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CTTeller's White Space

"So, we better get started. First, with our exit poll, which even now I can't reveal until Big Ben strikes ten. Remember, this is an exit poll, very carefully calculated. Not necessarily on-the-nail, but here it is."

Big Ben strikes ten.

"10 o'clock - and we are saying: the Conservatives will win a landslide majority. And here are the figures which we have - quite remarkable this exit poll - the Conservatives on 400, that's up 160 since the last election in 2010. That would be their best result since 1931 when they were part of the National Coalition. Tony Blair for Labour... 231 behind him on 169, down 125 from the last election. That would be Labour's worst result since the 1931 election, and considerably worse than the result in 1983 when they were led by Michael Foot and faced a strong challenge from the SDP/Liberal Alliance. And the other parties; the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party. Look at the Green Party! 48 for Natalie Bennett, that's up 41 seats in just one election for the Green Party. I should clarify at this stage that this is the Green Party of England and Wales, not the Scottish or the Northern Irish parties, who are not expected to pick up any seats. Nick Clegg, for the Liberal Democrats, on eight, that's down 79 from the last election. UKIP, we're saying, on three, treat that with caution because it's a new entry in a sense in this game; its difficult to work out in places where UKIP hasn't stood before what it'll be like, but that's what we're saying at the moment, three for UKIP. So that's the remarkable scene that our exit poll is revealing. We shall discover when the first results start coming in how accurate it is, but if that is the story, it is a quite sensational story. Nick?"

"Sensational David, an extraordinary night, if, if that exit poll is right. But it would need to be extraordinarily wrong for Labour to win this election. Just even as you were reading out those figures, you sensed cries of joys from Conservatives, gloom and existential dread on the faces of the Labour Party, ecstacy amongst the Green Party of England and Wales, absolute misery amongst Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives talked of winning a majority, very few of them ever believed they would be projected a result anything near this, they certainly many of them didn't believe they would reach 400 seats. But if that exit poll just shifts a bit as we go on, they might drop into the 390s, possibly the 380s. Though this is just an exit poll, I will say again it will have to be very, very wrong for the Conservatives to not be forming a majority government at this stage. In a sense, this exit poll for the Labour Party represents a form of extreme torture. It harkens back to when Tony Blair, back in 1997, led them to a similar result to unseat the Conservatives, led by John Major. Now, eighteen years later, Tony Blair it looks like will be sending them into the abyss."
 
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Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party Richard Leonard visits an Alexander Dennis bus depot as the General Election campaign begins. Leonard seeks an end to 17 years of Conservative Party rule, the longest period of Tory rule for almost 200 years. Prime Minister Geoffrey Cox, who has led the country since the 2016 retirement of William Hague, has called an election for May this year, and polls predict it will result in the first hung parliament for 47 years.
 
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How I would vote in Labour leadership elections
1922: J R Clynes
1931: Arthur Henderson, not that I have much choice
1932: George Lansbury, not that I have much choice
1935: *Abstain*
1955: Nye Bevan
1960: Daddy Wilson
1961: Tony Greenwood
1963: Daddy Wilson
1976: Michael Foot
1980: Michael Foot
1983: Peter Shore or Eric Heffer, final round, reluctantly Kinnock
1988: Tony Benn or *Abstain*
1992: Bryan Gould
1994: Margaret Beckett
2007: I would have nominated John McDonnell
2010: Diane Abbott, final preference Ed Miliband
2015: Andy Burnham, reluctantly
2016: *Abstain*
2020: *Abstain*

How I would have voted in the deputy leadership elections:
1952: Nye Bevan
1953: Nye Bevan
1956: Nye Bevan
1959: Nye Bevan, not that there was a choice
1960: Frederick Lee
1961: Barbara Castle
1962: Daddy Wilson
1970: Michael Foot
1971: Michael Foot
1972: Michael Foot
1976: Michael Foot
1980: *Abstain*
1981: Tony Benn, somewhat reluctantly
1983: Michael Meacher
1988: Eric Heffer, final round John Prescott, very reluctantly
1992: Bryan Gould, final round Margaret Beckett
1994: Margaret Beckett
2007: *Abstain*
2015: *Abstain*, though I would probably nominate Rushanara Ali but she withdrew so...
2020: Angela Rayner
 
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The fight to succeed former Health Secretary Frank Dobson was a very tough one. On the left, the Green Party candidate, and party leader Natalie Bennett. On the right, the Labour Party candidate, former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer. At the 2015 election, Natalie Bennett would become the new Green Party MP, overturning what once was an extremely large Labour majority, in one of the most catastrophic nights for the Labour Party in history. Keir Starmer was one of the many, many Labour figures introduced to the House of Lords in outgoing Prime Minister Tony Blair's resignation honours that year.
 
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