The 2024 UK General Election

The 2024 UK General Election was nothing short of exceptional. Labour achieved one of the largest majorities in the history of the House of Commons — yet on the lowest vote share ever recorded for a winning party. Meanwhile, the Conservatives suffered their most devastating defeat in modern political history.

In this episode, we unpack the seismic shifts that led to this remarkable result. Why did the vote fragment across so many parties? What drove the electorate’s choices in this cycle? And what happened to the underlying dynamics of voting behavior?

To explore these questions, we turn to a special issue of The Political Quarterly, our partner journal, which dives into the election’s implications and causes in depth.

Joining us are three distinguished contributors to that issue:

• Professor Jane Green – Professor of Political Science and British Politics, University of Oxford
• Professor Paula Surridge – Professor of Political Sociology, University of Bristol
• Marta Miori– Research Officer on British Electoral Behaviour, PhD candidate at the University of Manchester

Together, they provide expert insights into both the immediate drivers of the 2024 result and the longer-term transformations reshaping UK politics.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Miori, M. and Green, J. (2025), The Most Disproportionate UK Election: How the Labour Party Doubled its Seat Share with a 1.6-Point Increase in Vote Share in 2024. The Political Quarterly, 96: 37-64.
• Surridge, P. (2025), Values in the Valence Election: Fragmentation and the 2024 General Election. The Political Quarterly, 96: 26-36.

UCL’s Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy offers a uniquely stimulating environment for the study of all fields of politics, including international relations, political theory, human rights, public policy-making and administration. The Department is recognised for its world-class research and policy impact, ranking among the top departments in the UK on both the 2021 Research Excellence Framework and the latest Guardian rankings.