Elections should be carnivals of democracy, yet the campaign we have just been through has felt more like amateur dramatics at times – the standard of debate has not risen to the importance of the issues at stake. Yet this election will go down as one of the most consequential in British history. It has brought a profound change to our politics: not just that Brexit is now certain to happen, but also in the way that both main parties have transmogrified before our eyes – in terms of what they stand for, and who they appeal to.
The list of Tory gains shows the extent of the change that has just taken place: Leigh, Workington, Clwyd South, Darlington, Wrexham, Burnley, Redcar, Scunthorpe and a slew of other working-class seats north of the Watford Gap. Several of them have not returned a Tory MP for several decades, others had never voted Tory before. But even on a night when the country swung to them, the Tories lost Putney, seven of their 13 Scottish seats and failed to regain Canterbury. This state of flux will continue. Strategists in all parties believe that there will be even fewer safe seats come the next election.
What we are seeing is a process of realignment. Class no longer determines people’s party allegiances in the way it once did; instead, politics is becoming a battle over values. The Conservatives have adjusted better to changing priorities than the Labour Party, which is why Boris Johnson has just achieved one of the most spectacular election victories in recent British political history – breaking the deadlock that has gripped parliament since the 2017 election.
Brexit has become the prime battleground. It has catalysed this change in voting patterns — and given the Tories a hearing in parts of the country that used to be solidly Labour.
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