Historic firsts from the 2024 general election in numbers and charts

How will this election be remembered?

Labour have seized power from the Conservatives after 14 years in opposition, with a landslide majority.

This is a rare occasion - the last time that two consecutive elections resulted in different parties forming working majorities was in 1992-1997.

Also, 1997 - the year that Tony Blair won his first landslide Labour victory - was the last time that a government won anything close to the majority Sir Keir Starmer is about to achieve.

At the time of publication, there had been more than 400 confirmed Labour victories.

Whether he overtakes Blair's post-war record of 179 remains in the balance.

The Conservatives have suffered their worst ever defeat in a century, winning fewer than the 156 seats they achieved in 1906.

They've won less than a quarter of all votes, making it their record low.

Even with a stonking majority, Labour have hardly increased their vote share. Instead, the country's votes have been split across a range of political parties.

The Lib Dems are currently on 71 seats, higher than even in their 2005 heyday peak of 62 seats. Effective tactical campaigning may have played a part.

Based on current results, the combined vote share for Conservatives and Labour is 57.7%, another lowest on record. This is demonstrative of the rise of smaller parties in British politics that has come to the fore at this election.

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Reform's vote share is up from 2% in 2019 (albeit when many candidates weren't put forward) to over 14% now.

This has landed them four seats, and will be their first time represented in the House of Commons.

The Greens have also won an unprecedented 4 seats, having only had one previously, and are up four points on national vote share to 7%.

As a result, both parties have come second place in a record number of constituencies.

Wipeouts

Labour is now the largest party in Scotland, clawing its way back after a decade of SNP dominance. It continues the trend that Labour have never won a general election without winning Scotland.

There's only one Conservative seat remaining in the North East of England, down from eight in 2019. The region was symbolic of their victory under Johnson and is now once again a sea of red.

The Conservatives have lost all of their seats in Wales, and have no MPs in Oxfordshire where Lord Cameron used to represent. They've also been wiped out in Cornwall.

Ousted MPs and new faces

Liz Truss is only the second former Prime Minister to lose their seat at a general election. Her vote share was down more than 43 points and Labour were up just 8.4 points, their candidate winning the seat on the low vote share of just 26.7%.

There have been 12 former MPs that attended cabinet just weeks ago when Rishi Sunak called the surprise election who have been kicked out by their electorates. This is the most cabinet members to lose their seats ever.

Key names include Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Brexit minister, and Penny Mourdant the once hopeful Tory leader, who both lost to Labour. Gillian Keegan, who was education secretary, was ousted by the Liberal Democrats.

Labour themselves have lost a potential cabinet member; Green co-leader Carla Denyer beat Thangnam Debbonaire in Bristol Central.

But with 400 MPs to choose from, Sir Keir Starmer shouldn't have trouble forming a cabinet of his own.

There are X number of new MPs who will sit in Parliament for the first time next week. That includes the first MP to be born in this millennium, Hertford & Stortford's Josh Dean. The new 'baby of the house' Sam Carling won their seat in North West Cambridgeshire by just 39 votes.

Whiplash from the change

Four years ago in 2019, Boris Johnson led the Conservative party to an 80-seat majority. It was their best performance since Thatcher. By contrast, Rishi Sunak spearheaded their worst ever defeat.

At that same election a few Decembers ago, Labour suffered their biggest loss since 1935. This morning the country is waking up to their second biggest ever victory.

So far there have been 275 seats gained. More than 80% have been Tory losses. Another 39 were SNP defences, another party that have had a terrible night.

The Lib Dems have had their best ever performance though, winning 70 seats - eight more than their previous 2005 record.

Reform UK have won four seats on a national vote share two points higher than Sir Ed Davey's party. The Greens also have four but on half of Reform's national vote share.

It certainly has been a change election. One of historic proportions.

Dr Hannah Bunting is a Sky News elections analyst and co-director of The Elections Centre at the University of Exeter.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.