18 named examples with their significance, drawn from the Panther database. Read them, then test yourself.
In test mode, tap an example to reveal why it matters.
The examples
2024 General Election: Labour Landslide, Reform Surge and Blue Wall Collapse(2024)(tap to reveal)- Labour 412 seats / 33.7% vote (174-seat majority - the largest since 1997 on the lowest winning vote share in modern UK history). Conservatives 121 / 23.7% - their worst result since 1906. Reform UK 14.3% / 5 seats; Lib Dems 12.2% / 72 seats; Greens 4 seats (best ever). Turnout 59.7% (lowest since 2001). Sunak called the election early in May 2024 and left D-Day commemorations early; Gaza-related independents won several Labour-held seats.
Blair's 1997 Landslide: 418 Seats, 10.3% Swing and the Sun's Endorsement Switch(1997)(tap to reveal)- On 1 May 1997 Labour won 418 seats (a 145-seat gain) on 43.2% of the vote, producing a 179-seat majority - the largest since 1935 - on a 10.3% national swing, the biggest postwar swing. The Conservatives fell to 165 seats on 30.7%, their worst result since 1906 until 2024 broke it. Lib Dems won 46 seats on 16.8%. Turnout was 71.4%. The Sun switched endorsement from Conservative to Labour ten days before polling day with the headline 'The Sun Backs Blair'. Combined Lab+Con vote share was 73.9% - high two-party concentration.
2024 general election - FPTP disproportionality (Labour 33.7% = 411 seats)(tap to reveal)- MERGED INTO EX-006 on 2026-05-20. Content (Labour 33.7% / 411 seats / majority 174; D'Hondt counterfactual) now lives in EX-006's ao1_long and ao2_long. Status set to Draft so this record no longer surfaces in the Twenty Key Examples Workshop pool or other example-listing surfaces, while remaining in the database for audit.
Christopher Harborne and Reform UK Funding: The Largest Individual Donor to the Insurgent Right(2019)(tap to reveal)- Christopher Harborne is a British businessman based in Thailand (where he holds dual citizenship as Chakrit Sakunkrit) and owns the aviation-fuel firm AML Global Limited and a stake in software / fintech ventures. He is the largest individual donor to the right-of-centre pro-Brexit party tradition. According to Electoral Commission records he gave the Brexit Party more than 6 million pounds in 2019 (the largest single donation to any UK party that year) and has continued to fund Reform UK through 2023 to 2025 with further six- and seven-figure donations. Media analyses estimate his combined political donations since 2017 at more than 15 million pounds, almost all to UKIP / Brexit Party / Reform UK. Donations are routed through his UK-registered companies (such as AML Global) which makes them permissible under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 even though he himself is non-resident.
DUP Confidence and Supply Agreement 2017-19: Minor Party Use under FPTP(2017)(tap to reveal)- Conservatives won 317 seats in 2017, needing 326 for a majority. DUP had 10 MPs. Agreement involved £1bn extra for Northern Ireland. Agreement collapsed in 2019 when Johnson gained majority. DUP later strongly opposed the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Kemi Badenoch Conservative Leadership (November 2024 onwards)(2024-present)(tap to reveal)- Kemi Badenoch was elected Conservative leader in November 2024, defeating Robert Jenrick. She is the first Black woman to lead a major UK party.
Labour Welfare Bill and Winter Fuel Cuts: Internal Divisions (2024-25)(2025)(tap to reveal)- Starmer's government cut winter fuel payments (October 2024) and faced major rebellion on welfare reform bill (2025). ER 2025 praised candidates who cited the welfare bill and 'island of strangers' immigration speech as evidence of Labour divisions. Shows ideological tensions within Labour between fiscal discipline and traditional welfare commitments.
Michael Hintze and Conservative Party Funding(2020)(tap to reveal)- ARCHIVED on 2026-05-20: replaced in the Twenty Key Examples Workshop by E365 (Nick Candy / Reform UK funding). Hintze content remains in the database.
Hintze donated over £4.7m to the Conservative Party over many years. CQS is a major investment management firm. Conservative Party receives proportionally more large individual donations than other parties. PPERA 2000 requires donations over £7,500 to be declared.
Nick Candy and Reform UK Funding (Dec 2024): The Property Tycoon Bankrolling the Insurgent Right(2024)(tap to reveal)- ARCHIVED on 2026-05-20: replaced in the Twenty-Five Key Examples Workshop by E369 (Christopher Harborne), whose cumulative donations to UKIP / Brexit Party / Reform UK make him the larger and longer-standing single donor. Candy content preserved below.
Property developer Nick Candy (Candy & Candy, One Hyde Park) joined Reform UK as Treasurer in December 2024. He had previously donated 100,000 pounds to UKIP in 2014. Candy pledged personal donations and announced a target of raising 25 million pounds for Reform by the next general election. Net worth roughly 1 billion pounds. His Reform appointment came as Reform polled level with or ahead of the Conservatives in late-2024 and early-2025 polling.
SNP Dominance in Scotland and the Nationalist Challenge (2015-present)(2015-present)(tap to reveal)- SNP dominance since 2015: won 56/59 Scottish seats in 2015 GE. Consistently holds majority in Scottish Parliament under AMS. Forms Scottish Government. Indyref 2014: 55% No. SNP pursues independence as primary goal. Nicola Sturgeon led SNP 2014-23; Humza Yousaf 2023-24; John Swinney from 2024.
Two-Child Benefit Cap: July 2024 Rebellion and Spring 2026 Removal(2026)(tap to reveal)- Starmer did not immediately abolish the two-child benefit cap on taking office. July 2024: major parliamentary rebellion by Labour MPs including Zarah Sultana. Cap eventually removed in Spring 2026 Budget under sustained left-wing pressure. AO3: the episode shows Old Labour pressure operating within a New Labour government - Starmer governs from the centre but can be moved leftward by his parliamentary coalition.
1975 EEC Referendum: Wilson Uses Referendum to Manage Labour Party Division(2016)(tap to reveal)- Harold Wilson's Labour government held the UK's first national referendum in 1975 on continued membership of the European Economic Community. The referendum result was 67.2% Yes (Remain) on a 64.5% turnout. Critically, Wilson permitted Cabinet ministers to campaign on either side - suspending collective Cabinet responsibility for the campaign period. The referendum was widely seen as a device to manage internal Labour party divisions on Europe rather than a principled commitment to direct democracy. Senior Labour figures like Tony Benn campaigned for Leave while Roy Jenkins campaigned for Remain.
1997 General Election: New Labour Landslide and Media Support(1997)(tap to reveal)- Labour won 418 seats, Conservatives 165. Blair's Five Pledges included cutting NHS waiting lists and reducing class sizes. The Sun endorsed Labour for the first time since the 1970s. Blair had carefully cultivated Rupert Murdoch's support.
2009 European Parliament Elections: BNP Win 2 Seats on 6.2% Under Closed Party List PR(2019)(tap to reveal)- In the 2009 European Parliament elections, the British National Party won 6.2% of the national vote and gained 2 MEP seats (Nick Griffin in North West England and Andrew Brons in Yorkshire and the Humber) under the Closed Party List proportional system used for European elections. In the 2010 UK general election, the BNP stood in 338 constituencies and won 1.9% of the national vote but no seats under FPTP. The contrast illustrates how proportional systems allow fringe parties to gain legislative representation that FPTP denies them - an argument deployed both for PR (fairer representation) and against it (extremist representation).
Bernie Ecclestone Donation 1997: Formula One Tobacco Advertising Exemption(2000)(tap to reveal)- Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone donated £1 million to the Labour Party before the 1997 general election. Shortly after Labour took power, the government exempted Formula One from the EU ban on tobacco advertising at sports events (other sports were subject to the ban). When the link became public, Labour returned the donation and Tony Blair appeared on television to say 'I am a pretty straight kind of a guy'. Ecclestone had met with Blair at Downing Street before the exemption decision. The episode triggered calls for greater regulation of party donations and was a catalyst for the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA).
Caerphilly By-Election October 2025: Plaid Cymru Gain, Reform Second, Labour Collapse(2025)(tap to reveal)- Plaid Cymru won the Caerphilly by-election in October 2025, taking one of Labour's safest Senedd seats. Reform UK came second and Labour third, the first time Labour had fallen to third in a Welsh parliamentary contest there.
Conservative Party Membership Collapse: 2.8 Million (1953) to 180,000 (2019)(2019)(tap to reveal)- Conservative Party membership peaked at approximately 2.8 million in 1953. By 2003 it had fallen to 248,000. By 2019, membership was estimated at 180,000. Labour followed a similar path - from around 1 million in 1953 to 215,000 in 2003 - though Corbyn's leadership sparked a surge to 485,000 by 2019, making Labour briefly the largest party by membership in Europe. Trade union membership mirrored this: 13.2 million in 1979 falling to 6.23 million by 2016. The contrast with SNP, Green Party, and Labour Corbyn-era growth shows membership can revive around specific movements or leaders.
Dan Poulter Conservative-to-Labour Defection April 2024(2024)(tap to reveal)- In April 2024, Conservative MP Dan Poulter - who also works part-time as a mental health NHS doctor - defected to Labour, citing his firsthand experience of an overstretched NHS that he could no longer reconcile with Conservative Party policy. He stated the Conservative government had 'failed the NHS'. Poulter had been a junior health minister under Cameron. His defection came as the Conservatives trailed Labour by 20+ points in polls. He is one of several Tory MPs to defect in the 2024-25 Parliament (Lee Anderson defected to Reform UK in February 2024).