Landslide

On 22 May 2024, Rishi Sunak stood outside 10 Downing Street and announced an early election, in an attempt to catch his opponents by surprise. Just minutes later, Tory hearts sank, with images of the Prime Minister soaking in the rain instantly defining his hapless campaign. The next six weeks delivered more mistakes, a betting scandal, apocalyptic Tory polls, bitter backroom arguments and finally the worst result in the Conservative Party's 190-year history.

Keir Starmer's Labour, meanwhile, stormed to victory with one of the biggest landslides on record after fourteen years in the wilderness. But the party won with its fewest votes in almost a decade, raising questions about how popular Starmer really was. Scotland's voters abandoned the SNP, Ed Davey's Lib Dems surged to their best election ever and Nigel Farage once again blew up the Conservative Party's plans.

This gripping account by seasoned Westminster journalists Tim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth tells the full inside story of the key tactics and powerful forces that delivered the most seismic upheaval in a generation. What role did Starmer's character play in his party's success? How did Labour's election machine engineer such a devastatingly efficient vote? Was there anything Sunak could have done to avert disaster? What does it all mean for the future of Britain?

Blending exclusive interviews and explosive accounts from key players, Landslide sets out to answer these questions and more, revealing a dramatic and sometimes disturbing picture of British politics at a turbulent time.

Tim Ross is deputy head of news at Politico. He was previously executive editor for politics at the New Statesman and ran UK political coverage for Bloomberg and the Sunday Telegraph. He has written two bestselling books on British elections - explaining how David Cameron shocked pundits and pollsters by winning a majority in 2015 and how Theresa May shocked pundits and pollsters by throwing it away again two years later.

Rachel Wearmouth is a freelance journalist who has previously worked at HuffPost, the Daily Mirror and the New Statesman. She began her career covering politics outside of Westminster, at regional papers in the north of England and at Scotland's Sunday Post.