

Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak complimented each other rather than criticised each other as they spoke outside 10 Downing Street.

It was a privilege for me to stand in Downing Street today and witness something that is actually quite rare in recent British history.

I am 44 years old, born in 1980, and what I have experienced today has only happened three times in my life: the change of power from the Conservatives to the Labour Party or from the Labour Party to the Conservatives.

It happened in 1997, it happened in 2010 and it will happen again in 2024.

Even the garnishment of the prescribed choreography of the changing of the Prime Minister’s Guard – the trips to Buckingham Palace, the statues of the Prime Ministers shaking hands with the monarch – was a touch of partisan stagecraft.

Labour activists waved union flags, Welsh flags and the St. Andrew’s Cross as Starmer arrived, attempting to convey the image of a government for the whole of Britain.

The core of Keir Starmer’s message was to emphasise the desire for stability in contrast to the chaos of recent years.

Its overwhelming majority could help achieve this goal, but is no guarantee.

It was a night full of a thousand stories.

At its core, politics is about people and their emotions: success, failure, joy, fear, regret.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was a highly prominent victim of the night.

He was probably the outgoing government’s most adept communicator, and his voice broke as he delivered his speech announcing his defeat.

Jeremy Hunt held out in Surrey, even his voice breaking as he spoke.

The soundtrack of this evening was the autopsy of the beginnings of the Conservative Party: of Robert Buckland, Mr Shapps, Penny Mordaunt, Liz Truss and others.

There will be more of this.

But remember: unlike the conservative psychodrama of recent years, this is a sideshow of a tussle – a fight within an opposition party, not a government party.

But it will still matter because millions of people want to make sure that the new government, which has a large majority, is properly scrutinised and held to account. And they want the Conservative Party to play a role in that.