While Americans celebrated Independence Day, British voters went to the polls in a snap election called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. The timing came as a surprise to most, including his own MPs, as Sunak was widely expected to hold out on calling an election until the fall (the deadline being late January). Having trailed in the polls by over 16–20 percent ever since he took over as prime minister in October 2022, Sunak apparently decided to jump before he was pushed, choosing to end his rather mediocre run as prime minister on his own terms.
The election was never going to end in anything other than a Labour victory, but the scale of the loss is truly dramatic. Having won a comfortable majority of 365 seats (out of 650) in 2019, the party has now been reduced to just 121 seats, the worst performance ever in the party’s 190-year history.
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