Labour put ‘safe’ seats at risk to target marginals. It paid off – but there’s a cost

Keir and Victoria Starmer outside No 10 Downing Street on Friday: Labour achieved the second largest seat gain ever and the second largest majority for the party. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

The asteroid hit at dawn. The seats of four Tory former prime ministers – Cameron, May, Truss, Johnson – fell in an hour at around 6am on Friday, capping a historically unprecedented collapse for the Conservative party. The defeat of Truss provided this election’s biggest “Portillo moment”, as the political career of the country’s shortest-serving PM ended with her defeat by the largest swing to Labour ever recorded.