When teaching British political history, I usually stress two points. First, the British Conservative Party have been among the most successful office-seeking parties in electoral history. Second, British Labour struggles mightily to obtain power. Both throw into relief the earth-shattering nature of this landslide win for Keir Starmer’s Labour party.
Labour has wielded power for only 33 of its 124 years on this earth. The party has usually found the experience hair-raising. It is certain to do so again: its huge majority is not matched by a massive vote share, and depended on a Conservative collapse and the brutal logic of first past the post. The parliamentary Labour party will represent seats with wildly different demographics – and face strong pressure from right and left.
The historian Ben Jackson recently identified persistent, powerful “constraints” that have made governing difficult for every Labour government in history – including the economic circumstances and the geopolitical contexts in which each came to power.
