Reflections on the 2024 General Election in Great Britain

Abstract This year's general election is one of the strangest since the introduction of anything like a popular franchise. In 2019, no one could have predicted convincingly that five years later the Conservative Party would have come close to collapse, the Liberal Democrats would achieve their best result since 1923 or that the Labour Party should have risen from the ashes and won 412 seats in the House of Commons. This article concerns the 2024 general election in Great Britain; Northern Ireland is mentioned, but requires separate consideration. It seeks to explain the results and considers what part the electoral system and voter turnout played in the Labour victory. In addition, it tries to assess what the consequences of the election are to the future of the political parties.