Looking back at 2024: Dramatic political change with big winners and losers

In the aftermath of the Tories' 2019 general election victory, when Boris Johnson won an 80-seat majority, commentators highlighted what was Labour's worst performance since 1935.

The party would need a swing on the scale of Tony Blair's 1997 landslide to get back into power. It had a lot of rebuilding to do. And later there was talk of Boris Johnson remaining prime minister until the mid-1930s.

Instead, the 2024 election on July 4 saw Labour win 412 out of the 650 seats in the Commons and a majority of 174, almost equal to Blair's record 178 majority in 1997.

Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria on the steps of Number Ten

And the Tories - who had ditched Boris Johnson, imposed the disastrous LIz Truss premiership and then brought in Rishi Sunak - suffered their biggest decline in support ever.

Things may not have been plain sailing for Sir Keir Starmer since he took over at Number Ten - the government has come under fire for controversial decisions like means-testing winter fuel payments and failing to scrap the two-child benefit cap. And ministers are said now to accept they have overdone the gloomy messaging on the economy. It was intended to underline how badly the Tories handled it when they were in power, but it seems to have gone further and undermined confidence.

Nevertheless, the size of the Labour majority means the party is secure in power for the next five years. And it believes its policies will bring about long-term improvements in people's daily lives and standard of living.

Meanwhile, the Tories and their new leader Kemi Badenoch are under threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which managed to win seats at Westminster for the first time. Reform is trying to professionalise itself and claims its membership has now overtaken the Conservatives’.

And the general election was a major setback for the SNP, which had got used to being the dominant force in Scottish politics since coming to power at Holyrood in 2007. After winning 48 Westminster seats in 2019, it held on to just nine in 2024, most of them moving to Labour. The SNP has since bounced back a bit in the polls, but will not now enjoy the UK-wide publicity it was getting before.

As politicians in all parties take stock at the turn of the year, they will be reflecting on a dramatic 2024 and focusing their attention on the 2026 Holyrood elections.