Author: The Guardian

Michael Portillo’s election defeat in 1997, unseated on a swing of 17.4 percentage points shortly after 3am on 2 May that year, has become synonymous with the shock moment that a major political big beast loses their seat. But following a landslide victory for Labour in the 2024 general election, the “Portillo moments” started coming thick and fast. Who are the major figures who have lost their seats in the 2024 general election?Penny MordauntSeat Portsmouth NorthMajority in 2019 15,780Result Labour gainPenny Mordaunt’s dreams of shaping the future of the Conservative party as its leader were ended abruptly in the early…

Jeremy Corbyn won Islington North, a constituency he has represented since 1983 but this was his first election as an independent.The former opposition leader defeated local Labor MP Praful Nargund, who was selected as candidate by the party’s executive committee in May. Corbyn won 24,120 votes to Nalgonde’s 16,873. Election turnout dropped 67.5% Compared to 71.6% in 2019.In his victory speech, Corbyn said he had run an “aggressive campaign”. The political system must provide answers to society’s problems, he said, adding that demonizing asylum seekers was not the answer. He said he was proud that his constituents supported “kinder, gentler,…

Nigel Farage has been elected as the MP for Clacton, finally succeeding in getting a seat in parliament at his eighth attempt.The Reform UK leader’s victory came on a night when the hardline rightwing party surged in support elsewhere, winning four seats by 4am on Friday, with the former Conservative deputy chair Lee Anderson successfully defending his seat in Ashfield.Richard Tice, Reform’s chair and the man who stepped aside so Farage could return, won Lincolnshire constituency of Boston and Skegness, calling it “the proudest day of my life”. The former Southampton football club chairman Rupert Lowe also won a seat…

The White House described Hamas’s latest Gaza ceasefire proposal as a “breakthrough” that establishes a framework for a possible hostage deal, but warned that talks over its implementation remain difficult.A senior U.S. official said the Biden administration received Hamas’s latest proposal “a few days ago” and had been studying it ahead of a 30-minute phone call between Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.”The conversation was very detailed, with a careful study of the text of the agreement. It was constructive and encouraging, and also provided a clear understanding of the future work. [and] What steps must be taken to…

A mild-mannered man, courteous to the end towards the Labour MP who had taken his seat in Swindon South, Sir Robert Buckland simply could no longer hold in his anger.He was fed up of the political “jockeying” and those colleagues in his party who said things they “know to be untrue”.At a little after midnight, Buckland, a former justice secretary, had been the first Conservative MP to lose his seat in the Labour landslide – and he was spitting.The former home secretary Suella Braverman had shown “astonishing indiscipline” in criticising Rishi Sunak on the eve of the poll, he said.The…

Nigel Farage has praised Reform’s early performance in former Brexit voting seats as “almost unbelievable” and predicted the party will win “many seats across the country” as the election unfolds.The far-right party is expected to win as many as 13 seats in the general election, according to exit polls at 10pm. Statements from the north-east of England show they are polling ahead of the Conservatives and just behind Labour.The forecast also suggests Farage, who caused a political earthquake on the right when he returned as leader of the party last month, will win the Essex seat of Clacton.Farage responded to…

Right up to the wire, Labour politicians could not quite believe they were on track for a historic election victory. Despite every poll for more than a year suggesting Keir Starmer would end up in No 10, they worried something could go wrong.For some, it was the ghost of 1992, when the polls predicted Neil Kinnock was on course to take power, but in the end John Major’s Conservatives clung on. For others, it was their fear that after 14 years in opposition, Labour had lost the ability to win.After all, in the last 100 years only three Labour leaders…

It always ends with the most wonderful tears. And, despite his best efforts, Andy Murray can’t quite resist his tendency to tear up during his emotional career, which brought a game to a close on Center Court on Thursday night.His brother Jamie was also in tears after the doubles match. Perhaps many people in the crowd did the same, including their parents, and Andy’s wife and children. As far as I know, the press box held on – but who knew that in the darkness that enveloped the pitch, Murray won many great fights, including two that brought him titles.In…

Holly Willoughby has said “women should not be made to feel unsafe going about our daily lives and in our own homes” after a convicted violent offender was found guilty of masterminding a plot to kidnap, rape and murder her.Gavin Plumb, 37, was obsessed with the television host, amassing more than 10,000 images of her on his phone including deepfake pornography. He was caught after unwittingly communicating online with an undercover police officer based in the US, who flagged him to UK authorities.The jury heard Plumb had previous convictions for attempted kidnap and false imprisonment. In 2006 he tried to…

Andy Murray says it’s time for his illustrious career to come to an end after he and his brother Jamie were beaten in their final Wimbledon men’s doubles first-round match.”I’m ready to finish because I can’t play at the level I want anymore,” he said. “I guess it’s a little bit out of my control. If I’d known my body was capable of doing this, I would have played the sport – I don’t hate the sport, and I think I don’t want to do it anymore for that reason. Doing it. I love competing, practicing, trying to get better,…