How much bigger do you think Labour’s victory was, compared to Tony Blair’s victory in 1997?

Opinion polls suggest that Labour’s victory will be very close, and possibly bigger, than Blair’s victory in 1997. Labour is on track to win more than 200 seats, and may well win more than 400, which would give it a large majority in the House of Commons.

What are the main challenges that Labour’s Keir Starmer will face as the new UK Prime Minister?

Starmer will face many of the same challenges that the Conservative government faced. These include managing Britain’s relationship with Europe after Brexit, modernising the NHS and moving away from the Conservative Party’s punitive stance on immigration. He will also face challenges from within his own party. These include the usual challenges of forming your own Cabinet, as well as how to maintain Labour’s left wing. Starmer has brought Labour back to the centre, much like Blair did in the 1990s, after the party had swung left under Jeremy Corbyn.

There are doubts about how a future Labor government will be able to improve public services without raising taxes as promised…

This is a key question. While the Conservatives have traditionally been seen as a party of fiscal prudence and sound management, they are in fact running a large deficit and the UK is now facing the challenge of servicing its public debt, let alone finding the money to fund new or modernised public services. Starmer has moved away from Labour’s traditional commitment to nationalisation, so tax increases – perhaps on the wealthy – and/or privatisation of certain aspects of public service provision could be considered.

What situation does the Conservative Party find itself in after its electoral failure after fourteen years of leading the country?

The Conservative Party may be in tatters. It faces the challenge of finding a new leader and, just as importantly, a new message. A series of weak leaders has seriously damaged the party’s reputation for good governance, and now it faces a new challenge on the right from the Reform Party and Nigel Farage, who has re-emerged on the British political scene in unexpected fashion.

Why did Rishi Sunak’s “prime minister” campaign avoid the racist and xenophobic speeches of his right-wing rival Farage?

Sunak has spoken out against Farage’s racist and xenophobic remarks, though he has largely criticized the Reform candidate’s extremist statements. The Conservatives have long courted voters on the right, so in a sense they have created a trap for themselves, by being forced to criticize Farage too harshly, as some of his party members (a la Suella Braverman, for example) hold the same anti-immigration views as the Reform Party, albeit with less overt xenophobia.