UK election: Sky News’ Laura Jayes reveals ‘comedy of errors’ that led to Rishi Sunak’s demise

Voters stopped listening to Rishi Sunak and the Tories months ago and have just been waiting for their chance to kick them out, writes Sky News’ Laura Jayes.

It’s all over for Rishi Sunak.

The 42-year-old has carried the weight of 14 years of Conservative Party baggage. It didn’t just weigh him down, it’s about to sink him.

Voters stopped listening to him and the Tories months ago and have just been waiting for their chance to kick them out.

In the end – the campaign seems to have mattered little. The incumbents needed everything to go their way and it didn’t. It was a comedy of errors from the get-go. All of it their own making.

UK Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer. Picture: Getty Images

Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak. Picture: AFP

From the rain-soaked election day announcement at Number 10 Downing Street to the soundtrack of D: Reams ‘things can only get better’ blaring from the speakers of protesters nearby.

To the optics of Rishi Sunak leaving D Day commemorations early after he’d just days earlier announced a policy to return to compulsory national service for 18-year-olds.

The nail perhaps finally hammered into the coffin though with the betting scandal. Conservative MPs placed exotic bets on the date of the election. They had inside knowledge and used it to make a quick buck. The hypocrisy writ large.

With that the Tories became a complete joke. As if to prove that they are above the rules that they set for everyone else.

Sky News’ Laura Jayes. Picture: Sky

Keir Starmer didn’t need to be anything but boring. And boring he was.

Labour HQ played it safe and made Sir Keir the smallest of small targets. Far from a sweeping policy manifesto – the whole campaign was more about what Labour wouldn’t do rather than any grand new vision for the country.

If the polls are anywhere near accurate – we’re about to see an extinction level event for the Conservatives. Not only will they be taken to the cleaners by the electorate – but we might be about to see the next generation of potential leaders wiped out because only about 20% of the United Kingdom want to vote Tory.

What is perhaps most stunning though, is Labour will see this historic victory – with majority so big you have to go back almost two centuries to the 1800s to find similar, and they get there with just 42 per cent of the popular vote.

That is an indictment on both major parties – and should shake them out of their naive complacency. It’s the Conservatives getting the rude awakening this time – but if Labour don’t heed the lessons, it could be the reverse in less than 5 years from now. Just ask Boris Johnson.

This is the lesson: Voters will increasingly look to alternative parties if their lives don’t materially improve under the legacy ones.

They will forgive a scandal, but they won’t forget if they are robbed of hope and progress.

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Originally published as UK election: Sky News’ Laura Jayes reveals ‘comedy of errors’ that led to Rishi Sunak’s demise