Pat Stacey reviews live UK election coverage: Swingometers, flashy graphics and a peek inside Jacob Rees-Mogg’s home

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg pictured in February 2024 (Victoria Jones/PA)

Pat Stacey

The BBC and ITV both promised their coverage of the UK general election would go right on until breakfast time and beyond. Ten. Full. Hours!

By then, Britons would be waking up to a country that was a whole lot more red than blue, with a small but (alas) significant sprinkling of turquoise, representing Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which is not actually a party. It’s a company – as Farage put it, an “entrepreneurial political start-up” with him as director and majority shareholder.