Surprise winners and losers in UK general election, from Greens to Reform UK

Beyond the astonishing scale of Labour’s overall victory, general election night 2024 was a night of shock results, big swings and unexpected upsets. Here are the most surprising winners and losers.

Surprise winners

Jeremy Corbyn, independent
The former Labour leader decided to contest his long-held Islington North seat after being barred from standing by Labour. The campaign was thought to be on a knife-edge, but Corbyn ended up winning convincingly with a majority of more than 7,000. The veteran politician benefited from a large personal following in the seat and his stance on opposing Israel’s war in Gaza. The Labour candidate, Praful Nargund, had been criticised locally over his links to the private health industry.

Adrian Ramsay, Green party co-leader, in Waveney
Ramsay had not been expected to take the rural seat of Waveney Valley, which straddles Suffolk and Norfolk. The seat had new boundaries but covered areas held by Conservatives for decades. Ramsay performed well at the television debate earlier in the campaign and had worked the area hard. Across the board, the Greens had a spectacularly good night by the standards of a minor party, which has struggled to break through the electoral system in previous elections. It also took a seat from Labour, ousting shadow cabinet minister Thangam Debonnaire in Bristol Central, while in North Herefordshire the Green candidate, Ellie Chowns, was a surprise winner. The party won in Brighton Pavilion, former seat of Caroline Lucas, with a victory for the former party leader Siân Berry.

Richard Tice, chair and donor to Reform UK
A victory for Nigel Farage in Clacton was priced in since he announced he would stand last month. But Tice’s chances in Boston and Skegness, one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, were much less assured. He ousted a centrist Tory, Matt Warman, by about 2,000 votes. Reform’s performance was not as good as the 13 MPs that the exit poll suggested but it still made remarkable progress, winning four seats. Along with Farage and Tice, the party won in Great Yarmouth, and retained Lee Anderson’s seat in Ashfield after he defected from the Conservatives earlier this year.

Surprise losers

Liz Truss
The former prime minister was not widely expected to lose her South West Norfolk seat. However, she appears to have been punished for her disastrous seven-week tenure in No 10, which caused a crash in the financial markets. She was also caught up in wider swings across traditionally Tory East Anglia against the Conservatives and towards Labour, the Greens and Reform. Her majority of 26,000 was overturned, with Labour taking the seat by a slender margin. Other current and former cabinet ministers to lose their seats included Thérèse Coffey, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Gillian Keegan, Mark Harper, Grant Shapps, Penny Mordaunt, David TC Davies, and Alex Chalk.

Jonathan Ashworth
The biggest and most shocking casualty for Labour of the night was its election campaign coordinator, Jonathan Ashworth. Few had predicted he would lose his Leicester South seat to the independent pro-Gaza candidate Shockat Adam. “This is for Gaza,” Adam said at the count. Another independent candidate made a surprise gain in Dewsbury and Batley, denying a seat to Labour’s Heather Iqbal, a former adviser to Rachel Reeves. The seat was won by Iqbal Mohamed, who campaigned on ending the war in Gaza. The Labour MP Kate Hollern was also ousted in Blackburn by independent Adnan Hussain.

Ian Paisley Jr
The Democratic Unionist (DUP) party stalwart was replaced in North Antrim by Jim Allister, a candidate from the TUV, an even more pro-unionist party backed by Reform UK. The seat had been held by his family since 1970. It was a difficult night overall for the DUP, which has suffered following the Brexit deal that has proven unpopular in Northern Ireland, and its former leader Jeffrey Donaldson facing trial on 18 sexual offence charges. It is on track to lose three of its eight seats, which would leave Sinn Féin as the Northern Ireland party with most MPs.