Wednesday 3 July 2024, its the day before the general Election and this morning Chris Mason, the BBC’s Political Editor suggests “we stand on the threshold of a landmark election”.
Clearly the UK’s political landscape is about to change dramatically with a Starmer Labour government with a huge majority.
But how did we get here and how have things changed so dramatically in the last four and a half years since the December 2019 election? Last night I re-read my BREXIT blog series from 2019 and if I say so myself it makes a cracking read, but from a very different era.
Back in the summer of 2019 Mrs May resigned and Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. An autumn of turmoil followed where Boris lost his first six votes in the House, illegally prorogued parliament, mislead the Queen and yet, the Corbyn led Labour opposition were unwilling to put forward a vote of no confidence. Twice Boris has asked for an election and twice he failed to get the necessary 2/3 majority. Labour said they wanted an election, yet would not vote to hold one.
Before the December 2019 General Election, many of us were less worried about a No Deal Brexit than a the prospect of Corbyn Labour government.
Through the BREXIT turmoil, Labour under Corbyn sat on the fence and were useless. In the December 2019 election they suffered their worst defeat since the 1930s. However the 2019 election was all about backing Boris to Get Brexit Done and he won a 80 seat majority with a significant number of “borrowed” Red Wall votes.
This was a situation many of us realised was unlikely to repeat and starting with that huge majority in December 2019 things have changed dramatically over the last four and a half years:
Conservatives, from the top down, are braced for defeat – and a potentially catastrophic one at that. Labour, poll after poll after poll suggests, are miles ahead.
Chris Mason, BBC, 3 July 2024
Martin Gibbs loved talking about BREXIT and still loves talking about politics – any political views in this post are his own
