Watch back KMTV's live coverage of the UK's 2024 General Election results.
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00:00Welcome back everybody. Joining me, the next guest of this evening, some familiar faces,
00:10Rob Bailey from Medway Park. You've transported yourself to the KNTV studio. It's good to
00:15have you here. Usually it's you sitting here for the politics. And of course, Ian Reeves
00:20from the Centre for Journalism as well. What a night. What a day. What a morning. I don't
00:27know what to call it. Time means nothing. We're journalists, we get over it. Rob, I'll
00:33come to you first. If you can, summarise what it was like at Medway Park. Obviously you
00:38had the OB studio, you had that pop-up studio. It looked fantastic, the set and guests coming
00:45in. We've had the comms in your ear. Talk, we'll move on to the politics, but let's come
00:50first to how that actually even came to fruition and what that was like. Well this is our second
00:54general election at KNTV, although it's my first. First for broadcast at least. We've
01:03really rolled out, we've gone far beyond what we've done before. So last time all based
01:07in this studio. This time we were able to set up a proper studio on an outside unit.
01:12It changes the game because you've got all of the buzz around. Three constituencies in
01:17a unitary area all being caught at the same time. At the end we had Cameron walking around
01:21between them all. Exactly that, and you can't tap into that remotely. It's something that's
01:25happening there in that place. It's lightning in a bottle on an election night. These incredible
01:31emotional flare-ups that happen as people lose, people win, and it's gone in an instant.
01:38Within about five minutes of the last election being called, Medway Park was empty again.
01:43But we were there right on scene for all of those moments and able to pull people off
01:47the counting room floor, up into a studio. We had the Lib Dem candidate who came up just
01:55seconds after his count finished. Clearly emotional, sweating, the full moment, but
02:00we were able to capture that there. And so had an absolutely brilliant energy about it.
02:04I'll tell you what, it went like it was five minutes. I know, I'm not an opening. The amount
02:08of lives as well, I think there's loads of major differences between 2019 and 2024, both
02:15politically, editorially, technologically, and you've already touched on quite a bit about the
02:20social media platforms and the change that they have made to electioneering generally.
02:26But the difference with the show has been really stark for me, watching it from the gallery in
02:31the main, is seeing the amount of live stuff that we've been able to bring to Kent's audiences.
02:38We pretty much didn't miss any crucial piece of action and there was some fantastic reaction.
02:45The reaction of one of your guests when the surprise Lib Dem result came through live was just
02:53a fantastic TV. So the ability for us to bring those pictures and that flavour of really what's
03:06happening at those counts has been transformational, I think.
03:10And we'll come to the opening. I just want to give an update. We can see our Kent result on
03:15the screen there, we all know. We have 645 seats declared overall out of 650, of course, 410
03:23Labour, hitting that exit poll on the head there at the moment, 120 Conservative, Lib Dem 71,
03:29SNP 9, other 35. So just looking at that exit poll, pretty spot on there.
03:34But let's just quickly cast our minds back to hours and hours ago, Cameron Tucker's opening
03:42to our live programming. It was pretty fantastic seeing him walk with that first box.
03:48We were at Medway Park, which is, as you know, an athletic centre of excellence.
03:53So pressure was on.
03:55Yeah, absolutely right. I mean, it is used by Olympic teams for training.
04:01In the moments before we went live, the amount of times he had to practice the shuttle run from
04:06the car park up to the studio, the poor lad was out of breath. And the camera following him,
04:13Izzy on the camera following him, back and forth, back and forth, trying to get the timing right on
04:18the way through. Absolutely wonderful moment. And of course, it gave you that real sense of place
04:24and the sense of that studio that we'd set up because you had that moment,
04:26he walks through the doors and there we are sat there waiting for him.
04:29Yes, Cameron has suffered for his art, but he's done it wonderfully.
04:33Impeccably. While we're on Medway, we'll dive into a bit more of the politics now.
04:38We can hear from Raymond Chistie. Of course, he lost his seat. I think we can hear from him now.
04:44The people have spoken today, and I respect that. Of course, I'm hugely disappointed,
04:48and I'm disappointed for my brilliant local team who've done a terrific job. But the reality is,
04:53when you have a national swing, we saw it in 97, we can run the most brilliant campaigns,
04:58which we have done, but a brilliant local agent, Martin Potter, and the team. But
05:03the national trends are national trends, and I think it hasn't gone our way. But we'll go back,
05:10we'll regroup, we'll come back, and we'll win. Mr Deputy Mayor, ladies and gentlemen.
05:16I would love to come on your show next week and ask some reflections and go through that. Tonight,
05:21I just wanted to say, well, I think there's a number of things which we could have done
05:25differently. But I think there's a time and a place for that. Tonight is important to congratulate
05:30my successor. I think it's, Richard Soonack won't be there long to look at the direction of his
05:37party. I think the fact is, my message to the Conservative Party is this, come together,
05:42you know, be an inclusive party. You know, it's go out there, let's go out there,
05:47let's regain trust in British politics. And I know if we do that, hold Labour to account,
05:52we can win. Well, look, I think at one stage, I was looking at leadership myself in 2022. No,
05:57that was 2022. But look, what I would say is, leadership needs to better engage with their
06:01members of Parliament across the board. And I think lessons need to be learned. I think there
06:06is a real issue and a point that needs to be looked at where the leadership of parties need to
06:13better engage with their members of Parliament, you know, and their councillors, members of
06:17Parliament that connect with the public. So when you're developing policy, and I've raised that
06:20with the Prime Minister on the floor of the House, you know, it's engage with your members
06:24of Parliament when you're shaping policy. So do you think you weren't listened to?
06:27Well, I think that, you know, the leadership could have better engaged with their members
06:31of Parliament who are across the board, across the board, better engage with their members of
06:35Parliament across the board who are connected to the public in shaping policy. And I think if we,
06:40if the leadership had done that, we may be in a different position today.
06:43What about the impact of reform? And where do you want to see the party?
06:46Well, I think the look, I think the question on that on reform, it's, it's, let's deal with it
06:50head on. The fact is, you know, many of those reform voters, you know, who voted for a reform
06:55and wanted tough legislation on illegal migration, you know, then have thrown the baby out the bath
07:01water because by voting reform in areas like Gillingham and other seats in North Kent,
07:05they've allowed Labour in, a Labour government, which will scrap the Rwanda scheme, you know,
07:11which would have been a key deterrent. So many of those reform voters who wanted tough legislation
07:16on illegal migration, they now have a Labour government, which will do completely the opposite.
07:21But does the party, does the Conservative party need to listen to those reform voters?
07:24Well, I would say the point I raised earlier, we need to go out there and engage and listen
07:28across the board. To the reformer and move in that direction.
07:32I'm somebody who has been in the centre ground of politics all my life, and I'm not going to
07:37simply nudge and move to different directions, you know, with regards to, you know, political
07:42trends. The fact is, you know, I would say an inclusive, I think there's many talents within
07:48the Conservative party, but I'm not going to speculate on that. I think, let me come on your
07:52show next week and we'll have a good conversation on that. But I think the Conservative party is
07:56best served, centre ground Conservative party. We've won it before with David Cameron in 2010.
08:00We've won it in 2015. And I think that's where we need to be. But we need to go out there,
08:05we need to engage, we need to listen, and we need to learn lessons. The leadership at the top
08:10in terms of how we better engage with our members of Parliament in terms of shaping,
08:15delivering policy. And that's my message to the Prime Minister, many good colleagues,
08:19many good colleagues across the country. I've worked with them for 14 years and lost their
08:23seats. Not because they weren't doing a great job. They were great members of Parliament.
08:26But I think the leadership needs to now urgently, quickly, swiftly ask those questions
08:31is with regards to why did they not better engage with their members of Parliament,
08:35who would have been able to guide them on how we shape policy and better, you know,
08:39and better engage with, you know, our electorate on the ground. Are you annoyed? I'm disappointed.
08:44You cross, though. I'm disappointed. Well, look, I think... You're calling the election now.
08:48Well, let me, let me, let me put it this way. I've always been straight with, on my media
08:52interviews. Let me put it this way. I think with the Prime Minister, I voted for him twice
08:56in a leadership. You know, despite members of Parliament, when they vote for different
09:01inducements for ministerial positions, I didn't. You know, I asked the Prime Minister two things.
09:05I said, Prime Minister, I want you to do two things. And he said, what's that? I said,
09:09appoint every minister on merit. I think we all know it's meritocracy and politics across the
09:16board. It's different factors come into account. I would say to the new leader or to the leader
09:21of the Labour Party, now incoming Prime Minister, ministers across the board should be appointed
09:25to merit. That best serves our country across the board. And then also inclusivity. You know,
09:30bring people together across the board in the common national interest. And I think the Prime
09:34Minister, you know, and that's somebody who supported it, you know, on two leadership contests.
09:39I think the conversations I had with him, I think he needs to reflect on those to see if
09:43he could have done things differently to help win more seats. So it's always good to be with him.
09:52I would like to invite the returning officer, the High Sheriff of Kent, Dr Jill Farger and
09:59our candidates for the Chatham and Aylesford constituency to join me on the stage, please.
10:07Just ask you a quick question. One question.
10:12You said you wanted to trend the buck here in Gillingham Railway. Yes.
10:15If you had done things differently, if you had responded to constituencies,
10:19made your constituencies see things, because I speak to everyone in the constituency,
10:22I know grandparents, parents, who say you haven't replied to them, you haven't made them feel seen.
10:26If you've been more than a social media politician, could this have gone differently?
10:30Well, I think you should have been with me in Wigmore this evening when I spoke to people
10:33on the doorsteps out on Wigmore Road, and they said they very much appreciated all the great
10:38work I did for my constituency. And I think the same question I say to you, rather than looking
10:43at what some people may say on social media, go out there and speak to real people on the doorstep.
10:47So I spoke to them, I did, and they very much appreciated my work. So nice to see you.
10:59I think for me, it's, you know, if you ask me, proudest achievements across the board,
11:03we've had over £31 million of investment in our local health services, £6.5 million for the
11:09ambulance facility, a mother and baby unit for perinatal mental health care. Across the board,
11:14we've seen investment in our public services, we've seen 18 schools rated good in the local
11:20area, great education. So we've seen, across the board, investment and we've seen support for
11:26public services in Chillingham and Romain. Thank you very much. Thank you.
11:30Well, that was, of course, the outgoing Conservative MP, Raymond Chistie for
11:46Chillingham and Romain there. Now we're going to hear from Rochester and Strood, the new Labour MP,
11:51Lauren Edwards. This was live earlier in our programme, but we'll show you that now.
11:58OK, sorry to interrupt you, Matt. I think we're going to Cameron now,
12:01starting to have boxes arrive in Medway Park. Cameron, are you with us? Can you hear us?
12:06Just been told the first boxes are arriving. You can see a sea of high vis behind me. We've got
12:11Jack over my shoulder. Well, I think that's Cameron Tucker. That's definitely not Lauren
12:16Edwards. I think we're going to try and find that clip for you now. No, we don't have that. OK,
12:22back to our discussion in the studio. We were going into the wider picture of the evening. We
12:27discussed a few of those highlights. We saw a little clip of Cameron there. That was a great
12:31moment. We'll all be watching that back for sure, him doing that run with that first box. But the
12:36wider picture, Ian, nationally. Massive Labour majority. This is a transformational moment
12:45for British politics and 170 seat majority for a Labour government after 14 years of
12:53coalition and then conservative rule. It's a reset and it is a massive test for Labour.
13:04What we are yet really to think, to discover, is whether this vote is a vote for Labour or
13:11whether this vote was really about getting the Tories out and Labour the only viable option,
13:17the vehicle in which to do that. So there's a huge test for Keir Starmer as to how he puts his
13:24cabinet together and how he articulates his vision, which he notably hasn't really done,
13:31arguably, during the entire election. A risk-free election campaign from a very well-drilled,
13:40very well-disciplined Labour machine. What's the vision? Do you think that's going to make
13:45the British public even more nervous now? Desperate for some stability, some calm,
13:50and now it's gone for something we don't quite know? It's results they're going to want. Ian's
13:57right. The danger here is it is a thumping win, but only by the metric of seats. He's got two
14:04thirds of the seats in Parliament with only one third of the popular vote. That's flimsier than
14:08many of the Conservative governments that we've seen over the last 14 years, and it's a very good
14:13indication of what Ian said then about the kind of people that have voted for Labour. This is not
14:19the country falling in love with Labour. This is the country saying, we've had enough of that lot,
14:23let's give this lot a go. Keir Starmer's got five years and he cannot rely on some of the people
14:28that voted Labour yesterday voting Labour again in five years' time. They're not loyal voters,
14:34it's suck it and see. And that means that in a very, very difficult situation where he has very
14:38little money, he's building a cabinet from scratch, he has to hit the ground running and he
14:50has to start delivering. And I think the voters are going to have slightly unreasonable expectations.
14:55He told them that he will deliver change and they're going to expect to see it. And I don't
14:59think they're going to be prepared to wait three years to see it, which is probably how long it's
15:05going to take him to start really forming an agenda properly. So I think there were some
15:09interesting challenges ahead. And on the other side of the ledger, you've got the Conservative
15:14Party, which is essentially, I mean, all political parties are coalitions in their own right.
15:21Essentially, the Conservative coalition has fractured. And you've got reform now, which is
15:26essentially or largely built from disaffected, not entirely as we keep stressing, but largely built
15:33from disaffected Conservatives who feel betrayed or feel like the vision that Rishi Sunak had was
15:41not satisfying their needs. Fracturing that coalition. And so you've got this sort of two
15:48bits now. Nigel Farage has essentially said, this is the start of my takeover of the Conservative
15:54Party. At what point does that come back together? Does that come back together or is it fractured
16:00permanently? And how that plays out and what an opposition looks like
16:07with that fractured coalition, fascinating. Some mavericks have been unleashed here as well. So
16:11you've got people like Liz Truss has lost a seat. And a lot of people would look at that and think,
16:15well, that's the end of Liz Truss. Do not bet on it. Some of these people who have been agitating
16:20around the edges of the Conservative Party have a very different vision for what the Conservative
16:24Party should be, are now unshackled and are completely free to cause damage, to pull the
16:31Conservative Party in different directions, to join reform if they want to. And I think we're
16:36going to see some strong characters emerging with very clear ideas about what the right of British
16:41politics should look like over the course of this leadership campaign that's coming. And it could
16:47get very, very interesting. And what will we see of Rishi Sunak now? Probably very little.
16:53Well, we didn't see anything of him in Kent.
16:56We didn't. And I think that was telling for what the expectation was down here from his machine.
17:04But it was a disastrous campaign. I mean, from the get-go, it was a disastrous campaign.
17:10So I think, yes, toast. Fascinating to see how the leadership campaign then develops,
17:18almost certainly a lurch to the right to somehow counter this kind of reform agenda.
17:25So, you know, how that develops can be bad or not, maybe.
17:29Maybe. Suella Bradman's already put her hat in the ring again.
17:32Yes.
17:33Yes. And what we tend to find with these things is that a party that's wounded like this,
17:38they'll make a lurch. Labour did the same thing with Jeremy Corbyn. They'll make a lurch. It
17:43doesn't always last all that long. Very often, there'll be another leadership election when
17:47things settle down. And so we might see a lurch to someone like Kemi Badenoch or Suella Bradman,
17:53and then the party, in a couple of years' time, rethinking it again.
17:57The Lib Dems is an interesting line.
18:00Definitely.
18:01Best result for them for a century. 1923. And so they're, you know, having essentially
18:09killed themselves by entering that coalition in 2010. You know, ill-informed, essentially,
18:16political mistake, which I think most Lib Dems would see that as now. Essentially now resurgent.
18:23And, you know, what do they do? Are they able to build on this? Or has this just been,
18:30have they been another vehicle by which the Conservatives have been ejected by the electorate?
18:36You know, their campaign was very much focused on tactical voting. You know, endless Lib Dem
18:44election materials come through our letterbox.
18:48Steve Coogan doing video saying, if you want to get rid of a Tory, vote this way in a seat.
18:53Yeah, absolutely.
18:54And that whole, you know, I think one of the key differences with this election campaign
19:00to previous ones is with those vehicles and those, that messaging about tactical voting
19:06was done in a very organised way, a very high profile way, much more so than I've ever seen
19:11before. And, you know, what does that then do to the electorate? Does that make the electorate much
19:17more cynical? You know, a lot of people, I think, felt torn by seeing those, you know, only the Lib
19:25Dems can win here against the Conservatives. You know, I spoke to lots and lots of people who were
19:31torn by that message and felt like, well, I'm going to have to hold my nose if that's true.
19:37And there was some quite misleading messaging around some of that, not just from the Lib Dems,
19:42but from others as well. So that whole tactical voting, you know, the way that that landscape
19:48plays out, I think is fascinating for the future.
19:50And it's how that's pushed as well. I was just discussing with our last guests about
19:54social media as well, that tactical voting message pushed on social media. It's so,
20:00so accessible. Speaking to a councillor earlier, she's out campaigning, she's speaking to people
20:07on the doorstep, but in the 10 minutes it takes for her to have that conversation,
20:11the half an hour round trip it took her to get there, you can read that on your phone.
20:15And that could influence someone's mind made up just like that. And it feels like a dangerous
20:22place to be. But also there are lots of checks, fact checking information on X, you can fact
20:30check and you can have people who can. So there are ways around it, but it's...
20:35I think this is very interesting, because I think what we've seen here is the first election where
20:40TikTok has been a major part of the kind of media landscape that's been used by political parties
20:46and by activists.
20:46Splits the demographics.
20:47In a way that it hasn't before. But of course, I mean, it's an interesting thing. TikTok is
20:50primarily a young person's social media platform. I suspect, particularly with the turnout figures
20:55we've seen, not many young people have voted. And so that becomes quite interesting. But I think it
21:01does mean that we have to rethink a little bit about what we mean by mainstream media when we're
21:05talking about elections. Newspapers probably didn't actually really have that much influence
21:10on this result. An awful lot of newspapers were trying to kind of go for this project fear,
21:16don't vote Labour, Keir Starmer will wreck the country, the voters have just ignored it.
21:20The sun went Labour at the last minute, I don't think anyone noticed.
21:24I think that that kind of relationship with the mainstream media and politics is broken.
21:29The question is now, is there a new mainstream social media platforms, where most people are
21:34now going to find their news, which would be the definition of mainstream? How influential is that?
21:39And then does it need some form of regulation? A lot of people saying about how advertising
21:44standards are applied differently to products and politicians. That's becoming much more
21:49controversial. And I think the social media thing plays into that a lot.
21:52And it's something we talk about within journalism as well,
21:54we're beaten to the post by social media.
21:56Absolutely. And that idea of mainstream kind of goes, it's a fragmented world,
22:03and it's a very fast changing world. And whoever's sitting here in five years time,
22:10will be talking about probably an entirely different, the AI element to it will have
22:17moved on a generation. So the way the media kind of influences election campaigns will
22:27have changed again. But I think all of the major parties have fundamentally to reconsider
22:35who they are, what they stand for, and where their base is. That used to be really clear,
22:42where the base of your voters came from. And it was, you know, it was kind of union based,
22:49or it was, you know, it emerged from, you know, local, grassroots, conservative clubs,
22:57and those kind of membership organisations, that's disappearing. And, you know, the fact that
23:06the turnout has dropped, I think we'll, you know, we'll probably see that even more. And each of
23:14those parties now has to reassess where they get their base from. And going out onto social media
23:20into that very fractionalised landscape is incredibly difficult.
23:24It's strange, because this election, I mean, I'm not talking from a point of much experience,
23:30but just from the from the chatter, from my understanding as well, it felt like everybody
23:35in the whole world, I mean, everyone in my newsroom was, but you know, the whole, in the
23:39whole country across Kent, everybody was talking about this election, everybody desperate for
23:43change, everybody fed up. This was a sort of the picture was created. So turnout, you thought
23:50you'd have people. But when you look at that, some of those things, 50%, half, half the people,
23:57and just what those outcomes could look like, otherwise.
24:01And you've got, you know, the Labour decision to whether or not to lower the voting age, again,
24:07you know, changes the dynamic of what that next election will look will look like. And whether
24:14they follow, you know, whether they follow through on that idea to bring the voting age down to 16.
24:19And they've got PR ideas that they previously supported. But of course, First Past the Post
24:23has worked very well for them today, there's no motivation to change it. But giving votes to 16
24:28year olds will only make a difference if the 16 year olds vote. And you know, it has been I think,
24:33I think truly alarming today is seeing a general election, as you say, where change is important.
24:40Having such low turnouts across parts, I mean, we're looking in Medway, there were 54%. I think
24:46Chatham and Ellesworth 54.6%. I mean, that is, we'll just call it dismal, I think a dismal
24:52turnout for a general election, it should be 20 points higher than that. And, and that says
24:57something about the health of our democracy. And we're still in a very fragile moment.
25:01There's obviously an element of that, which is about conservatives just not wanting to come out,
25:08you know, being embarrassed or resigned to the fact that their party has collapsed,
25:13and just not wanting to, to play ball with whatever comes next. So that I think that is,
25:19you know, that's, that's part of the equation, but it's not all of it.
25:22It speaks to the legitimacy of the result, doesn't it? And it's very easy to sort of say,
25:25well, Labour stole this election, because so many voices weren't heard,
25:28which was something we kept hearing during Brexit. And it just enables there to be challenge
25:33resentment, which often is where parties like Reform really do their business, you know,
25:38in that kind of resentment, those corners of our politics.
25:41How do we re-engage people? Our role in society is to engage people in what matters to them,
25:48is to promote democracy, and local democracy on this level. We've been, we've been doing it for,
25:55I'm not going to try and work out the time, we've been doing it for hours, trying to get
25:58that message out there that everybody's voice and vote matters and should be heard.
26:03How can we go about, regardless of party, what's the shift? How can we engage people?
26:08Because the amount of people when we go out on those high streets, and we stand there and say,
26:12oh, it's about politics, I know nothing. And I say to people, no, no, it's fine,
26:16still talk to me, but if you know nothing, and I want, that's what I want to capture,
26:21I want to capture that you don't, you're disengaged, because that's your opinion,
26:24that's your view. How can we stop that?
26:27I think part of that is about education. I think people need to be better empowered
26:31with how to engage with politics.
26:33At a much younger age.
26:34At a much, yeah, absolutely at a much younger age. I mean, people talk about, for example,
26:38the Australian model of making voting compulsory. But I think you can only do that if you support
26:44that by then really demonstrating to people what a vote is, why it matters, how you exercise it,
26:49how it's counted. People, I think, are detached from those things. And that breeds that problem.
26:55So I think part of it comes from that. But part of it also comes from, I think, the kind of way
27:01that campaigning is working now. Very negative campaign this time. I think a lot of voters are
27:05put off by that. Really interesting experiment is to talk to people about what they think about
27:09Ed Davies' campaign this time, the Liberal Democrat leader. Very, very divisive.
27:13There are an awful lot of people that don't really like politics that were quite entertained
27:17by Ed Davies. Every time he went bungee jumping or whitewater rafting, he looked like he was
27:21genuinely enjoying himself. Or assault courses in San Francisco.
27:24Yeah, absolutely right. And he managed to tie a message to these things, some not tenuously and
27:30sometimes in a way that was easy to ignore. But it was different and it was engaging.
27:34And probably a good example of how a kind of TikTok politics might work.
27:39But for an awful lot of people, it was off-putting. An awful lot of people that didn't work at all.
27:42And so I think there's not one answer.
27:44And I think if you ask most of those people what was the Lib Dems' message,
27:48they wouldn't be able to tell you. They would be able to remember that he fell into the lake.
27:56But what do the Lib Dems say? But I mean, the same applies to all of those major parties.
28:00The right engagement you want, isn't it? I mean,
28:03temperatures had a really high turnout as well. I say really high and I'm talking in the small
28:09margins relative to what we've seen elsewhere. So there was that engagement there and by such
28:16a large majority as well. I wanted to bring in ID, bringing forms of ID. It's something
28:21throughout the weeks we've been reminding our viewers to bring ID and we'll be looking at
28:24those figures and if people were turned away because of that. We've had this conversation
28:30before. It's not a brand new thing we've done for a while about voter ID. But how much do you think
28:35that would have changed this outcome? I mean, I've been trying to monitor it today to see
28:43whether there was much chat on social media of people saying, I was turned away, I couldn't vote.
28:49And there were a few and there were some slightly nuanced things about people having the right ID,
28:56but the people at the polling station didn't quite understand exactly what the rules are,
29:02and having to argue the toss a little bit. But I didn't get the sense that that was an enormous
29:09problem. I think it needs to be looked at. It was a solution to a problem that didn't exist.
29:14It was probably designed to try and bury some votes that the former government were kind of
29:24not that interested in. I think there should be a review of it and I suspect it might be quietly
29:31dropped for next time. Ann, a question to you both, a two-pronged question. Politically, the biggest
29:38takeaway from today and then about our coverage as well and doing the actual show. But I'll let
29:44you ponder on that one. We've got a few minutes till we'll wrap up this half, this half, this
29:51half of the, you know what I mean? So, Rob, biggest takeaway from this politically? Well, I mean, the
29:57story is Labour. But I think in Kent, I think what is really quite amazing, 11 seats for Labour,
30:04and I don't think anyone saw that coming. Tony Blair only managed eight. I think what we've seen
30:09in the county this time is a really rather extraordinary story. And in a way, to answer
30:15your double-pronged question with a double-pronged answer, seeing Maidstone and Morling and McKenna
30:20and Faversham being reduced to marginals with 1,500 majorities now for the Conservatives. I mean,
30:26I think we've seen a fundamental shift, and I think it's going to make next year's Kent
30:30County Council elections very interesting. Okay. The people have spoken, but I'm not entirely sure
30:39they know what they've spoken or what they've said. They've said, you lot out, and okay, you lot,
30:47let's see what you can do. And I don't think, you know, what that lot can do is entirely clear
30:53to anybody. So, you know, I think there's huge, huge questions for all of the parties to work on.
31:00Rob, can you believe you're still awake, you're still up, you're still going?
31:03I don't know that I am. You're still forming sentences.
31:05There is a chance that this could all be a hallucination.
31:08They could. We could wake up and, yeah, have 11 Labour, blink and it was one, now to 11.
31:16Thank you both so much for analysing our coverage, some of those big talking points as well.
31:21It's been absolutely fascinating over the past 12 hours, plenty to talk about,
31:26and plenty of guests that we've had on the show as well. Thank you both very much.
31:32Well, now it's time for a break as we head into the final half an hour of KMTV's coverage of this
31:37year's general election. It's been a long night. We've brought you updates from every seat in the
31:42county, all the way from the exit poll to the moment Labour were officially declared the winners.
31:48We've had seats changed and big local names voted out of office by you. Join us in a few minutes.