Landslide : The Inside Story of the 2024 Election

In this pacy and colourful new book, seasoned political journalists Tim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth use new interviews and candid private accounts from key players to take the reader behind the scenes of one of the strangest but most consequential elections in recent history.

On 22 May 2024, Rishi Sunak stood outside 10 DowningStreet and announced an early election, in an attempt to catch his opponents bysurprise. Just minutes later, Tory hearts sank, with images of the PrimeMinister soaking in the rain instantly defining his hapless campaign. The nextsix weeks delivered more mistakes, a betting scandal, apocalyptic Tory polls,bitter backroom arguments and finally the worst result in the ConservativeParty's 190-year history. Keir Starmer's Labour, meanwhile, stormed to victory withone 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 questionsabout how popular Starmer really was. Scotland's voters abandoned the SNP, EdDavey's Lib Dems surged to their best election ever and Nigel Farage once againblew up the Conservative Party's plans. This gripping account by seasoned Westminster journalistsTim Ross and Rachel Wearmouth tells the full inside story of the key tacticsand 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'selection machine engineer such a devastatingly efficient vote? Was there anythingSunak could have done to avert disaster? What does it all mean for the future ofBritain?Blending exclusive interviews and explosive accounts fromkey players, Landslide sets out to answer these questions and more,revealing a dramatic and sometimes disturbing picture of British politics at aturbulent time.