2024 has been a chaotic year of political drama, featuring a General Election, a change of government, a new Prime Minister, and the resignations of two First Ministers. With so much unfolding, it’s easy to lose track of all the events. Dive into Politics UK’s roundup to refresh your memory on everything that shaped this extraordinary year.
January: The Post Office Scandal and Northern Irish Instability
The beginning of the year saw the release of ITV’s popular series ‘Mr Bates vs. The Post Office’ which quickly gained popularity and launched the Post Office scandal into the eyes of many. The series took the country by storm and it wasn’t long before the government responded pledging to quash the convictions of over 700 postmasters wrongfully convicted of theft and false accounting.
January also marked instability for Northern Ireland, as the current session of the 7th Northern Irish Assembly was suspended. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) failed to support nominations to elect Mike Nesbitt (UUP) or Patsy McGlone (SDLP) to the role of the Speaker of the Assembly.
February: Hope for Northern Ireland and By-Election Woes
Fortunately, moving into February there were signs of hope for Northern Ireland as the Assembly met to elect their new speaker, Edwin Poots, former leader of the DUP. The Northern Ireland Executive was also restored as the DUP ended its two year boycott. Sinn Fein’s Michelle O’Neill and DUP’s Emma Little-Pengelly became First Minister and Deputy First Minister respectively.
February also saw a series of by-elections prompting trouble for the Conservatives – these are held in between elections when an MP can no longer fulfil their roles or resign. Three constituencies held by-elections in February: Kingswood, Wellingborough and Rochdale, with Labour gaining Kingswood and Wellingborough from the Conservatives. Rochdale was more eventful as Labour refused to endorse their candidate Azhar Ali due to comments made about Israel. This paved the way for veteran politician George Galloway to win the election with his new party ‘Workers Party for Britain’.
The Conservatives lost another MP as Lee Anderson was suspended from the party due to his comments surrounding the Mayor of London- stating on GB News that ‘Islamists’ had ‘got control’ of the Mayor, Sadiq Khan.
March: A Tumultuous Budget and Welsh Leadership Change
In March, the Conservatives announced their Spring Budget with a 2p cut to National Insurance, the NHS budget increasing by £2.5 billion next year and new taxes on Vape products as well as a £2 increase to Tobacco Duty. The government also introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which planned to gradually phase out smoking based on age and banned specific vapes.
In Wales, Vaughan Gething was elected as leader of Welsh Labour, replacing Mark Drakeford following his resignation, becoming the first black First Minister of Wales.
Former PM Theresa May announced her decision to step down at the next parliament as an MP.
DUP leader and former First Minister Sir Jeffrey Donaldson resigned following a string of sexual offence allegations.
Reform UK gained their first MP in Parliament, as Lee Anderson announced he was going to defect to the party, becoming their first sitting MP.
April: Scottish Turmoil and Controversial Legislation
April spelled trouble for Scotland as the SNP scrapped climate targets causing the Bute House (Coalition) Agreement between the SNP and Greens to collapse. With a Vote of No confidence looming Humza Yousef announced his resignation as leader of the SNP and First Minister.
The Safety of Rwanda Bill was passed, meaning that ‘Rwanda should be deemed a safe country for the purposes of relocating people, including in UK courts and tribunals’ preventing legal challenges against deportations on the basis that Rwanda is unsafe.
May: Local Elections and a Snap Election Call
Local elections were one of the dominant news stories in May with 107 councils and 2660 seats up for grabs. Conservatives lost over 470 council seats, the Liberal Democrats gained 104 seats, Labour gained 1,158 seats and the Greens gained 74 seats. Labour won 10/11 Mayoral elections with Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Greater London Mayor Sadiq Khan securing third terms.
On the 22nd of May, Sunak announced that the UK General Election would be held on the 4th July 2024 giving parties a short time to prepare. Following this announcement a number of bills were rushed through parliament including:
- Pet Abduction Bill: Higher sentences for people stealing cats and dogs.
- Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Bill: Quashing convictions of Sub-Postmasters convicted in the Post Office Scandal
- Victim and Prisoners Bill: Establishes a compensation body for the victims of the infected blood scandal, which saw 30,000 people infected with Hepatitis C and HIV.
June: Election Fever and Scandals Emerge
The election campaign had officially begun with MPs confirming that they would stand or that they would step down. Having previously stated he wouldn’t stand, Nigel Farage announced that he would stand for parliament in Clacton and resume Reform’s leadership.
This election broke records with over 4500 candidates standing, the most it has ever been. Campaigns began and manifestos were announced as the race for No.10 commenced.
However, in the midst of it all, trouble started to brew in Wales as Vaughan Gething, Welsh First Minister lost a no confidence vote in the Senedd 29-27.
The Gambling scandal soon hit the election with a number of Conservative candidates, officials and police officers being investigated for alleged bets on the date of the general election and whether they had inside knowledge. A Labour candidate was also under investigation following a bet on himself to lose.
July: Labour Landslide and a New Era in Westminster
On July 5th, election results started to come in signifying a Labour Landslide but several other interesting patterns. Labour increased their seats by 211 to 411, the Liberal Democrats increased theirs by 64 to 72 whilst Reform and the Greens also enjoyed gains of 5 and 2 respectively.
The Conservatives lost 251 seats bringing them down to 121 in total, but Labour also lost five seats to independents, one being their former leader Jeremy Corbyn who stood as an independent and the others campaigning mainly on the Israel-Palestine issue.
Starmer swiftly moved on to create his cabinet with Angela Rayner becoming Deputy PM, Rachel Reeves Chancellor of the Exchequer, Yvette Cooper Home Secretary and David Lammy his Foreign Secretary.
The State Opening of Parliament and King’s Speech set out the new Labour government’s agenda with a number of proposed bills.
- Railways Bill: A bill to reform rail, establishing Great British Railways and allow rail contracts to be taken into public ownership
- House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill: A bill to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords
- Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill: A bill to enhance border security, crack down on smuggling gangs and immigration crime, and reform the asylum system.
Welsh First Minister, Vaughan Gething resigned following the previous no confidence vote and Eluned Morgan was elected unopposed assuming the role of First Minister.
The Conservative leadership campaign also began as Rishi Sunak announced his intention to resign.
August: Riots and Prison Overcrowding Test Labour
August sparked two major challenges for the Labour government with nationwide riots and prison overcrowding becoming two pressing issues.
Riots and protests erupted across the country following the Southport stabbings in late July where 3 young children were tragically killed at a dance class in the Merseyside community. Many believed that ,due to misinformation online, the murderer was a Muslim asylum seeker, but it was later revealed that the 17-year-old was born in Wales to Rwandan parents.
Anti immigration unrest lasted 2 weeks, from late July to early August spreading across the UK to Manchester, Nottingham, Tamworth, Aldershot, and Teesside.
Amidst growing calls to recall parliament, Starmer established a ‘national violent disorder programme’ to better coordinate police responses, whilst in Northern Ireland, the Assembly was recalled to respond to the riots in Belfast.
In addition, Prime Minister Starmer also began Operation Early Dawn, a measure that saw the early release of prisoners across the UK to ease prison overcrowding and create more places for criminals.
September: Labour faces backlash over Winter Fuel Cuts
The Conservative Party Leadership contest entered the elimination phase with former Home Secretary Priti Patel eliminated first followed by former Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride.
September also saw a vote on one of the Labour governments most controversial policies with MPs voting 348-228 against blocking the cut to winter fuel payments.
The vote was called by the Conservative opposition, who attempted to block the government’s plans to mean-test the benefit payment. Fifty two labour MPs did not take part in the vote which included seven ministers – though it’s not clear whether they abstained deliberately or were genuinely absent for another reason.
October: Labour’s First Budget and Controversial Reforms
In October, the UK government announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean home to the Diego Garcia military base. Whilst they will retain the UK-US military base, they announced they will handover the territory to the Mauritian government following a treaty yet to be finalised.
Labour announced their first budget with national insurance rise for employers, legal minimum wage for over-21s rising from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour from April, Air Passenger Duty rising in 2026 and £11.8 billion allocated to victims of the infected blood scandal and £1.8 billion for wrongly prosecuted sub-postmasters.
One of the most controversial policies was the increase to employer’s national insurance and a change to inherited agricultural assets, where assets worth more than £1 million will have to pay inheritance tax, these were previously exempt. Farmers and those in the agricultural industry raised concerns about the ability to pass on family farms to future generations with protests hitting London and other places around the UK.
Labour MP, Mike Amesbury for Runcorn and Helsby, was suspended following an incident where he was videoed assaulting a man in the street.
Alex Salmond, Scottish Political Heavyweight, sadly passed away on the 12th October at the age of 69 after he suddenly fell ill. Serving as leader of the SNP from 1990 to 2000 and 2004 to 2014 as well as First Minister from 2007 to 2014, he was a prominent figure in the Scottish Nationalist movement. He also served as leader of the Alba Party from 2021 until 2024.
November: New Tory Leadership
At the beginning of November, Kemi Badenoch, was elected as leader of the Conservative Party beating her opponent Robert Jenrick.
Keir Starmer travelled to Baku and Rio for the respective COP29 and G20 summits, where he met leaders from around the world raising the issues of climate change, the war in Ukraine and Israel-Palestine.
The assisted dying bill, put forward by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, passed its second reading in parliament in a monumental vote (330-275). If passed, the legislation would mean that individuals expected to die within six months, over-18 and following the satisfaction of two doctors and a high court judge, would be able to end their life.
Louise Haigh resigned as transport secretary after it emerged she pleaded guilty to a fraud offence a decade ago. Former Justice Secretary, Heidi Alexander was announced as her replacement.
December: Starmer’s Six Key Objectives
Whilst it is a naturally quieter month in Politics, December saw Keir Starmer set out his government’s six key objectives:
- Raise living standards across the UK, to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the G7
- Build 1.5 million homes in England with fast-tracked planning decisions on at least 150 major infrastructure projects
- End backlogs in hospitals with 92% of patients in England waiting no longer than 18 weeks for planned treatment
- A named police officer for every neighbourhood in England and Wales, supported by the recruitment of 13,000 additional officers, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and special constables
- Increase the percentage of children who are ‘ready to learn’ when they start school at the age of five, to 75%
- Get the country on track for at least 95% clean power by 2030.
The government also proposed plans to change local authority structures, with the potential introduction of mayors in some areas and changes to two-tiered councils.
South Western Railway became the first operator to be renationalised, with more to follow in 2025.
Looking ahead to 2025
There is no doubt that this year has been nothing shy of eventful when it comes to Politics, with a seismic change to politics in Westminster and government. With 2025 on the horizon, parties will be building up for the local elections, a major test for Keir Starmer and other party leaders.
