John Curtice

"[T]o some degree I'm a jester, a licensed fool; under the guise of impartiality or academic dottiness, you're given a licence to say what other people won't say. I take the view that intellectuals tend not to be very good at politics. You need to be articulate, you need to be good at communication, you need to be able to construct a narrative and set out a vision; but you also need not to have self-doubt – and that's a crucial feature of academic life."

"But if the electorate said a firm "No" to the Conservatives on Thursday, the enthusiasm for Labour was muted. The party won just 35 per cent of the vote, less than Jeremy Corbyn in 2017 and less than Tony Blair achieved in his three election victories. Indeed, never before has a party been able to form a majority government on so low a share of the vote. In combination with the Conservatives' record low share, this meant that the share of the vote won by Labour and the Conservatives combined was the lowest since Labour first became the Conservatives' principal rivals in 1922."