Labour Faced Surges On Left And Right Amid Landslide Election Victory

The Labour Party will be relieved to have secured their landslide election victory and more than 400 seats in the House of Commons, but the party faced surges from opponents on the left and right.

Labour leader Keir Starmer secured an historic victory, winning more than 400 seats across the country with a landslide result, while the Conservatives struggled towards 120. 

However, amid the Labour gains, the party’s two high-profile losses of the evening, shadow ministers Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire, were to an independent candidate and the Green Party respectively. 

Labour lost four seats -including Ashworth’s Leicester South - to independent candidates who are pro-Gaza. 

Heather Iqbal, who was previously an aide to Rachel Reeves, lost in Dewsbury and Batley by almost 7,000 votes. Iqbal won 8,707 votes compared to independent Iqbal Mohamed, who secured 15,641 votes.  

Labour were also pushed into second place in Blackburn by fewer than 150 votes, with independent Adnan Hussain claiming victory, and Khalid Mahmood, who had represented Birmingham Perry Barr, since 2001 lost to independent Ayoub Khan. 

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also claimed a comfortable victory in Islingston North, beating Labour into second by more than 7,000 votes. 

The loss of shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire also demonstrated the threat the party faces from the Green Party. 

Debbonaire, who had been an MP since 2015, was pushed into a distant second by more than 10,000 votes by Green co-leader Carla Denyer in Bristol Central. 

Overnight, the Greens quadrupled their Commons total to 4 MPs, gaining two rural seats in Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire, as they have expanded their reach beyond their previously more urban