What just happened and what comes next?

Labour's victory was extraordinary as were the circumstances that surrounded it. Where do they go from here?

The video above is the LabourList election night watch party counting down to the exit poll and the sheer delight that poll generated in the room. Labour members around the country will have been experiencing the same delight ever since. At the festival I spent the weekend at, there were a few political discussions and while there was a general sense of sombreness that we didn’t have in 1997 and reflects the difference in the inheritance Labour has got, there was also widespread happiness at getting rid of the Tories and a general sense of cautious optimism about what a Starmer government will be able to do.

There are lots of things I will write about in the coming weeks that have arisen from the unusual set of results. I will look - as I have before - at the Tories, the Greens, the Lib Dems and Reform and also at Scotland and the Nationalists. I will look at the independents elected in areas with large Muslim populations and what that means for Labour in government and in politics.

Labour faces multiple challenges from multiple directions and our bi-polar view of politics as a tussle between Labour and the Tories has been made at once both easier and more complex by this result. The challenges we will face at the next election are not currently known though they might already be taking shape.

I will also talk about party culture. Some of what Labour did during the campaign was very, very good. Making ‘Gail from Labour’ an actual - if somewhat niche - meme was a really nice piece of member engagement. Our digital comms and platforms held up far better than I have ever known them and the cheeky tone of our social media game was spot on.

However, it was not always matched by the ways we treated each other. I have heard directly and indirectly of members and even candidates who felt mistreated, sidelined and even abused and that needs looking at. And in doing so, I will take a swipe at all sides of the debacle in Chingford and Woodford Green.

I will also be writing about the political media and what I think the failures of TV coverage - and this is widely agreed to have failed across the channels - should mean for how this goes forward. In many ways the story of the failure of the Tory Party has a lot entwined with the story of the failure of the political media.

The shape of the Labour Party itself has changed a lot. With so many newly elected MPs there will be less institutional knowledge and that will be at different times both a blessing and a curse. If not knowing how something is ‘supposed to be done’ means to more actually getting done - that is a good thing. However institutional knowledge of where and how to pull the right levers can also be essential. We don’t have time for Labour to learn too much on the job.

Labour is considerably less urban than it was. Despite my being a Londoner born and bred (with only a brief sojourn to Canterbury for my degree and the year beyond it) I think this is a good thing. We are not a country represented wholly by our cities and city thinking and while Labour MPs from different parts of the country share the same values they will have those informed by vastly different experiences. That will make our parliamentary politics better and more representative.

But for now, back to election night. This was a made-for-the-movies election in some unexpected ways. Little coincidences made election night seem even more dramatic than the already seismic result was. Having Jacob Rees Mogg lose be the moment Labour officially passed the winning post was pretty glorious. Liz Truss’s loss was practically the last seat to declare so capped off the long glorious night. That was the denouement no one had thought possible and the perfect ending to her career, their government and my night. These were plot points so on the nose I might have rejected them for a play for being too unrealistic. On the other hand, the bittersweetness of losing Shadow Cabinet ministers Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire gave the night a sense of imperfection needed - dramatically though not politically - to stop the sweetness from being too cloying and Disney.

For me, there were so many personal moments because so many of the wins were personal. Friends I have known for years are now MPs. They will be brilliant. (I hope - or it will make this newsletter pretty awkward!) But seriously, these are people ready to be public servants in all that this phrase means. They have a huge variety of backgrounds and expertise but their sense of service is probably what they most have in common - and probably why I have been drawn to them in friendship.

Labour has hit the ground running in policy terms - with a flurry of interesting appointments (James Timpson at prisons is a fascinating appointment and offers a real hope of change for anyone who has had an interest in prison reform) and great announcements. The Rwanda scheme is gone. The ban on onshore wind is gone. Housing targets are back. The National Planning Policy Framework is (coming) back. The Mayors (including Ben Houchen, the one Tory left) have gone to Downing Street. Wes Streeting is sitting down with the BMA and the British Dental Association. All this evidences a government ready to govern as it campaigned - seriously and effectively with an emphasis not just on growth, but on good growth that will be felt across the land.

The Tory narrative that this election victory is wide but shallow is, in part, a coping mechanism on their part. But it is also true that Labour’s vote share is pretty low. Some of that is about tactical voting. Some of that is about a shift from a threeish party system to a four/fiveish one. But Labour did only get 35 per cent of the vote even if that was forensically organised and maximised. That will need thinking about in terms of how Labour governs and how it continues to campaign.

I remain optimistic about what this Labour government can and will do with power. But I also remain very aware of the depth of cynicism that exists in the country about the power of politics to change anything. Labour has to change lives for the better because it is why they were elected. They will need to demonstrate they are doing so if they want to be reelected.

And if you don’t think the next election campaign hasn’t already started - think again. Labour must govern and govern well. They must be a contrast to the last fourteen years. But that doesn’t mean that Labour won’t:

Always.

Be

Campaigning.

In fact, I would argue that governing well is campaigning. And after what we’ve just seen from Sunak, I suspect that, finally, he might agree.

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