The 2019 election should have given Boris Johnson a mandate to reshape and lead the Conservative Party for a decade. In a crushing landslide win, the Tory Party won 365 seats, with an 80-seat majority. After years of stop-and-start because of the Coalition, the years of Brexit uncertainty, and the paralysing results of the 2017 election, the Conservatives could seemingly finally have the space to govern and, in the words of their campaign slogan, “Get Brexit done”.
1. The Highest Percentage of the Vote Won By Any Party since 1979
Polling nearly 14 million votes, the Conservatives’s 43.6% of the vote marked the highest for any singular party in election since the Tories return to power in 1979.
For comparison, this is higher than 1983 when Thatcher’s Conservatives won 397 seats and a 144-seat majority on 42.4% and 1997 when Labour won 418 seats and a majority of 179 seats on 43.2%.
The party earned its highest share of the vote in the East, with 57.2%.
2. Labour’s Worst Election Result since 1935
In the election, the Labour Party’s 202-seat total was the worst performance for the party in 84 years, winning seven seats less than their disastrous 1983 result.
It lost 60 seats while the party’s vote share fell by 7.9%.
Labour retained only 72% of 2017 voters, while the Tories held 85% of theirs. The loss of working-class voters and slump among 35-65+-year-old voters have been blamed for the scale of the loss, especially amid the Brexit backdrop under which the election was held.
3. Labour’s Worst Performance in Scotland since 1910
Labour’s national –7.9% swing was still stronger than their paltry performance north of their border.
Although the party had made headway with seven seats in 2017, 2019 saw them crash down to a solitary seat. One of those unseated was Shadow Scottish Secretary Lesley Laird.
Though they had also only retained one seat in the 2015 SNP washout, the party won 5.7% less than their 2015 results and lost 200,000 votes. Just nine years earlier, the party had won 41 seats and 42% of the vote.
In all, it was Labour’s worst result since World War One.
4. Labour Lost 12 Deposits
Talking of Scotland, the subsequent House of Commons report noted how Labour lost 12 deposits in this election, half of which occurred in the land of white and blue.
If a party does not cross 5% of the vote, it cannot reclaim a £500 deposit.
In 2017, Labour lost zero deposits. In 2024, they would again lose no deposits.
The party’s lowest vote share was in North East Fife, where Labour won just 3.7% of the vote.
5. Rother Valley: Ending 100 Years of Labour Dominance
Beyond Scotland, Labour also suffered huge hemorrhages in the ‘Red Wall’, when the Tories tore down Labour’s hold in long-reliable northern seats.
One such case was in Rother Valley, a seat Labour had held since its creation in 1918.
The South Yorkshire seat, which includes Maltby, Dinnington, and parts of Rotherham, had stayed Labour through thick and thin. In 1997, Labour won the seat on 67.3% of the vote with a 50.9% majority.
In this election however, Alexander Stafford emerged victorious, defeating Labour hopeful Sophie Wilson.
This was not a close contest, with the Tories winning by 13% with a 6,300-strong majority, even in spite of a strong challenge by the Brexit Party.
6. The Oldest MP to Ever Lose Their Seat
Neighbouring Rother Valley, the seat of Bolsover had been held for Labour since 1970 by Dennis Skinner.
“The Beast of Bolsover” had become a legendary backbencher. He made memorable remarks during the State Opening of Parliament and become notable for his provocative insults of opposition MPs, most recently his “dodgy Dave” comments directed at David Cameron.
In 2019, the career-long backbench rebel and socialist firebrand lost his seat after 49 years. Though he had won with 77.5% in 1970 (an election with a swing against the Conservatives), by 2019, he won just 35.9%; the Conservatives won here with 47.4%.
At the time of the loss, Skinner was 87, a factor that had put some locals off voting for him, according to post-election analysis by the BBC.
He became the oldest MP to ever lose their seat, beating the record set by David Winnick, who had lost his seat two years previously, aged 83.
To add insult to injury, had Skinner been re-elected, he would have been given the honorary Father of the House title, being the earliest-serving incumbent.
7. The End of Thatcher-Era Cabinet Members
It was not just historic Labour MPs pushed out but also the “Big Beast” of the Conservative Party, Kenneth Clarke.
During Thatcher’s tenure, the Rushcliffe MP served in Cabinet, holding high-profile roles including Health Secretary and Education Secretary.
He would serve as a minister throughout the tenure of the 1979-1997 Conservative government, also serving as Home Secretary and Chancellor under successor John Major.
In more recent years, Clarke had become a notable voice of dissent from the backbenches. A one nation conservative and ardent Europhile, he voted against triggering Article 50, helped defeat the government to ensure a meaningful vote on any Brexit deal, and lost the whip in 2019 alongside 20 other Tory rebels in late 2019 for preventing a no-deal Brexit.
The Father of the House since 2017, he departed in 2019, the final Cabinet minister from the Thatcher ministry.
8. The First Ex-PM Re-Elected since 1983
*Photo from 2019 local elections.
In 2019, Theresa May was forced to resign as prime minister, facing growing hostility within her party after her failure to push through a Brexit deal.
Just months into his new premiership, Boris Johnson called an election. Though relegated to the backbenches, May – an MP since 1997 – sought re-election, winning comfortably in her Maidenhead seat, winning 57.7% of the vote.
May became the first ex-PM re-elected since Jim Callaghan in 1983, when Callaghan, booted out of Downing Street in 1979, won the seat of Cardiff South and Penarth.
Thatcher stood down at the 1992 election after her 1990 departure, both John Major and Gordon Brown would stand down at the next election after their loss, and both Tony Blair and David Cameron stood down immediately.
May retains this record after 2024, with Boris Johnson leaving Parliament in 2023 and Liz Truss having lost her seat.
Notably, in the 2024 election, May’s Maidenhead seat fell to the Liberal Democrats.
9. First Party Leader to Lose Their Seat Since 1945
The 2017 and 2019 elections were not good at all for the Liberal Democrats, the perennial national third party of the UK. Despite previous popularity and their uniquely anti-Brexit stance compared to the other parties, the party had struggled to resonate with voters.
After former leader and Deputy PM Nick Clegg was unseated in 2017, 2019 saw the Lib Dems lose their incumbent leader Jo Swinson, with her East Dunbartonshire seat falling to the SNP in perhaps the most notable unseating of the night.
Though she had argued that she had the chance to become prime minister, she led the party to just 11 seats, one worse than 2017 and down from the 21 the party had prior to election day (through a by-election win and several defections).
She was the first leader of one of the three major parties to lose their seat since the 1945 election in which Liberal leader Archibald Sinclair lost his Caithness and Sutherland seat. In a remarkable election result, Sinclair came third with 33.1% of the vote, with Labour second with 33.4%, and the Tories with 33.5%. Just 61 votes seperated all three candidates.
Swinson’s seat was also close, with the SNP’s Amy Callaghan winning by just 149 votes (0.3%).
10. Women Labour MPs Overtake Male Labour MPs for First Time
The 2019 election broke several records for diversity, among them records for female representation.
In all, 34% of parliamentarians were women for the first time.
220 female MPs were elected, up 12 from 2017. The total from 2019 represented nearly double that of 1997 (when the arrival of “Blair’s Babes” marked a watershed moment of female representation in Parliament), itself double that of 1992.
Notably, these figures were highest in London where women accounted for 49% of MPs.
More interestingly than female representation stats, which will likely set new records each election, is that – for the first time in the history of the Labour Party – women were more prevalent than men.
Indeed, women made up 51% of Labour Party MPs, with 104 women to 98 men. Notably, women made up just 24% of the Conservative Party’s MPs.
Notable new MPs include upcoming socialist prospect Nadia Whittome, future Your Party co-founder Zarah Sultana, and Fleur Anderson – Labour’s only gain of the election, taking the Putney seat held by outgoing ex-Cabinet minister Justine Greening.
The election also heralded an increase in BAME representation from 8% to just under 10%, accounting for 20% of the Labour Party’s MPs while the 45 LGBTQ+ members elected made the UK the gayest legislature in the world.
GRIFFIN KAYE.