Enquiries of Conservative HQ as to whether the Prime Minister had taken delivery in recent days of large quantities of bubble wrap, parcel tape and packing cases went unanswered.
A smiling Mr Sunak, who had after all insisted on Wednesday night that despite dire polling the election “is not over until the final whistle blows”, was to be found casting his vote in his North Yorkshire constituency. He took to X to ask voters to “stop the Labour supermajority”, a plea which left open the possibility of removal vans entering Downing Street in the coming days, without confirming it.
Such sangfroid did not survive first contact with electoral reality last night when the broadcasters’ exit poll suggested the Prime Minister had steered his party to its joint lowest-ever tally of MPs while voters had handed Labour just the sort of supersized majority he had been at pains to avoid. The removal van and the bubble wrap seem certain to be needed after all.
The power to decide who puts up the curtains in Number 10 had rested for the 15 hours of polling with the multitudes trooping to the UK’s 40,000 polling stations – with driving licences, passports and other forms of ID in hand – to vote on whether 14 years of tumultuous Conservative rule which began with the words “[I agree with Nick](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/general-election-tv-debates-farce-3072933?ico=in-line_link)” will indeed come to an end.
But the fact that those 14 years also brought the Tories a further three general election mandates and, amid the tumult of [Brexit](https://inews.co.uk/category/news/brexit?ico=in-line_link), a revolving door of three Conservative prime ministers in a single year, was probably not foremost in the minds of the party’s big beasts on polling day.
Instead, what unfolded had more of the flavour of a bareknuckle fight for political survival – a situation confirmed by the exit poll’s predictions that Tory luminaries such as former leader Iain Duncan Smith had a less than one per cent chance of holding his Chingford seat and Mr Hunt just a 19 per cent chance.
In a slightly desperate last-minute campaign video, Mr Hunt had arrived at a polling station in his knife-edge Surrey constituency to declare: “I’m going to cast my vote and I think you know who I’m going to vote for.”
In her North West Essex seat, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch took to X to furiously berate her local authority for the late dispatch of some 2,600 postal votes. There has been speculation that the administrative problems at Uttlesford Council could impact Ms Badenoch’s participation in any Conservative leadership contest by forcing a re-run of the election in her seat and thereby barring her from challenging to lead her party.
For his part, Labour leader Keir Starmer cast his vote in his north London constituency after using his final rally to reiterate his core plea for a majority of any size: “If you want change, you have to vote for it.”
It was at least a quiet day for David Cameron, who as a peer of the realm is now formally barred from voting in general elections for the party he once led and the man who gave him his current job as Foreign Secretary.
Like almost everyone else, Lord Cameron was to be left waiting for the official results before finding out if he remains gainfully employed as a minister of the Crown.
The only people given a glimpse any sooner of the state of play in the nation’s unfolding electoral drama were the psephologists locked in a room in an undisclosed location in central London as they processed data from the exit poll used by broadcasters to end their enforced polling day silence and offer the predicted [result at 10pm of a 410-seat Labour landslide.](https://inews.co.uk/news/general-election-news-live-update-3150721?ico=in-line_link)
Sir John Curtice, the nation’s favoured elections guru, had prevoiusly revealed that he and his colleagues generally have a good idea of how things are unfolding by 2pm on voting day.
It was only right, of course, that they were formally banned from conveying that information to anyone else, above all to prime ministers wondering whether they need to order a removal van.
How its looking currently, I wouldn’t call it a wipeout. Unfortunately they will likely still be opposition, which is very surprising considering their massive lack of performance. I was expecting around 90 seats, i hope the exit pol is wrong in this regard.
Given the way this government has acted I fully expect him to take the carpet and curtains with him and for them to be on eBay by 7am
What’s more interesting is that more people seem to have voted for Jezza Corbyn’s Labour party compares to the Tory-lite version under Starmer.
The only thing that would make this sweeter, is if he had to go to his local council office in the morning and register for social housing. It might give him some idea of how he and his rich mates fucked this country and the people who live in it.
I’d imagine most of his stuff is already in California
The headline implies that he has any life skills but we’ve all seen the photo ops, don’t try to trick me into thinking Sunak is capable of hiring a removal van.
8 comments
Tory HQ would not be drawn on whether the PM has started to pack up in Downing Street ahead of an exit poll predicting a Labour landslide
On a day when broadcasters were maintaining their obligatory omerta on politicians’ electoral fortunes, there was one other metric available on Thursday for those trying to judge whether [14 years of Conservative rule](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/question-time-election-live-updates-farage-ramsey-3138558?ico=in-line_link) had indeed entered its last 24 hours – the delivery, or not, of cardboard boxes to Downing Street.
It has been an unseen convention of general elections that when opinion polls suggest a new occupant of Number 10 is likely, certain preparations are made. Norma Major was sufficiently convinced that [Tony Blair](https://inews.co.uk/topic/tony-blair?ico=in-line_link) and his family would be along shortly that she quietly had her clothes moved out of Downing Street in anticipation of [Labour’s 1997 landslide](https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/1997-conservative-wipeout-what-will-happen-2024-2866790?ico=in-line_link) and her husband’s defeat.
But before the general election exit poll put Labour on course for another[ landslide win](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tories-worst-election-result-1906-3150971?ico=in-line_link), there was only scant evidence that [Rishi Sunak](https://inews.co.uk/topic/rishi-sunak?ico=in-line_link) was following a similar route.
Enquiries of Conservative HQ as to whether the Prime Minister had taken delivery in recent days of large quantities of bubble wrap, parcel tape and packing cases went unanswered.
A smiling Mr Sunak, who had after all insisted on Wednesday night that despite dire polling the election “is not over until the final whistle blows”, was to be found casting his vote in his North Yorkshire constituency. He took to X to ask voters to “stop the Labour supermajority”, a plea which left open the possibility of removal vans entering Downing Street in the coming days, without confirming it.
Such sangfroid did not survive first contact with electoral reality last night when the broadcasters’ exit poll suggested the Prime Minister had steered his party to its joint lowest-ever tally of MPs while voters had handed Labour just the sort of supersized majority he had been at pains to avoid. The removal van and the bubble wrap seem certain to be needed after all.
The power to decide who puts up the curtains in Number 10 had rested for the 15 hours of polling with the multitudes trooping to the UK’s 40,000 polling stations – with driving licences, passports and other forms of ID in hand – to vote on whether 14 years of tumultuous Conservative rule which began with the words “[I agree with Nick](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/general-election-tv-debates-farce-3072933?ico=in-line_link)” will indeed come to an end.
For those Tory ministers – from Chancellor [Jeremy Hunt](https://inews.co.uk/topic/jeremy-hunt?ico=in-line_link) to Defence Secretary [Grant Shapps](https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/why-grant-shapps-could-be-facing-his-portillo-moment-3142769?ico=in-line_link) – who found themselves with the unwanted distinction of featuring on the list of senior Tories at risk of losing their seats, the heady days of May 2010 when David Cameron eased Gordon Brown out of office by striking a coalition deal with then Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg must have seemed a long way off.
In the interim, [crime](https://inews.co.uk/topic/crime?ico=in-line_link) has fallen significantly, [food bank](https://inews.co.uk/topic/food-banks?ico=in-line_link) use has soared, Scots have voted against independence and Britons have voted to quit the European Union. All the while, renewable energy sources now produce around half the nation’s electricity.
But the fact that those 14 years also brought the Tories a further three general election mandates and, amid the tumult of [Brexit](https://inews.co.uk/category/news/brexit?ico=in-line_link), a revolving door of three Conservative prime ministers in a single year, was probably not foremost in the minds of the party’s big beasts on polling day.
Instead, what unfolded had more of the flavour of a bareknuckle fight for political survival – a situation confirmed by the exit poll’s predictions that Tory luminaries such as former leader Iain Duncan Smith had a less than one per cent chance of holding his Chingford seat and Mr Hunt just a 19 per cent chance.
In a slightly desperate last-minute campaign video, Mr Hunt had arrived at a polling station in his knife-edge Surrey constituency to declare: “I’m going to cast my vote and I think you know who I’m going to vote for.”
In her North West Essex seat, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch took to X to furiously berate her local authority for the late dispatch of some 2,600 postal votes. There has been speculation that the administrative problems at Uttlesford Council could impact Ms Badenoch’s participation in any Conservative leadership contest by forcing a re-run of the election in her seat and thereby barring her from challenging to lead her party.
For his part, Labour leader Keir Starmer cast his vote in his north London constituency after using his final rally to reiterate his core plea for a majority of any size: “If you want change, you have to vote for it.”
It was at least a quiet day for David Cameron, who as a peer of the realm is now formally barred from voting in general elections for the party he once led and the man who gave him his current job as Foreign Secretary.
Like almost everyone else, Lord Cameron was to be left waiting for the official results before finding out if he remains gainfully employed as a minister of the Crown.
The only people given a glimpse any sooner of the state of play in the nation’s unfolding electoral drama were the psephologists locked in a room in an undisclosed location in central London as they processed data from the exit poll used by broadcasters to end their enforced polling day silence and offer the predicted [result at 10pm of a 410-seat Labour landslide.](https://inews.co.uk/news/general-election-news-live-update-3150721?ico=in-line_link)
Sir John Curtice, the nation’s favoured elections guru, had prevoiusly revealed that he and his colleagues generally have a good idea of how things are unfolding by 2pm on voting day.
It was only right, of course, that they were formally banned from conveying that information to anyone else, above all to prime ministers wondering whether they need to order a removal van.
How its looking currently, I wouldn’t call it a wipeout. Unfortunately they will likely still be opposition, which is very surprising considering their massive lack of performance. I was expecting around 90 seats, i hope the exit pol is wrong in this regard.
Given the way this government has acted I fully expect him to take the carpet and curtains with him and for them to be on eBay by 7am
What’s more interesting is that more people seem to have voted for Jezza Corbyn’s Labour party compares to the Tory-lite version under Starmer.
The only thing that would make this sweeter, is if he had to go to his local council office in the morning and register for social housing. It might give him some idea of how he and his rich mates fucked this country and the people who live in it.
I’d imagine most of his stuff is already in California
The headline implies that he has any life skills but we’ve all seen the photo ops, don’t try to trick me into thinking Sunak is capable of hiring a removal van.