If the Tories were a vegetable, they would've been composted years ago. Not in British politics, where rotten parties stick around long after they're past due. Nothing epitomises this more than the fourteen-year reign of the Conservatives, who were finally removed from power in the July 2024 general election, scoring their worst-ever result. If only it were a victory for Labour. Though it claimed a near-record-breaking 411 seats, Keir Starmer won with the smallest majority on record, taking in under 38% of the vote. If anything, both parties lost big. But the public punished the Tories hardest. Dial back to January 2024. Suspecting Rishi Sunak's government wouldn't make it through the year, The Battleground's Josh White began recording an election diary in anticipation of its fall. Starting monthly and going weekly once elections were called, White's monologues anticipated what would happen to Sunak and how Labour would fail to capitalise on its electoral triumph. If this sounds like a Greek tragedy, it is. Just call it Tories Are Dead. Josh White got it right; the only beneficiaries of the Tories' death are Nigel Farage and his far-right Reform UK party. Compiled from The Battleground's Left To Burn podcast, White's broadcast transcripts paint a chilling picture of what would happen to UK politics under Starmer's rule. Published at the most fragile moment in Starmer's tenure, Tories Are Dead offers a rare window into Labour's crisis and why Britain is badly in need of a competitive and stable social democratic party.
