American Reacts The UK Election Results Explained

👉Original Video: • The UK Election Result...
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[@josephturner7569]

The cat owns 10 Downing street. He just lets the Government use it. Sometimes he gets the cop to knock on the door which can't be opened from the outside.

[@Nomadicmillennial92]

We don’t use Proportional Representation in the UK. Seats are not allocated to parties based on the national share of the vote, rather it’s determined by which individual candidate gets the plurality of the vote in each constituency(District)

[@maxdamagusbroski]

Which basically means, it is proportional representation for your local candidate and community. Just not for the country's leader. So if you want a different party in control, they need to work to win over multiple communities, rather than one or two heavily populated ones.

[@KufLMAO]

Yeah it’s just like America. Complete bs

[@alicemilne1444]

​@maxdamagus It's not proportional representation for the local candidate. "First past the post" means winner takes all.

[@G1NZOU]

@@alicemilne1444 Yeah I think he may have got confused between the terms "proportional representation" and "representative democracy", the rest of what he explained as electing your local MP and the party that has a majority of seats gets to form a government, or the largest party can form a coalition in the case of no majority. Like you said the way we elect the various MPs in each area is via first past the post.

[@G1NZOU]

​@@KufLMAO A little but not quite, in America they have local areas decide on presidential elecitons, but many states have a winner takes all policy where even if the state is somewhat divided with various counties voting differently, they'll give all the state's electors to the winner. And they vote directly for the presidential candidate. In the UK, we vote for our MP's, almost like voting in members of congress, and the party with the most seats wins, unlike the American Presidential system we don't vote for a Prime Minister and a Deputy Prime Minister, if a Prime Minister steps down the party in government votes for a new party leader.

[@sallytsang9444]

The most striking thing about a political change as dramatic as this in the UK is that no one queries the results, the standing prime minister leaves No 10 that morning, delivers a speech and immediately travels to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to the King. The newly elected Prime Minister then goes to the Palace and the King invites him to form a Government. The new Prime Minister returns to Downing Street gives a speech and enters No 10, After lunch the new PM calls in MPs from his party and assigns them roles in his Cabinet and the wheels of Government continue to roll without missing a beat, aside from a change in the approach to tackling the existing issues based on their political leanings. It is quick, efficient and good mannered.

[@CaptainBollocks....]

A very succinct explanation, even for this Brit it helped me understand the ease of the transfer lol

[@AG-gr4yx]

It's incredibly impressive how refined the process is; I walked into my polling station with no queue and voted at 9.30pm on Thursday. I woke up Friday morning and the election had been counted and winner declared, and by lunchtime Starmer was PM... 14 hours after the polls closed. If only we could be that efficient in other areas of running the country.

[@G1NZOU]

I'm amazed how efficiently and no-nonsense we manage to do it, UK politics is sometimes a mess but when it comes to voting and the elections, we stand calmly, listen to the results, and politicians accept them. If there is true cause for a recount we do it but for the most part we have politicians who are graceful in defeat and don't needlessly call into question the process, stiff upper lip, done in time for tea, very British. Last council election my postal vote didn't get counted because my signature had changed so much from the time I first registered, so they sent me a letter to confirm my DOB and submit a new signature before this general election, no fuss. My father is a councillor so I may have been a bit biased and voted for him in the local elections, but despite not agreeing with the Conservative councillor when he came round canvassing he was a pleasant person to speak to.

[@Dreyno]

Sorry, but this or something equally mundane is the norm in democracies around the world. It is not striking in any way. Trump throwing his toys out of the pram last time is the aberration.

[@AG-gr4yx]

@@Dreyno Most democratic countries, yes. Trump had two months to throw as many toys out of the pram as he could between the election and the counting of electoral college votes. Or there is legislation to stop people giving water to those queuing to vote... Why are there queues so long that it even needs considering?

[@wobaguk]

Labour has, over the last 50 years or so, sort of oscillated between trad socialist and centrist, with a bit of left flavour. They pretty much get into power when they are most centrist and the Tories have ticked off enough voters to have people jump ship. Its generally accepted that the big shift to Labour this time does not represent any kind of collective shift in the political taste of the nation, more that people just desperately need a change from the recent government.

[@maxdamagusbroski]

Yes, the Labour vote share is almost identical to what it was when Corbyn was absolutely decimated by the Conservatives. Labour are what were left after all the protest votes against Conservatives. I voted Reform, knowing they wouldn't win in my constituency, although I did listen to Peter Hitchens.. and he makes a damned strong case against voting for whoever had the best chance of denying any Labour seats. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iIXUe6l3jslgnJo

[@CM-ey7nq]

As a Norwegian, a close ally and just a short row down to the UK historically... OK, Ryanair these days... Methinks that the UKians craved an actual adult at the helm. Call it a protest vote if you wish, but all my UK friends are sick and tired of Johnson, Truss and all the myriads of PMs the Tories have come up with. They hope for some stabilty. Let's hope that "boring" Starmer can deliver that, for all our sakes. Time will tell.

[@mitchverr9330]

So true, theres 100% been a wish for years now for adults to take over the government. People have grown very tired of the "no its your fault!" crap. Starmer has already proven his "bold boring" with his cabinet, picking professionals in their fields and wanting good, proven reform programs to help the UK advance. Normalcy returns.

[@samuelpinder1215]

​@@mitchverr9330normality**

[@Delogros]

We are more tired of both the main party's at this point because they are very similar to each other as they have moved to the middle the differences get less, this election had a exceptionally low turn out and less then 60% of voters voted for 1 of the 2 main party's, it's also worth pointing out that only 20% or so of actual eligable voters even voted for labour at all, they had there worst ever reslt in vote share in 2019 and this time around they only increased it by 1/6%, the first past the post system hides how fragile Labours win actually is.

[@Delogros]

@@mitchverr9330 We'll see, Starmer however has 0 people in his cabinet who voted for Brexit, at least the Tory's tried to have a representative cabinet while Starmer has no one to speak for the 52% which I see as a fairly major problem just in principal.

[@mitchverr9330]

@@Delogros they are not similar to each other. The tories crippled the country and looted the copper piping out the walls. Labour doesnt do that. Genuinely boggles my mind how anyone can think they are the same.

[@cdwyer737]

Connor FYI: Reform UK party is like if Marjory Taylor Green had her own party in the US!

[@andrewmills509]

Good shout about reform being the Marjory Taylor Green of UK politics. One tories used to be more like the Democrats but in recent years they have become more right wing and now you would relate them to republicans and the Trumpers. Labour and Lib Dem’s are probably some way between The Democrats and Bernie some of their policies are LW and some more RW. It makes us laugh when Americans call the democrats socialists in the UK we see them as centre right and the Republicans as bat shit crazy far right.

[@Langstrath]

Not really a fair comparison. She's a conspiracy theorist from what I've read. Reform UK are not.

[@Dreyno]

Except Reform know that Gestapo isn’t a soup because they’d quite like to be in it.

[@wessexdruid7598]

@@Dreyno Farage and Trump are great friends and pro each other.

[@AndyKing1963]

but without the intelligence ;)

[@johnloony68]

The first Labour Prime Minister was Ramsay Macdonald (1924, 1929-1935) but without Labour having a majority.

[@LilMonkeyFella87]

7:30. Thats Larry the Cat! "Chief Mouser" is his title. Its customary for 10 Downing Street to have a cat

[@victoriarobinson3909]

He was the only competent candidate elected during 14 years of the Conservatives.

[@kopynd1]

and now they have a rat

[@tableface77]

@@kopynd1 No that was before. They didn't call Rishi "Roland Rat" for nothing ;-)

[@johnloony68]

3:11 "Brighton Pavilion" is the name of the constituency which has a Green Party MP. "constituency" = "Congressional District". In the USA they only have numbers (e.g. "California 13th Congressional District"). In the UK they have geographical names. "Brighton Pavilion" is an unusual name because it should really just be called "Brighton Central". They called it "Pavilion" because the Pavilion (built by King George IV) is a prominent local landmark. It would be like having a Congressional District called "Mount Rushmore".

[@bvdga6136]

@@HunkumSpunkumclearly not seeing as they took two seats off of the conservatives in their heartlands

[@gilbertbpuk]

@@HunkumSpunkum Or North Herefordshire, or Waveney Valley, it seems...

[@DavidZ4-gg3dm]

@@gilbertbpuk How did the Greens win there?

[@auldfouter8661]

@@DavidZ4-gg3dm Therese Coffey LOL

[@G1NZOU]

@@DavidZ4-gg3dm As someone who goes boating in Norfolk quite a lot, it's fairly rural, and the Conservatives have made a mess of the market for farmers, both in terms of labour shortages, food prices putting the squeeze on farmers, and ignoring rural Britain to focus on cities. I remember driving through to see a bunch of Churches about the time of the Brexit referendum and there were plenty of "vote leave" signs, but Conservatives messed it up. The Greens fielded a candidate who was liked, and was previously a successful Norwich City Councillor, and a Norwich native, so they did it right in terms of selecting a candidate and the electorate responded positively.

[@neilpickup237]

It all happens rather quickly in the UK. The voting stopped at 10 pm on Thursday. Most of the votes were counted overnight, and we knew that Labour had won around 5am. on Friday morning. The Conservative Prime Minister was packing up and the removal vans had left during Friday Morning, after which he gave a leaving speech on the steps of No10 Downing Street (the official residence) before going to the palace to hand his resignation to the King at lunchtime. The soon to be new PM then meets with the King just a few minutes later to accept his offer to form a government. After a short private audience (meeting) with the King, the new PM returned to Downing Street where he gave a short speech before entering the building to start work. From the end of voting to the new PM starting work all being completed well within 24 hours. In fact, there isn't that much difference between the length of the handover ceremony in the US and the time it can takes from the result being known and the new PM getting on with the job!

[@Waterford1992]

4:44 Correction: Reform UK actually won 5 seats with the 5th one being declared the next day after 3 recounts because the results were very close.

[@jt0094]

Reform gets over 4 million votes and only 5 seats…. Meanwhile Lib Dem’s receive nearly a million less votes and somehow get nearly 10x the seats…. Something isn’t right

[@solentbum]

If you can look at the BBC or ITV coverage of the speeches by Mr Sunak and later Mr Starmer in Downing Street. A smooth, civilised handover of governance with no srguments, rioting, threats, or even recourse to the Courts. Mr Sunak stepped down and ceremonially walked off 'into the sunset', followed by Mr Starmer formally introducing himself to the country, and cermonially entered No 10. Such a contrast to the USA way! An important factor is that the machinery of Government continues uninterupted, our civil service is indenpendent of Party,

[@royw-g3120]

Also we dont have a very politicized Supreme Court. I dont know who our judges on it even are.

[@richt71]

Hey Connor, Exit poll is where a national survey company has people stood outside as they exit the local polling stations (where people go to cast their vote) and they stop people and ask who they voted for via a form with no identifying details. They work out from this data trends with a computer. They're usually not too wrong in the past.

[@henrybest4057]

And note, by law, they are not allowed to question people going in to vote.

[@tommcglone2867]

Its not about percentage of votes its about how many parliamentary constituencies you win and Labour targeted seats which were likely to swing towards them from the Tories. Thats how 10 members of the previous Tory Government have lost their seats. I personally am beyond overjoyed as i am a blood and thunder, dyed in the wool Labour supporter.

[@lorrainemcgregor1759]

I say, give the new goverment a chance, the Tories had their chance and stuffed it up. Purely out of curiosity, i watched (5min each day, all i could stomach) GB NEWS, hilarious how they are tying themselves in knots with their post-election autopsy..and scaremongering. 😂😂😂

[@jacquelinepearson2288]

The UK doesn't have a proportional representation system, it's "first past the post" in each constituency. That's why there is an anomaly between the number of seats won and the percentage of votes for each party. Reform gained 14.3% of votes cast and only won 5 seats, whereas the Liberal Democrats had 13.2% and won 71 seats. The turnout of the population eligible to vote was low - 60%.

[@G1NZOU]

True, on the subject of Lib Dems, they do quite well in local elections, and they did worse in the last general election. What they did this time is focus campaigning in areas they were likely to win, since FPTP means chasing a few hundred extra votes in areas that Labour dominate is basically pointless, and the strategy worked for them.

[@Dreyno]

@@G1NZOUThat’s because they’re a real party who understand politics and not a private, limited company vehicle for one man’s out of control ego.

[@bobsteele9581]

You should be aware that this video didn't actually give the final results of the election, since it was filmed before a number of constituency results were announced. The final result was Lab: 412 seats, Con: 121, LD 72, SNP: 9, Ref: 5, Grn: 4 , PC (Welsh Nationalist): 2 + the Northern Irish parties and independents which amounted to 23 .

[@CaptainB1994]

A guy called Ramsay McDonald was the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924 (though this was what is called a minority government meaning they don't have enough seats to have half+1) the first Labour Prime Minister to rule in a majority government was Clement Atlee in 1945. The UK uses First Past the Post rather than Proportional Representation used by most of Europe.

[@nbartlett6538]

To be fair to the US, a big reason why it takes so long for the handover of power is that the system dates back to a time when it took over 2 weeks for news of the election results to get from one side of the country to the other. Secondly, the UK has a much deeper permanent civil service, so only the minister in charge of a department needs to change, along with a few political advisors. In the US, a new administration has to appoint literally thousands of new personnel, and hundreds of them need to get approval from the Senate.

[@andypham1636]

also back then, it would take longer for the president elect to get to DC

[@elethio]

A few important facts missed: 1. This election had one of the lowest turnouts (number of people voting) ever. Only 59% of the population voted. 2. Labour had nearly the lowest vote share (32% of total votes) of any elected party in history. 3. Labour had its lowest number of votes (9.6m) since 2015 (9.3m). Lower than 2019, (10.3m) which was 'considered' a low point (for comparison 2017 gave them 12.8m votes). What the heck happened? The country seriously wanted rid off the Tories. But Starmer was an unpopular choice as replacement. Large numbers of people prefered not voting at all, or voting for a minor party, rather than voting for him.

[@elethio]

Starmer has a good lead, but not a lot of support (Yeah, weird I know). If someone can motivate voters with exciting policies in 2028, Starmer could loose his lead far more easily than the Tories (who lost nearly 50% of their voters in one election cycle), or even his majority. Either way, its almost certain that Starmer will loose votes to minor parties next election, and with only a 2m vote lead over the conservatives (Yes, our system is incredibly imbalanced) every vote Starmer can hang on to counts. FYI, Starmer is a corrupt & terrible person, I can't wait to see him kicked out. But he deserves that fate no more than the Tories do. He's effectively turned the Labour party into the Conservatives 2.0, in policy and morals. I know this because I only recently left his party in disgust. There's so much he's done that the gen public have no idea about.

[@hazelmurdoch6529]

Also Reform candidates basically took half the Tory vote in some seats, meaning Labour or someone else got in. Some Tories are saying they need to be more like them - ie, *more* racist and anti-refugee. Some even want Farage (the Reform leader) as Tory leader!

[@elethio]

​@hazelmurdoch6529 Exit Polls put Reform at about 14 seats, meaning there are about 10 other seats were Reform may have given Labour the lead over the Tories. Conversly they're are some seats were Labour split the vote with independants or Libs etc, which allowed the Cons or another party to take the seat. But there were probably less than 10 of these. One seat was the one Faisa Shaheen ran it, she was a Very popular left Labour MP, whom Starmer kicked out last minute. This cost Labour the seat.

[@dianeshelton9592]

@@elethiooh get a grip. Starmer is a well respected Barrister who served on the human rights court. He was leader of the Crown prosecution service. You may not like him but to call him corrupt is ridiculous.

[@JaceMorley]

@@hazelmurdoch6529 although when voters are polled on how they voted compared to previous elections, it's not as simple as "Con -> Reform", Reform took a chunk of former Labour voters who then were 'replenished' by Conservative voters switching to Labour. So that's more them projecting their own wishes for the party in many ways.

[@speleokeir]

The US electoral system was based on the British 'First Past The Post' one, so they are very similar. The country is broken down into electoral wards/constituencies, each of which can vote for an MP to represent them in Parliament. An MPs constituency/ward is also known as their 'seat' as it earns them a seat in Parliament. Each ward is roughly similar in the number of people they represent, so big cities will have several wards, London loads, whereas rural wards cover a much bigger geographical area as they're much more sparsely populated. There are 650 seats in Parliament. If a party gains 326 MPs they have a majority and will form the new Government. The leader of the Party automatically becomes the Prime Minster. He then picks who his Ministers will be. Normally these are senior members of his party ,but don't have to be. In theory under FPTP a party could be second in every single ward by a few votes and get NO MPs. In fact in one election the Lib/Dems got 26% of the vote and only 11 seats! Many people feel FPTP is an unfair and outdated system as if your chosen candidate doesn't win your vote is discarded. This means in every election the majority of votes are discarded and so all those millions of people are unrepresented in Parliament. Consequently most of the population want to switch to PR where every vote counts, but the two main parties don't as FPTP works in their favour and the samller parties get far fewer seats than they should. It also means people often vote tactically for their second or third choice in order to stop one of the two main parties winning in their ward, rather than for their first choice and many people just feel there's no point in voting at all under FPTP. The reason Labour got such a huge majority despite only getting 34% of the vote this election is because the Tories were so corrupt and incompetent even many traditional Conservatives voters wanted them gone. This meant: 1) Many more right wing Tory voters switched to Reform, splitting the right wing vote. The more moderate ones switched to the Lib/Dems. 2) Many people voted tactically for whoever they thought was mostly likely to beat the Tories in their ward. The internet meant there were sites saying who this was. In the South this was often the Lib Dems, pretty much everywhere else this was Labour. Labour didn't win by so much because everyone loves them, but because everyone wanted to get rid of the Tories. Similar in Scotland with the SNP after several big scandals. N.B. The analogy you were given wasn't very accurate as US politics are VERY right wing compared to most of the world. The Democrats would be considered a centre right party here, the Republicans far right, Trump is a fascist and Bernie centre left. Traditionally*: Left Wing = Labour Centrist = The Lib/Dems and Greens. The Greens are quite a new party Right Wing = Conservatives (aka Tories). Fun fact Tory is an Irish word for bandit/brigand . They are also often called the Nasti party - which tells you all you need to know. And Nigel Farrage's Reform party are a mix of fascists, racists and loony conspiracy theorists.😵‍💫😱😱😱 He has strong links with 55 Tufton St, a far right thin tank funded by US billionaires like Robert Mercer and the Koch brothers who also fund Steve Bannon and Trump, as were Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Farage also has strong ties to all the far right/fascist groups in Europe and N.America, not to mention Putin who supports them all with funds, online propaganda, etc as he considers them useful idiots who bring division to NATO countries and so weaken his enemies. Reform don't have any real policies except to scape-goat immigrants for all the country's problems. Much like the Nazi's did with the Jews. Sound familiar? Farrage has recreated his party several times. They were originally UKIP, then the Brexit Party and now Reform. He did this because each party leader can be voted out by the party's members. He didn't like this, as he's a wannabe dictator, so when he formed Reform he made himself leader for life. Much like Putin or Hitler both of whom he admires. *Currently the two main parties have both moved more to the right. - The Conservatives are far right. - Labour are centrist/centre left. The Lib Dems and Greens haven't changed their stance, but are arguably slightly more to the left than Labour based on their policies at present.

[@_starfiend]

This is actually a pretty good representation.

[@stephendisraeli1143]

Actually, in American terms we have just elected a new Congress, and the House majority leader is the person who runs the government, with cabinet members chosen from his own party within Congress. What could be simpler than that?

[@G1NZOU]

Essentially this, we don't require a President because the King technically fulfils that function just with more limitations on power than the US President. They give their assent to new legislation but they don't do executive orders.

[@mitchverr9330]

Cabinet members are not only chosen from the party though, and in this case, arguably, true too. While the majorty are labour MPs, 3 specific cabinet ministers are not and had to be brought into the House of Lords to become ministers. Those 3 being the attorney general, science minister and prisons minister, all 3 are independent and experts in those fields for innovation or just holding the government to account so, very good picks. If necessary, opposition MPs are also invited into the cabinet, though very rare for obvious reasons.

[@stephendisraeli1143]

@@mitchverr9330 Yes, I was giving a n over-simplified guide in order to display the basic parallels.

[@ConnorEllisMusic]

The right lost The far right tried The centre left won.

[@sammason5178]

There are 650 seats up for grabs. Each one is a separate entity. Political parties nominate a person to stand in each seat, plus individuals can stand in a personal capacity. If you are first, even by one vote, you become an MP and represent that area. Each district, town, city is divided into constuencies of about 70000 voters.

[@celer_et_audax]

100,000+ per constituency...650 seats X 100,000 people= 65million + population.

[@wodmarach]

@@celer_et_audax Voters =/= population. Constituency size is decided by voter count not population count.

[@celer_et_audax]

@@wodmarach rubbish...each constituency has 100,000 people in it. Your saying a constituency is decided by voters???? How would they know where to draw borders of constituency if they don't know who is going to vote?? People not voters make up a constituency. By your numbers of 70,000 per constituency suggests ther is only 45 million people in UK?? 650 X 70,000 = 45.

[@stephenlee5929]

@@celer_et_audax Constituencies are based on the number of Voters (those eligible to vote not those who actually vote). Basically you take the total UK eligible voter count, divide this by 650, and each constituency should have that many eligible voters, there should be a 5% margin. Children and other non eligible (for voting) residence are not too be considered. There are separate rules for each country. It is possible for someone to be on multiple registers, for instance Students, being 'away to study'. Not sure but the average of 70,000 seems to be based on the Electoral Rolls of 2021.

[@wodmarach]

@stephenlee5929 yes borders are drawn based on the number of eligible voters at the time of the last census and are redrawn as required at that time. I will admit though the Torys gerrymandering this time was insane county borders are generally used as hard limits... but not this time! They tried to ensure the red wall could never reform and failed.

[@mpmlopes]

I don't think this video was very helpful. It gave a bunch of number, but said very little about what they mean and the process behind it. It also focused a lot on the tories and their future and almost ignored the elected party.

[@Psi-Storm]

It's just the election result video. They had another before the election explaining the parties and the voting system.

[@johnloony68]

2:32 Because the voting system is the same as in the USA - a party which gets 14% of the votes gets lots of 3rd places and 2nd places, but very few first places.

[@cutthr0atjake]

Its not the same though, as the votes are for local mp's, not for the prime minister.

[@DavidZ4-gg3dm]

Reform were second in over 90 constituencies.

[@johnhandelaar]

@@cutthr0atjake It is the same though, because US votes in Congressional elections are for local representatives, not the House Majority leader

[@tull0088]

It would really only be the same if the House majority leader also became the President​@@johnhandelaar

[@John-K638]

The reason you can get, say, 20% but only a few seats is, as you say because of the way the votes are distributed. If you get 20% everywhere and come second everywhere you stand you'd end up with no seats. What you need is for your votes to be clumped together just enough to win in as many constituencies as possible. The First Past the Post produces bizarre results.

[@KernowWarrior]

The exit poll, is literally someone outside the polling station, with a ballot box and asking then to replicate the vote they cast. This can be totalled during the day, but legally they can not announce the results until the polls are closed. Obviously not all polling stations are polled, but enough to give fairly accurate prediction

[@anthonymullen6300]

Will the Labour Party be in power for the next decade? that's a difficult question but Labour only got 34% of the vote, the Conservatives got 24% of the vote, the reform party got 15% of the vote, and let's not forget Scotland and the catastrophe for the SNP losing so many Westminster seats to Labour. So the conclusion is if don't hold on to Scottish seats and if the Tories can take back reform party share of the vote and more people turn out to vote in the next election the Tory Party could be in power again the Labour Party does not have a huge mandate even though they have that many seats and they know that.

[@G1NZOU]

Personally I feel they have a decent enough mandate, yes the turnout was lower, but I wouldn't count non-voters as all deliberately anti-labour, or a mandate for the Tories to challenge since anyone who didn't vote for Labour but didn't vote for the Conservatives either isn't guaranteed to support the opposition. We'll have to wait and see how Labour perform and if they can capitalise on the seats they gained, if they do well it might convince some voters to be less apathetic to politics than the last few years have made them.

[@Diamond-vy1lx]

So if you can imagine this: Labor lost some votes since last election. The Conservatives however imploded. So Labor won by default, and the Lib Dems also won the seats (districts) where they were close behind the Conservatives. If you can imagine districts where last time Conservatives got 40% and Labor got 33%, now Conservatives got 25% and Labor 35%, so Labor just wins by default without a massive increase in support.

[@aussieragdoll4840]

There was an election in Queensland, Australia (some time ago now) where the Liberal National Party (like the Republicans) won in a landslide. Labor (like the Democrats) was almost wiped out. Elections at the time were every 3 years (I think it is now every 4yrs). The Premier (like a US Governor), Campbell Newman, made so many cuts and changes that were deeply unpopular, that he was absolutely turfed out of office at the very next election. Not only did the LNP lose the election to Labor…. Newman lost his own seat! So, depending on how a party governs, if they govern only for their mates, cut face to face services etc… the voters will turn on them & get rid of them.

[@selinaCC1]

i really dislike the way this video presented the information ( not your fault Connor ) they went on too much about the Conservative future and no where near enough about the Labour win or our new Prime Minister , even though I understand how the UK election works , his presentation was muddled and overly complicated .

[@tihomirrasperic]

2:45 The UK has a different electoral system the system is "first come" in the county The UK has 650 counties So if you have 5 candidates, the candidate who wins the most votes in the county wins generally, your party can win 30% of the votes in the UK, but not have a single representative (not that it happens, but it is possible) *** 10:40 no, Labor is "safe" for the next 5 years until the next election but the current result means nothing, if they screw up like the conservative party, the numbers will turn again British voters are ruthless

[@oufc90]

I think, theoretically at least, you can get 49% share of the vote and get no seats. Providing that the remaining 51% is only one party, and you marginally finish second to them in every constituency. Obviously that won’t happen, but that’s an extreme version of what happened to Reform getting 14% of the vote and only 4 out of 650 seats/constituencies. Hopefully that makes sense anyway

[@Psi-Storm]

You even could not get a majority of the seats with over two thirds of the total votes. You basically win close to half the seats with a 90% result, and lose the rest of the seats being just a few points short each.

[@Markus117d]

Doesn't even have to be only one party, All that's really required is that all for example the Conservatives candidates lose to either Labour, lib dem, green, reform, independent ect in each of the constituency's by one vote, Resulting in a large overall percentage, But not a single MP..

[@thomasbaird7559]

Brighton pavilion is an area which represented by 1 MP. When we vote we elect our MP not the Prime Minister. The MP who can get the most MPs to back them is invited by the King to form a government. As the political parties all have leaders we normally know who that will be as soon as all the results are in.

[@johnmartin7599]

The Conservative are like old style Republicans, Labour are like Democrats, Reform are like MAGA, .Liberals are between Republicans and Democrats. Simply the UK House of Commons has 650 seats in it. Each seat is a geographical area in the country called a "Parliamentary Constituency" (Congressional or Senate Disrrict in the US). Each political party puts candidates up in each Constituency (district) for election. The locals in the Constituency vote for who they want to represent them in the House of Commons. The magic number is 326 seats, the party that gets 326 seats wins and is the government. Similar to the US, whoever gets 270 electoral college votes is the President. The thing here is that Labour have decimated the Conservatives. The liberals have came back after getting hammered in the 2015? election after voting for university tuition fees and putting a load of students in debt for the rest of thier lives. The Conservative were elected in 2010 beating Labour and they introduced austerity which savagely cut budgets and services which included firing 21000 cops, they then gave us a referendum about leaving the EU where vested interests that wanted to leave the EU told us we would be far better off and £350m per week would go back into the NHS, the country voted to leave the EU and we were told it would take weeks to leave the EU. The EU said "no it wont". The problem is that Brexit lobby wanted a hard Brexit to stick two fingers up at the EU as they were making a fortune from Brexit. They sent that idiot David Davies across to Brussels to negotiate and he pissed away 2 years with no deal. The EU were ready and prepared for negotiations and took them to the cleaners. This country ended up far worse off. Then we had zcovid where Boris Johnson totally fluffed the response and the NHS nearly collapsed due to the cuts brought in by austerity, which led to many deaths. Then we are told that while we are told to bey Covid restrictions him and his staff are having drunken parties in No. 10 which then led to Liz Truss who nearly destroyed the economy and she was forced to resign which gave us Rishi Sunak. The country had enough and voted in Labour to get rid of the Conservatives. The Conservative have been destroyed, and for the last few years they have been like the Republicans going to become MAGA. Reform is led by Nigel Farage who is basically Trump and because of this election the far right in the Conservatives will want ask him to join them. You'll see Farage in Nov where he will be in the US schilling for the Trump campaign.

[@peterdollins3610]

Andrew Marr says this is the largest shift in the number of MPs since 1635--or thereabouts.

[@slashdisco]

Brit here: we may be extremely divided in the UK (as is everywhere else), but one thing we ALL agree on, ALWAYS, is the integrity of our elections. No matter whom we support, we all accept that the election results are accurate. It's a great source of pride to Britons that we have a quick, peaceful and undisputed transition of power. So did the USA, until your 45th president. I didn't support Rishi Sunak, but I URGE you to watch his resignation speech as an example of how graciously our leader passes the torch. It's an incredible speech.

[@MrE1871]

I noticed you smiled when Larry the cat appeared Connor. No doubt you remembered him from the video you watched on the Chief Mouser. The new Prime Minister has a lot of problems to deal with and will have another one to because his family have a cat of their own which they will be bringing with them to live at number ten. Larry has yet to comment on this news.

[@wessexdruid7598]

He can't comment - he's a civil servant.

[@MrE1871]

@@wessexdruid7598 😂

[@noefillon1749]

Next video is the French election results haha We got them tonight, it's unprecedented under the 5th republic, with a winner-takes-all system to have 3 major forces almost tied together. What will happen next is going to be interesting. I hope you react to them

[@andypham1636]

not winner take all, two round

[@noefillon1749]

@@andypham1636 May be the expression I used is not appropriate. What I meant is that when you one party wins a constituency/district, it gets the only seat, regardless of the other candidates' number of votes, which encourages voters to vote strategically rather than sincerely, reduces the number of viable alternatives (usually only 2 or 3 parties have a chance) and usually grants one party a large majority in the Assembly.

[@MS-19]

10:17 It's notable that in this election, a large Conservative majority was overturned by a massive Labour majority. Between 1979 and 2024, each party won several elections in a row - Conservatives in 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1992, then Labour in 1997, 2001 and 2005, then the Conservatives (although they needed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to secure a working majority) in 2010, 2015, 2017 and 2019. The most significant results in all those years were 1983 when Margaret Thatcher led the Conservatives from a comfortable majority to a landslide, and 1997 when Tony Blair led Labour to its biggest landslide on record. In both of those years, political commentators were saying that the opposition (Labour in '83, Conservatives in '97) would have an Everest to climb before they were likely to return to power, and that turned out to be the case. While the Conservatives won a sizeable majority under Boris Johnson in 2019, Labour dropped to their lowest number of seats since before WW2, and this had commentators reiterating that line ("they have a mountain to climb if they want to undo that majority, it could take them at least a decade" etc.). Even as 2024 dawned and talk of an election within a year became louder, it was being observed that Labour would need an unprecedentedly large swing of the vote share, larger even than Blair's in '97, even just to obtain the smallest possible majority. In the end, however, it wasn't a swing to them but a swing away from the Conservatives in multiple directions - especially to Reform UK - that sealed Labour's victory. That raises another important point: although smaller parties don't tend to do well under First Past the Post (and there can be no better example than Reform, netting the third highest share of the vote over the whole country but winning only 5 seats) they can have the effect of diluting the vote share for larger parties, depriving them of success in some areas or seriously weakening their position in others. That's more or less what happened in 1983, in fact, with the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party (working as an Alliance that would later formally merge and become the present-day Liberal Democrats) coming within a million votes of Labour's total and weakening them enough to allow dozens of Conservatives to win. That being said, there are more political parties in the UK now, with representatives in Parliament, than there were in the 80s or 90s: the Green Party (known in the 80s as the Ecology Party) didn't win a seat until 2010; Reform UK was only formed in 2019 (as the Brexit Party, renaming itself after January 2020 when Brexit was formally enacted) so 2024 is the first General Election they've even contested. So it's entirely possible that in 2029, or sooner if the next election is called before the 5-year Parliamentary term expires, Labour could lose to the Conservatives, though it's just as likely they will return with a smaller majority or be forced into minority government in a hung Parliament.

[@benl9047]

The big 5 parties would be the following types of politicians in the USA: Reform = Trump/MAGA Republicans. Nigel Farage has literally campaigned for Trump and Trump congratulated him on winning a seat in the UK parliament for the first time. Conservative party = Non-MAGA Republicans, someone more moderate like Mitt Romney. (Although some Conservatives are more radical and similar to Reform.) Labour = Very centrist left-wing party, similar to Biden. Lib Dem = Pretty centrist too, maybe slightly left of Labour at the moment and more socially liberal (e.g. they openly support legalising weed) and appeal to young and well educated voters. Greens = Bernie Sanders wing of the Democrats.

[@johnloony68]

4:47 Reform actually got 5 seats

[@paulicini]

Plus one "associated" MP from Northern Ireland, so 6.

[@ladykaycey]

​@@pauliciniI hadn't heard that. Good on them!

[@brigidsingleton1596]

Sadly true.

[@grog159]

@@brigidsingleton1596 cope about it

[@TheMoonRover]

And the Liberal Democrats got 72. A couple of results were declared later than the rest.

[@user-vh7uo2su3h]

Some constituencies are safe 'seats' which means that they rarely change 'hands' because of their heavy majorities. Others are more evenly balanced and are called 'marginals' and can swing unexpectedly in terms of voting. Pollsters tend to use the marginals more when trying to predict outcomes countrywide. However...lately smaller parties like the Greens, Plaid Cymru (Wales) and SNP (Scotland) have been able to over come some of the disadvantages of this voting system: one way is to use tactical voting, meaning not to vote for the party you want to win because they are falling behind, but to vote for the party that is most likely to beat the party you want to remove. You vote against not for. In the last 2 elections the majorities of safe seats holders have not proved to be so safe anymore. The swings have been unprecedented. I believe the next few years we will be living "in interesting times". BTW a previous Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg is now second-in-charge at Meta.

[@ethanjones1770]

So, regarding 2:43, they got 14.3% of the National vote, so all the constituencies were added together. However, if you look at it by individual constituency, the Greens got the most votes in 4 of the 650, the ones mentioned at 2:58. "Brighton Pavilion" as far as I'm aware, also being an American, is just the name of the constituency, like the Districts here in the US. (Ours are just boringly numbered, theirs are named).

[@lynnejamieson2063]

In the UK at a general election every vote cast is for the MP that will represent the constituency that you live in. So the candidate in each constituency that gets the most votes becomes the MP. The party that has control over the House of Commons is decided by the party who has the most MP’s (either by having at least 326 MP’s or the highest amount and creating a coalition with another party). So overall vote share doesn’t necessarily reflect the seats as some candidates will win their seats with smaller percentages than others with the ranking in constituencies varying too. This is quite strongly reflected in the SNP results as they lost 39 seats but their actual vote share only reduced by 1.4%. You cannot make any guarantees when it comes to how long a party will be in power in the UK as a PM can call a snap election if they feel it’s necessary or they can wait the full five years, depending on performance they might not win the next election or the might win many. Starmer might get replaced as leader due to the party no longer having trust in his ability to lead, resulting in a new leader that could either be loved or loathed once they have taken control. There are too many variables to make even an educated prediction.

[@LilMonkeyFella87]

Since its topical with what just happened, you should see a Monty Python video I have up "Monty Python's Flying Circus - Election Night Special - 1970"

[@TonySpike]

The easiest way to find out how British politics works, is to watch Jay Foreman (of Map Men) series, Politics Unboringed (Edit: CGP Grey also does a video on vote share as well) Us attempting to explain things to you could possibly make things worse 😂

[@wibbliams]

Quite old though but yeah

[@TonySpike]

​@@wibbliams their is also a CGP Grey video that explains vote share as well

[@stephenlee5929]

Agreed.

[@G1NZOU]

Really good suggestion, Jay is great.

[@rogergill1969]

I know there is an element of click bait with titles of you tube videos. But so many just make Americans look deeply ignorant of everything that don’t relate to pick up trucks or NASCAR.

[@marcuscarman1854]

The exit poll is a different kind of poll, they give people a mock ballot paper after they have voted, usually outside the polling station and try to guess the results from those, usually they predict the winner pretty well

[@MissSekhmet666]

Uk uses a voting system called "First Past the Post" so in each voting district (constituency like "Brighton Pavillion") each person will stand as a Representative for their chosen party, and the one with the most votes in that district, wins the seat, and that Rep will then rep their party in parliament. The 'vote share' is down to how many people voted over the whole UK for that party. But in each district the voter turn out can vary wildly. Some had as low as 40% turn out, and some as high as 70.. that can mean 1000s of votes more cast in one district than another. So while a reform candidate in one district came second with 17k votes to a Labour 19k, in another they may have won first with 5k votes to a labour 4.5k. This is why 'vote share' does not mirror the amount of Seats won.

[@vargr2089]

UK really needs to adopt Proportional Representation. First Past The Post is such a broken system. ReformUK got 4m votes but only 5 seats, had we got PR, they'd have 94.

[@user-xi6nk4xs4s]

Only if the voting would have been the same in a PR system. That's not certain at all. Their was a referendum on this topic in 2011 I believe?

[@vargr2089]

@@user-xi6nk4xs4s that was alternative vote method , not PR

[@janehayward9453]

Yes, losing your seat means you've been voted out. You are no longer an MP and your staff have lost their jobs.

[@MS-19]

If you were an MP from one of the major parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats) you cannot be in the running to lead the party, since the rules of those parties require such a key position to be held by an MP. Technically, you might also not be in the running to serve as a Minister of State, but such positions can be held (and as recently as 2024 have been held) by members of the House of Lords - although this is controversial, because the Lords do not take seats in the Commons, therefore MPs cannot question them directly about the government policies for which they are accountable.

[@marceatslorries5600]

It’s far from certain that Labour will go on to a win 2nd term after the next election, scheduled for 5yrs time (though could in certain circumstances be called sooner). It’s very difficult to estimate how likely that would even be. Their majority has been described as “broad but shallow” in that they won a huge number of seats, but many were close calls. It’s perceived by some that a lot of their votes were from people that just wanted to get the Tories out rather than having any enthusiasm for Labour or their policies. If Labour are able to relatively quickly show that they are at least on the right path to improving people’s lives, they may be able to firm up the support they were given in the General Election.

[@Millennial_Manc]

There’s no guarantee Labour will win a second term. This isn’t like Tony Blair’s landslide in 1997. Turnout was significantly smaller than the last election. Labour received about 10m votes on Thursday. At the last election in 2019 they had 10.3m votes and lost with 262 seats. This was a vote to punish the Conservative Party not enthusiasm for Labour. Sir Keir Starmer is woefully unpopular and much less popular than his party. They have also bound their hands by committing not to raise income taxes, which will hinder them from fixing what they have pledged to fix. Reform ended up with 5 seats after some recounts. This is impressive because it’s a new party and our First Past The Post system doesn’t favour small parties or independents. Considering how far they’ve come, they could become the official opposition at the next general election by reaching second highest number of seats. If Labour really screw it up, Reform could win it.

[@busylawbee]

lol - no

[@Millennial_Manc]

@@busylawbee 2 weeks ago the media and polls said they wouldn’t get a single seat Reform can’t win because they’re offering something brilliant but because of extreme apathy with the rest and the appetite for a protest vote, especially now that Blair is literally and directly the puppet master for this government.

[@apsutcliffe2010]

Polling is a lot more complex than randomly asking people. They generally ask about 25,000 - 30,000, but they also weight answers by region, and use a multiplier to compare to previous general election, and any lo al election. Very complex algorithm

[@MantisEnergy]

Yep, Reform came second a lot generally, taking many conservative votes, but only came first in a few places. So 14% of the vote, but just a handful of constituencies.

[@paulmidsussex3409]

It can work in your favour if you are concentrated in a small number of seats in 2019 SNP won 47 (7.2%) seats with just 3.0% of the vote. Where as in 2024 they dropped to 9 seats (1.4%) with the same 3% vote share as they went from narrowly winning a lot of seats to narrowly coming second.

[@DEANKEITH-f2p]

Brighton Pavilion is the name of one of the 650 constituancies that have a seat in Parliament ... each person in each constituancy has a vote and the the candidatewith the most votes becomes the MP then the party with most seats forms the goverment

[@ianmurphy7974]

Hi Connor, the easiest way to understand it is, that your Republican Party is like our Conservative Party and the Democratic Party is like our Conservative Party. You don’t really have any thing that is equivalent to our Labour Party (that being said the Labour Party has moved further from the left to an almost centrist position). Keep up the good work mate 👍.

[@Strange_Club]

Funny, but wrong.😅

[@andypham1636]

that's why the Tories lost, they moved to the left

[@robharris8844U]

Reform only got 5 seats but over 4 million voted for them. The next election whoch unfortunately coukd be 5 years, it is evident Reform Party could be the main opposition to Labour Party. They actuallygot more votes than the Liberal Democrat Party who at the moment claiming to be the 3rd Party when actually they really not. Our system needs some sort of shakeup to be more realistic and genuine.

[@paul1979uk2000]

Maybe, but I suspect the Reform party could get wiped out at the next election if the Tories go back to the drawing board and become a more sensible party again. We should also remember that Reform and the Conservative party are fighting for the same voters on the right of the political spectrum, that could end up weakening both parties by dividing up the votes. Another factor, did Reform UK really do that well based on its policies? Or did they do well because the Tories have been a shambles for quite some time now? Basically, if the Tories get back to its routes, they could pretty much wipe out the Reform party, and with rumours of Farage leaving Reform, if that were to happen, that would more or less be the end of Reform UK as I suspect most that voted for them, did so because of Farage. Either way, There's a fair chance that if the Tories get back to some kind of normal and Reform hangs in there, there's a fair chance it could weaken them both, leaving the door open for Labour to win the next few elections unless they really mess up then it could go in any direction. In any case, one thing I think we all can agree on, we need electoral reforms, I don't expect Labour or the Conservative Party do reform the system, but I also don't expect Reform UK to do it if they got the chance, mainly because Farage isn't the kind of guy that cares about any specific policy area and is a bandwagon jumper, feeding off peoples anger and looking for openings to take advantage off, he did that with the EU and once out of the EU, he had to change is platform which he did with Reform UK, but it's hard to be very credible when his policies change with the wind, basically, he doesn't stand for anything but is quite happy to feed on public anger to gain a voice.

[@Dreyno]

No. They are the 3rd party. They have more than 10x the amount of seats. It’s not their fault Reform PLC don’t know how elections work.

[@JohnDuffy-bq8wg]

Conservatives simply don't want to control the borders or leave the echr, they are paid bt outside influences to keep the UK tied too the EU , if they don't drastically change and get rid of their corrupt members then conservatives deserve to dissappear, its going to be a rocky few years, our new defence minister has announced stronger military ties, this spells the end of nato , especially if trump gets in, he won't want to be in a nato that has a separate EU defence

[@wessexdruid7598]

@@paul1979uk2000 Reform did well because people don't know their actual policies (they didn't even produce a manifesto) and they've no track record. They also worked hard, by changing name repeatedly to disguise the fact that they're the same people who were UKIP.

[@robharris8844U]

@@paul1979uk2000 Farage with UKIP actually out voted SNP and Lib Dems and nothing was done. Now its happened again with Reform. Its notable LD appear to be shying away from Personal representation as they can claim to be the 3rd Party when they clearly are not. Love or hate Farage he is exposing the weakness and loopholes in a outdated system that has been far from democratic in the last two elections. As our population in UK explodes it is going to be exposed and discredited even more. Its not good for selling democracy to other nations if yours is so blatantly not.

[@pynk1887]

they usually try to poll a number of people as they leave the voting station

[@BongbongA99]

It's a giant number of seats, yes, but they probably only got something like 30% of the votes (I forget the actual number, someone heard will know), What that means (in my example) is that 70% didn't vote for them.

[@Neofolis]

We have 650 constituencies in the whole of the UK each of which elect one MP. They become the MP for that constituency and also have a seat in Westminster (Houses Of Parliament). The Government is formed by the party with the most MP's, although if there is not an outright majority (326 seats theoretically), they can form a coalition. Because of the first past the post (FPTP) system coalitions are rare, but it also means that with several parties contesting most seats, the party that forms the government rarely has more than 40% of the overall votes and is therefore not representative of most voters. Labour secured less votes in this election than the previous election in 2019 and went from a crushing defeat to a huge victory. The Liberal Democrats received less votes this time and went from 11 seats to 71 seats. Essentially our elections are decided by approximately 1% of the electorate, they are the swing voters (people who vote differently from election to election) in marginal seats (Contituencies where the results are generally close). In the same way that the Democrats in the US usually win the popular vote, even when the Republicans win the election, our electorate are also left leaning and are mostly centre left. Due to the FPTP system the Tories (Conservatives/centre right) usually win despite most voters voting for parties on the left. This is because traditionally the Tories have been the only right wing party outside of Northern Ireland, whereas the left wing vote gets split between several parties. This has changed slightly in recent years with UKIP, then the Brexit Party, now Reform UK. There have been other right wing parties, but they were never large enough to secure many votes.

[@Kamperma]

2:36 So the popular vote thing. Let’s say that there are 3 parties. In Constituency A: Party 1 gets 60% of the vote, Party 2 gets 30% and Party 3 gets 10% Constituency B: Party 1 gets 10%, 2 gets 30% and 3 gets 60% Constituency C: same results as A In this case, Party 2 would have gotten 30% of the overall vote but as they did not come in first in any constituency, they do not get any seats. This happens a lot in the UK as parties such as Reform or Green have voters all across the country but not concentrated enough to win many areas as there is no seat for 2nd place

[@patrickbriscall7934]

Exit polls are based on how people say they voted as exit the polling stations. Not every station has a pollster and not every voter will reveal how they voted.

[@charlie-ug6eo]

6:00 the exit poll is when they ask people who are just leaving after casting their vote

[@aussieragdoll4840]

650 seats in the House of Commons, each has a name (like ‘Brighton Pavilion’). The party with the largest number of seats will become the government, and the leader of that party (chose by the elected party members) becomes Prime Minister. Government changes are almost immediate in UK. There is the ‘ceremonial kissing of the hands’ which happens where the outgoing PM visits Buckingham Palace (arriving by the front door) to tender their resignation to the Monarch. They leave via the back door because at that point they are just a normal citizen, no longer PM. Meanwhile, the new PM arrives at the front door (or soon thereafter) and is taken into their private audience with the Monarch (King Charles now) and the Monarch invites them to form a government in the Monarch’s name. They leave via the front door & are taken to Downing Street where they & their family will live whilst in office. The PM lives in a flat above No 10 Downing Street. The new PM assigns cabinet positions to other elected MPs in their party & they will have their first meeting of the new government that afternoon. There is no 2.5mth delay between election & change of government in UK. UK uses First Past the Post voting. You vote for just one candidate in your electorate, and whichever one gets the most votes, wins the seat. Voting is not compulsory. In Australia, voting is compulsory for all citizens 18yrs & older (it is regarded as a responsibility of citizenship) & we use Preferential Voting (known as “Ranked Voting” in the US). In order to win a seat in Australia, the candidate must gain at least 50% +1 of the possible votes. Some candidates can do this just on the 1st preference votes. Others may need to have the preferences distributed to reach that number. This video will explain why Preferential Voting is more democratic than First Past the Post voting (also… fun fact… Australia invented the Secret Ballot). kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGHbZ2tterCpadEsi=vnEJxm9V4SLGJtoG

[@VictoriaVoltia]

"Who is this guy? What happens last night?" Its a common question for many of us after several hell of a drunk decisions.

[@planekrazy1795]

In the UK the country is divided into parliamentary constituencies (seats). We vote for a local candidate within your constituency, there are candidates from each party, the winning candidate takes the seat and becomes an MP. The party that wins the most seats becomes the next government if they win enough seats that is (326 seats minimum). The Prime Ministers is the leader of the winning party (if they win their seat that is). The National votes cast has little meaning in the UK and dose not give fair representation to the people. The Constituency System means each area gets the most popular MP therefore better representation. This works best because we have a multi party system and all partys including independent candidates get to stand for parliament. National votes cast has more meaning if we have 100% of voters turning out and only a Two Party system. We always get a party complaining about the national vote figures but if they really were that popular then they would win more seats.

[@arwelp]

Every 10 years or so, the boundaries of Parliamentary constituencies are redrawn to account for population changes, by an independent Boundary Commission (there are separate ones for England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). The boundaries were redrawn in 2023, so this election is the first one with the current boundaries (fewer than 80 constituencies had unchanged boundaries since the 2019 election) - Northern Ireland had the same number of seats, Wales had 40 seats and now has 32, Scotland had a few fewer seats, and England was given more seats. The Boundary Commission has to design the boundaries so that they respect natural communities, and have a population of roughly 73,000 electors (the current limits are not fewer than 69,724 electors, and not more than 77,062 electors) - the only exceptions are 5 island constituencies, for obvious reasons:- Orkney and Shetland, and Na h-Eileanan an Iar in Scotland, Ynys Môn in Wales, and two on the Isle of Wight in England (the IoW used to be one constituency but the population was much too high, so it has been split and has two low-population constituencies). Geographically the smallest constituency is Islington North, in London (2.85 square miles) and the largest is Ross, Skye and Lochaber in Scotland (4930 square miles).

[@TheOrlandoTrustfull]

An exit poll is literally asking people who they are voting for after they exited the voting booth. Of course 99% of people are going to say "None of your business", unless they have a red baseball cap on.

[@TheRockbird1]

Exit polls are asking how people voted and some will answer, some will not and some will not have been asked.

[@Ozymandi_as]

You should search out a video showing the responses of Sunak and Starmer to the result, which they gave within 12 hours of the polls closing. As an American, I think you find it shocking.

[@jayfielding1333]

Seats have names in Westminster systems (so no CA-1, CA-2 etc but rather Bristol Central, Brighton Pavillion etc).

[@productjoe4069]

Exit polls are generally very accurate, and even this year the final result was within margin of error. The reason this was further away than recent GEs was because there was a lot of confounding factors. They poll a select number of representative polling stations (where people vote) across different constituencies. They then use a model to extrapolate the voting behaviour across the entire UK. What made this harder this year was a) 2024 is the first general election after unusually significant boundary changes, b) turn-out was very low at around 60%, c) Reform UK is a new party whose voter enthusiasm had no data. The exit poll is organised jointly by BBC News, ITV News, and Sky News. It’s mainly there to give their election night teams something to talk about for the 90 minutes after voting ends (at 10pm) and the first results are declared (11.30pm). It cannot be used to ‘call’ a seat in advance (it’s illegal to do so), so it really is just a way to fill time.

[@Dobcool]

The conservatives had a major victory in 2019 and people said it would take around a decade for that to be overturned. 5 years later and a massive swing in the opposite direction has happened. Nothing is predictable in UK politics

[@lilacfiddler1]

It doesnt matter how many votes you win by, the winner in each constituency gets elected. The share of the vote across the whole country is never the same as the representative number of MPs

[@SP-eo1vl]

Whoever gave you comparisons between British politics and US was completely up the creek. I don't understand why people watch KZbin videos to try to understand a subject and then let everyone who bothers to listen know how little you know. Try reading a book on the subject first and then comment or ask questions. KZbin has John Curtice explaining how the exit poll is compiled.

[@razor643]

the seats are divided into constitutions (states for you) and the concentration of votes in those towns / cities or areas decides who wins that seat, so 50% labour vote in EG; brighton would win that seat, so even in 1 place 90% and everwhere else in like 20% it would still mean a 20% vote share for that party but only 1 seat won. hope that helps :)

[@jasonc5413]

There are 650 constituencies. Each has between 60,000 nd 80,000 people. Each constituency elects a Member of Parliament (MP). MPs then take their seats in the House of Commons. The Leader of the party with most seats normally becomes Prime Minister and Is asked by the King "to form a governnent". You need 326 seats to win a majority. Sometimes no party wins a clear majority, which can lead to a "hung Parliament", which is another story......

[@G1NZOU]

In terms of political sides, Lib Dems would normally be considered Centrist to Centre Left in British politics. They're essentially more centrist than standard Labour, but Labour sometimes swings between very left (under Jeremy Corbyn for example) and slightly left of Centre (under Tony Blair and now more recently Sir Keir Starmer). The Lib Dems tend to be more popular in more middle class areas compared to Labour appealing to working class, they tend to do well in local elections for city councils, my father is a Lib Dem councillor and he recently won in his area, part of his campaigning was helping to clear up hedges, litter picking, and one time I helped him break up and clear a brick wall that had been crashed into by some teens racing cars in the middle of the night, which blocked the access path to a resident with mobility issues, so we went there with a sledgehammer and broke it into smaller pieces to move aside.

[@JenMaxon]

Labour's majority this time is nearly as large as the one Tony Blair's-led labour party gained in 1997. They were in power then for three terms - but they still had to win an election every 5 years (maximum - it was every four years in fact: 1997, 2001, 2005). It's likely, I should think, that Starmer's labour party will win a second term in 2029 or thereabouts but they could lose it. It's not guaranteed. Starmer has said that their policy plans are planned over two terms because there's so much to get done.

[@Stevenc1984]

Labour got less overall votes than the previous election and only won with such a massive majority because the Conservative vote collapsed.

[@heliotropezzz333]

In a First Past the Post electoral system the vote share doesn't necessarily equate to the number of seats and a lot of people will vote tactically. The areas he is mentioning are Parliamentary constituencies, each of which will have an MP voted in.

[@starsailor6716]

The very best thing is they move into number 10 the next day. Just love seeing the removal vans turn up😂

[@nathanfletcher7023]

english elections are so easy to understand. there are 650 constituencies (areas) each area = 1 seat in parliament. each area votes for who they want then the most votes from that area wins equalling 1 seat. to be the winning side at the end of it, you need a majority vote, majority being 51% of the 650 seats up for grabs. (326). if a party does not gety a majority vote, then they can either try and run a government with less than a majority (but still more than the others) or for a coalition with another party to give them the majority. without a majority, every other party can "gang up" and stop anything being done

[@angharaddenby3389]

Basically, it works like this: The UK is divided into 650 areas called constituencies (each having roughly the same population but not area.) Each party puts forward one person to stand in each constituency (though they don't have to stand in every one.) At an election all the votes cast are then counted and whichever candidate gets the most votes wins that constituency (called a Seat) and that Parties total increases by one. The first Party to reach 326 (the minimum required to win a majority [half the available Seats + 1]) then becomes the next government. If no Party wins the majority of seats, the highest scoring Party can wither form an alliance with one of the minor Parties to make a majority) or they can govern without a majority but this would make it harder to get new legislation passed. I hope that helps you a little.

[@andypham1636]

but in practice, its lower because Sinn Fein never takes seats

[@denispowell7134]

This is a very simple example of “First Past the Post” voting. Imagine 4 political parties, Left, Center, Right and Independent. In Constituency 1 the Left Party gets 4 votes, the Center Party gets 2 votes, the Right Party gets 1 vote and the Independent Party gets 3 votes and so on. The end result is the Left, Center and Right parties get a seat each but the Independent party gets none even though they get more votes in total than any other party. Left Center Right Ind Constituency 1 4 2 1 3 Constituency 2 2 1 4 3 Constituency 3 1 4 2 3 Total Votes 7 7 7 9

[@Cjbx11]

In the UK with what is known as a first past the post system it doesn’t always tell you the full story of how people are feeling. On the face of it Labour have won a massive landslide victory which would make people think that Labour is really popular with pretty much the whole of the UK. However if you look at the actual share of the votes cast Labour only got 38% while the Conservatives got 24% Reform got 14% and Liberal Democrat’s got 12% with the other party’s making up the rest. What this tells you is that many of the seats Labour won were by relatively small margins and could very quickly swing back the other way if they fail to keep their promises.

[@apsutcliffe2010]

The different constituencies have names. In the USA, I believe that you have numbers (district 9 etc). The names will usually have either the city or county name, (e.g Brighton, or Surrey) then a second which identifies which part of that city or county.

[@andypham1636]

yes, numbers with the same in front. eg VA-2

[@weejackrussell]

In each constituency the person with the most votes wins. That person becomes the MP. It's like a race, the winner takes all. We vote for the candidate in our area, the leader of the party with the most MPs becomes the Prime Minister. The party members choose the leader.

[@odin741]

It wasn't a giant victory at all- only 53% of the UK actually voted! Reform UK will win in 2029- because Labour will make things even worse.

[@DylanSargesson]

It's not perfect analogy as obviously every country has different politics. But broadly: Labour are the Democrats. Conservatives are the Republicans. ReformUK are to the right of the Conservatives (so MAGA). Liberal Democrats are centrists, having worked with both major parties in the past. Greens are environmentalists, and further to the left than Labour. SNP and Plaid Cymru are about Scottish/Welsh Independence - no real analog of that in the US. Jeremy Corbyn is a figure similar to Bernie Sanders, again to the left of Labour.

[@yeetneet5334]

tbh the lib dems are now centre left under Ed

[@AgeCobra]

the Labour Party will be in charge for 5 years like your 4 year term .

[@andypham1636]

although unlike in the US, snap elections are be held. election date is at the will of the PM, while in the US, it's fixed at 2nd Tuesday fo November

[@ElectricEdgewave192]

Heres our political parties as American equivalents (with a degree of subjectivity) listed in this video... - Labour = moderate Democrats, centre-left - Conservative = General Republicans (arguably) - Liberal Demcorats = 'nominally' Centrist - Scottish National Party = A broad church though somewhat more left-leaning but pro-Scottish independence above all else - Reform UK = UK equivalent of Trump Republicans; right-wing populists, anti-immigration, anti-EU, successor to the pro-Brexit platform - Greens = more left-leaning Democrats with heavy focus on green politics Other parties not listed so prominently with maybe less of an American equivalent... - Plaid Cymru = Left-leaning Welsh nationalists/regionalists - Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) = right-wing, conservative, typically and historically of protestant persuasion and pro-British/union in Northern Ireland that oppose Irish unification - Sinn Fein = left-wing, typically and historically of catholic persuasion and pro-Irish in Northern Ireland that seek Irish unification, they also practise parliamentary abstentionism in that they do not take the seats they win in the UK parliament - Independents = any candidate who does not belong to a political party Other parties that got less seats than the above parties... - Social Democratic and Labour Party - Ulster Unionist Party - Alliance Party - Traditional Unionist Voice ** This is with my somewhat more limited knowledge of American politics

[@TheOrlandoTrustfull]

14 years of absolute chaos isn't going to be suddenly fixed

[@icedreamer9629]

For your brain: Greens - AOC Labour - Bernie Sanders SNP - Someone in the middle of the Democratic party, but with an independence tilt Liberal Democrats - Biden Conservatives - Mitt Romney/Liz Cheney Reform(5 seats)/UKIP(disbanded, but also started by Farage) - Trump

[@catherinewhite8819]

First past the post works very well as, in this election, if the electorate really don’t think MPs are doing a good job, you can get them out.

[@paulag7634]

The polls he's talking about at around 5:00 are the exit polls the estimate, made by the media pollsters, of how people voted by asking who they when the leave the polling station.

[@alanjrobertson]

For disconnect between vote share to seats think more the setup you have with the electoral college - the first past the post system means just taking one more vote means you get the seat.

[@theharris7207]

2:42 Ah, welcome to FPTP my friend 8:05, yes essentially. They can still be in politics and be part of the parties. But they are not an MP and cannon take up a cabinet role unless other funny business happens (Like Cameron)