Although it had been hanging in the balance, one of Labour’s biggest upsets was the loss of Don Valley, a seat held by Caroline Flint for the last 22 years.
The South Yorkshire constituency had been untouchable to other parties since 1922, but is in Doncaster, where 69% of people voted to leave the EU.
Flint has since blamed both Jeremy Corbyn’s unpopularity and Labour’s Brexit stance for the defeat in which the Conservative candidate, Nick Fletcher, won a majority of 3,630.
In Conisbrough, a hilly Doncaster town within Don Valley, residents who’d switched from red to blue seemed to agree, but were reluctant to be identified in a newspaper. One retired woman shopping on the high street, said:
I don’t see it as a vote for the Conservatives, I see it as a vote for Brexit. It’s the first time I’ve done it. My dad was a miner, and his dad was a miner, and I’ve always voted Labour … I think if there had been another leader, I would have voted for them again.
Asked what it was in particular that she disliked about Corbyn, she replied: “There’s something about his mannerisms.”
A woman in her 70s who has always lived in the town said she only voted for the Conservative candidate “against Jeremy Corbyn”, but did not wish to be identified because she feared being berated in comments on social media.
I’m just hoping that [Johnson] is going to stand up to everything that Corbyn said, get us out of Europe and help this part of the country.
When asked what it was in particular that prompted her dislike for Corbyn, she said: “I don’t like his antisemitism.” But when asked if comments made by Boris Johnson about black people and Muslims had tainted her view of him, she replied: “I’ve never heard him say those things.”
John Glarvey, 44, the owner of Bella’s Butties – one of several sandwich shops in Conisbrough’s centre – said he was glad “the community has finally realised the miner’s strike has finished”. Glarvey, who did not vote yesterday, said:
When you ask a lot of people around here why they vote Labour, it’s always been because of that or because their granddad did. It’s good to see change. I’m self-employed and I live on my own, so anyone I vote for will always screw me over in terms of taxes and not getting any benefits. I’d like the NHS to get sorted, but I don’t believe Labour would’ve actually put the money they were offering in.
At the pet store IGO Pets, Alice Dann, a 19-year-old covering shifts during a Christmas break from her studies at the University of Hull, offered an anomalous perspective.
Bemuzed on December 13rd, 2019 at 03:47 UTC »
Jo Swinson (Leader of the LD) just lost her seat in Dunbartonshire East to SNP's Amy Callaghan.
RedshiftOTF on December 12nd, 2019 at 22:19 UTC »
Utter destruction for Labour here. Edit: Assuming the poll is accurate of course.
YnwaMquc2k19 on December 12nd, 2019 at 22:03 UTC »
Actual result so far: Conservatives (365), Labour (203), Scottish National Party (48), Liberal Democrats (11), Democratic Unionist Party (8), Others (14)
UK Vote Share: Conservative (43.6% - +1.2% since 2017), Labour (32.3%, -7.9% since 2017), Liberal Democrats (11.5% - +4.2% since 2017), Scottish National Party (3.9% - +0.9% since 2017), Green (2.7% - +1.1% since 2017), Brexit Party (2.0% - +2% since 2017)
Turnout: 67.2% of 47,587,254 registered voters, -1.5% since 2017.
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BBC Exit Poll: Conservatives (Tory) 368 (+50) - crossed the 326 seats threshold, Labour 191 (-71), Lib Dem 13 (+1), SNP 55 (+20), Plaid Cymru 3 (-1), Green 1 (no change), Brexit Party (no change), Other 19 (+1)
More immediate info:
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Like u/guyonthelake said, 2019 is Bad for the Labour Party), although they were able to keep the 200 seats threshold.
Boris Johnson’s Conservative would have the 8th best showing of all time in the party’s History) in terms of total seats in the House of Commons, and the best since Thatcher in 1987. For historical reference:
Scottish National Party (SNP) would have their 3rd most seats in their House of Commons history, after 2015 and 2017.
Update: Liberal Democrats Leader Jo Swinson lost her seat while the party got 9 seats so far. Jeremy Corbyn said that he will no longer lead the Labour Party in any future elections, as people within his own party blamed him for losing a string of seats that were Labour Strongholds in England and Wales.