Labour hardly dared to believe. But it seems the polls weren’t lying

After the Brexit battering of 2019, the party was at a low ebb. This has been a remarkable four-year turnaround

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Right up to the wire, Labour politicians could not quite believe they were on track for a historic election victory. Despite every poll for more than a year suggesting Keir Starmer would end up in No 10, they worried something could go wrong.

For some, it was the ghost of 1992, when the polls predicted Neil Kinnock was on course to take power, but in the end John Major's Conservatives clung on. For others, it was their fear that after 14 years in opposition, Labour had lost the ability to win.