'The honeymoon period for Labour will be short- their members are divided and Starmer is as inspiring as a wet picnic' - Ann Widdecombe

Ever since the toppling of a man who won them an 80 seat majority, there has been nothing except leadership speculation, briefing against the PM, endless threats of letters being put in to the Chairman of the 1922 and chaos on wheels.

It does not help that they have lost a lot of serious players. The quality of MP is appallingly low and I groaned when I learned of one new MP’s election and of the re-election of two others.

All three are about as lightweight as it is possible to imagine. And yet they are supposed to be capable of running a country. I can only hope that somewhere in that hopeless rabble there are some serious leaders of the future.

Of course, the big story of the night was the advance of Reform which took a higher share of the vote than the Lib Dems and secured five seats.

It is too easy to attribute this solely to the collapse of the Conservatives: it is the only party offering any concrete solutions to the small boats problem and the only party whose leader has any charisma and oomph. It should certainly liven up parliament.

I suspect that speculation about a deal between Reform and the Tories is premature, the brutal truth being that neither side trusts the other.

Reform has bitter memories of being let down by Boris, who thought it quite safe to ignore us and negotiate a half-baked Brexit deal and who never even said so much as thank you when the Brexit Party stood down against his candidates in Tory seats. The arrogant fools thereby sealed their own fate.

As for the Labour Party, which did not win this election so much as had it handed to it on a plate, I suspect the honeymoon will be short.

Their members are badly divided, have no real answers and follow a leader who is about as inspiring as a wet picnic.

But they are there for five years during which time they will betray the Brexit referendum result, allow millions of migrants to cross our borders and tax us to the hilt and beyond, doubtless supported by the Liberal Democrats whose campaign appeared to consist of a series of increasingly wild stunts.

LATEST OPINION:

• 'Reform and the Tories should merge rather than fight if they want to beat Labour' - Lance Forman
• 'Labour has taken the majority as a mandate for change - but still need to set out what these changes will be!' - John Redwood
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Amidst all the froth and din of the campaign came a sinister element when pro Gaza candidates defeated Labour ones.

This election may well be written up by future historians as the one which began to embed sectarian politics in the UK and the Palestine issue is likely to be a continuing thorn in the Prime Minister’s side.

When all the dust has settled, one simple fact remains: Britain has moved left while the rest of Europe is moving right.

It makes for an uneasy dance with our government eager to rejoin the superstate just as other nations are discovering the lure of sovereignty. Ironically it leaves Reform more in sync with them than any of our mainstream parties.