Hallelujah and hosanna! (If not now, when?) At the stroke of 10, the country knew it had liberated itself from the most contemptible government in living memory. The wreckers, destroyers, bullies, incompetents, cronies and crass self-servers are gone. The Tory reign of error is over; they have no God-given right to rule after all. Torn down by the people’s revenge, they were felled by their own hubris. Since the days of tumbrils and defenestrations are over, the loss of seats and ministerial cars are small punishment for the suffering they deliberately inflicted on millions. The rise in infant mortality is only the most measurable indicator of the large numbers who have died needlessly during their great austerity.
They will skip away to City and company boardrooms unpunished; some prime architects of the worst cruelties had already escaped today’s final humiliation. George Osborne, chief villain, lives high on investment banking and podcasting – the axeman of the arts is now chair of trustees at the British Museum. Before the 2010 election he called accusations that he would cut public spending “a pack of lies”, then made an abattoir of health and education, bankrupted cities, denuded councils, stripped the courts, skinned defence and ripped benefits until food banks became the nation’s social security safety net. For the next 14 years the only growth was in public service decrepitude. That can be repaired in time, but Brexit caused irreparable harm, David Cameron putting the country at risk with a referendum to appease his party’s Europhobes.
Today, revel in this almost unbearably rare moment of pure political joy, all you progressives who have spent most of a lifetime losing, losing and losing again. No longer. Against all predictions after Labour’s 2019 catastrophe, this is the first time any party has leapt from landslide defeat to victory in one term. But it never felt like “leaping”: step by ruthless step Keir Starmer reshaped the party, inching towards the great crossover point of December 2021 when Labour pulled ahead, never to look back. Remember the growling and grumbling over his lack of charisma and vision? After Cameron’s louche self-satisfaction, Boris Johnson’s self-obsessed roguery and the ideological trauma of Liz Truss, Starmer’s solid decency and relentless determination counted for far more. No party wins without securing trust in its leader and chancellor, to run the economy, defence, the NHS, tackle the climate crisis and everything else. Let no one think trustworthiness was easily earned.
Rejoicing among most voters today may be muted. Many were glad to punish a deplorable crew, but voted with a grim lack of belief that politicians could make their lives better. Out with the scoundrels, yes, but faith in politicians and government has been at an all-time low, with 58% almost never trusting politicians to tell the truth. (How much truth the public can bear is a question to put to them another day.) Starmer well understands this corrosive crisis in trust, and pledges that Labour will restore confidence in government. Brave, since among his hundreds of Labour MPs, some will do unscrupulous things: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made,” wrote Immanuel Kant. What matters is that when such cases arise, the malefactors are rapidly and publicly punished and repudiated; something the Tories failed to do, because they never really thought any wrongdoing was that bad. Straight-as-a-die chief prosecutor Starmer will allow no such equivocation.
There must have been that moment in the high command last night, amid the noise, to gasp in incredulity at what they had done: an echo of Shakespeare’s Henry V after Agincourt being handed the list of the dead, 29 English but 10,000 French and all their notables, as the roll call of Tory fallers emerged: Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt, Michael Fabricant.
This is a moment to savour the worst of Tory sour breath being sucked out of politics, the malevolent stink of “go home” trucks and bedroom tax, of “safe” Rwanda and people pulling their own teeth, the crony contracts, deep cuts for the poorest, scapegoating foreigners and proroguing parliament. Unforgiven will be No 10 partying while the country obeyed the government’s own rules, and while relatives died alone. What will those massed ranks of culture warriors in the gigantic Tory media realms do now, brutally exposed as irrelevant to modern times?
In comes this sea-changed social democratic air, elected on values in tune with a country the Tories badly misunderstood. Rishi Sunak’s campaign appealed to the basest instincts; he became more desperate by the day, throwing tax-cut bribes like meat to the wolves. But the public knew that money came straight from their hospitals, schools and children’s futures. Neither bribes nor threats of £2,000 tax rises under Labour shifted the dials. People are nicer and better than Tories know, time and again backing not cuts, but more tax and spend. Twice as many want spending on public services increased “even if it means tax rises for households like theirs”, finds abrdn’s Financial Fairness Trust. The people may be ahead of Labour’s cautious manifesto.
Today marks the final stake through the heart of Thatcherism, killed off by the consequences of rail, mail, water and energy privatisations. Here ends austerity ideology, after the bankers’ crash, Covid and the cost of living crisis left people needing more, not less, from the state. No Conservatives will be electable again until they understand a country whose instincts have turned social democratic.
Time enough tomorrow and ever after to contemplate the dire legacy of this shameful government, its scorched earth and landmines visible in unpaid debts and bursting prisons. Time later to worry about what remedies will be adequate. National pessimism over a broken country, with people fearful that little can be done, is the grimmest mood pollsters have known. But at least Labour inherits the lowest of expectations and the lowest of bars to rise above. The threatening rise of Reform can only be challenged by a bold government that improves people’s lives.
Early first steps will be establishing rights for workers, ending no-fault evictions, hiring teachers, dentists and doctors, reforming planning and housing policies, social care fair pay and nationalised energy. New ministers have been waiting, yes, “like greyhounds in the slips” to do what they have planned for years. Success is the best rebuttal of nativist populism. But on this first day, marvel at what they have done: Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and a frontbench of heart, brain and optimism. The only way is up.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
Published this week, The Only Way is Up by Polly Toynbee and David Walker audits Labour’s inheritance and the benchmarks for building a fairer, greener, healthier, more productive and contented Britain. To support the Guardian and Observer, pre-order your copy at guardianbookshop.com