Category Archives: Elections past

Tory party to lose almost 1,000 years of Commons experience when MPs quit

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Sixty-six MPs who already plan to stand down at election have 987 years between them, analysis shows

The Conservative party will lose almost 1,000 years of Commons experience just from MPs who have already announced they are standing down, a Guardian analysis has shown, amid an exodus likely to be even greater than in 1997.

So far, 66 MPs elected as Conservatives in 2019 have announced they will not stand again – this includes four who have since lost the whip and sit as independents – which is close to one in five of the total.

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Adopting rightwing policies ‘does not help centre-left win votes’

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Study of European electoral data suggests social democratic parties alienate supporters by moving towards the political centre

Adopting rightwing policies on issues such as immigration and the economy does not help centre-left parties win votes, according to new analysis of European electoral and polling data.

Faced with a 20-year decline in their vote share, accompanied by rising support for the right, far right and sometimes the far left, social democratic parties across Europe have increasingly sought salvation by moving towards the political centre.

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Starmer warns Labour: ‘Don’t get giddy over prospect of election victory’

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In an exclusive interview, the party’s leader says it is on course for Downing Street, but must not repeat past opposition mistakes

• Keir Starmer interview

Keir Starmer on Sunday warns his party not to become “giddy” about the prospect of power, as he declares that Labour is “bang on schedule” to win the next general election.

After his party’s stunning win over the Scottish National party in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West byelection, the Labour leader uses an exclusive interview with the Observer to spell out how a Labour government will “power” economic growth across the country by training up hundreds of thousands of workers in a new nationwide network of skills colleges, geared to the needs of local economies and industries of the future.

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