American Reacts to UK Election Results Explained

Like most Americans I don't know anything about British politics. Today I want to understand the recent UK election results. If you enjoyed the video feel free to leave a comment, like, or subscribe for more!

[shadypenguinuk]

The cat is Larry the cat, chief mouser of 10 Downing Street, he’s the real UK leader, Sir Keir Starmer will be the 6th PM to server under him

[t.a.k.palfrey]

One reason Americans mostly missed the UK general election is that the entire campaign only lasts six weeks and the new government takes over just 12 hours after polls close. In the US, campaigns last for ever, cost billions of dollars, and there's 10 weeks between polling day and taking office.

[alijones]

Wait 'til he hears about The Monster Raving Looney Party 😂

[calm]

Also the reason why you may not have previously heard of Keir Starmer is he's a very level headed politician. He doesn't do or say anything insanely outlandish. Some people say he's a bit boring, but after the last 14 years of Conservative rule, boring and stable is welcome

[naomiturtle]

Also the handover of power was peaceful and extremely respectful

[gilbertbpuk]

"I'm very distracted by the cat" We all are, don't worry. The one point of calm and consistency in British politics in recent years, that is No. 10's "Chief Mouser" Larry the Cat, who is something of a British political hero.

[danhaz]

Nice to see Americans realising how closed in their media keeps them

[LeahSeabourne]

I love how 95% of the comments are about Larry

[phoenix-xuxj]

So we voted on Thursday and by Friday lunchtime our new prime minister was in place, and today ( Sunday) him and his family are moving in to number 10 This is British efficiency at its best. The polls closed at 10 p.m and the first results were in between 11 and 1130

[thegrouchization]

Gotta love the visual pun at 16:52. "Assemble his first cabinet" while showing a man looking at instructions for an IKEA cabinet.

[docsmellyfella]

News in the UK also has plenty of coverage of the US election and elections round Europe, South Africa and India. Far more international politics is reported than in the US. Currently France is also in the midst of an election.

[Aussiemarco]

It’s great to see an American wanting to learn what’s going on outside the US. If you keep at this, you’ll eventually be the most well-informed young man in the US!

[angelaburrow]

I think the speed of the process would shock you. The former PM, Rishi Sunak, called general election on 22nd May this year. The election was on 4th July, & Sir Keir Starmer (he was knighted by the Queen in 2014 for services to law & criminal justice as he was a lawyer & Director of Public Prosecution) met the king on the morning of 5th July once it was announced he had won. Later that day, he formed his cabinet & gave his first speech as PM. He's already doing the job.

We have 2 types of elections: general & local. Local elections is when we chose who we want to run our councils, the people responsible for the running of everyday life in our towns & cities. Sometimes, in a few large cities there are elections for mayor as well. For the general election, this is to decide the government of the entire country. We vote for our MP (Member of Parlaiment), the person our voting district sends to Westminster. These MPs can belong to one of the main parties, the smaller ones or they can be independent. Whichever party has the largest number of MPS elected forms the government & their leader becomes PM. We do not vote directly for the PM.

Here are some of the main groups:

Labour - traditionally the left wing, socialist party, but Starmer has moved it more to centre-left. The previous leaader of the Labour Party was Jeremy Corbyn who was very left wing &, under him, Labour suffered a major defeat.

Conservative (Tory) - usually a centre-right party, but it has steadily lurched further to the right over the past few years.

Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) - centrist to centre-left party which is pro-European. They lost a lot of supporter under the leadership of Nick Clegg who joinged a coalition government with the Tories in 2010, when he agreed to turn his back on the promises he'd made in their manifesto/ The current leader, Ed Davey, is slowly clawing back support for them.

Green Party - a green left wing party, which has never been very successful in the UK.

Reform UK - the party furthest on the right wing, with Eurosceptic & right-wing populist policies.

Plaid Cymru - a left leaning party which only works in Wales. It's name is Welsh for the Party of Wales, & wants independence for Wales & a seat for Wales at the United Nations.

Scottish National Party (SNP) - another indepence group, this time for Scotland, obviously! lol They usuall have progressive social policies.

There are several parties which only exist in Northern Ireland:

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) - a right-wong Protestant party which often supports the Tories. It wants Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK & is a nationalist, right-wing populist & Eurosceptic party. The DUP are anti-LGBTQ+ rights & don't want legalised abortion except in very rare circumstances.


Alliance Party of Northern Ireland - a centre to centre-left party which is nonsectarian (religions, either Catholic or Protestant, are a huge part of life Northern Ireland & the issues of being in the UK or Ireland).

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) - another centre-right Protestant party which is allied to the Tories because it wants Northern Ireland to remain in the UK.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) - a left-wing social democractic party which wants Northern Ireland to be part of the republic of Ireland, not the UK.

Sinn Féin - a centre-left to left wing party which is for Catholics Irish which wants Norhtern Ireland to leave the UK & join the Republic of Ireland. It favours democratic socialism & grew as the pioliotical arm of the IRA. It was formed in the early 20th century to fight for the independence of Ireland from the UK. Sinn Féin have campaigned for LGBTQ+ & women's rights, including legalising abortion.

[paigemprice]

American living in the UK here...
New Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer, is a former head prosecutor.
The first thing to understand is that the UK votes for party not people. Whichever party gets the most votes, their leader becomes Prime minister.

The Labour Party is basically the Democrats and the Tories/Conservatives the Republicans.
The Green and Liberal Democrats are more progressive than Labour. The SMP is/was the major Scottish party. The Reform Party is basically the MAGA/Trump party.
Jeremy Corbyn used to be the leader of the Labour Party but was kicked out for antisemitism among other things.
Nigel Farage is very Trump-like, but smarter.
Also, the outgoing Prime minister had to go to the King to resign, and the new PM had ask the King permission to form a government. Its a symbolic gesture.

[landerbennewith]

Some context for you.

Conservatives: Right-leaning party
Labour: Left-leaning party
Liberal Democrats: Centrist party
Green: the environmentalists party
Reform: basically the former BREXIT party, rather right wing party.
SNP: short for Scotish National Party. A left-leaning nationalist party. Recent scandle involved the former head of the party and her husband resigning after they seem to have embezzled the money their party received through donations.

Jeremy Corbyn was the leader of the Labour Party during BREXIT and was head of the Labour Party after it lost a large number of seats to the Conservatives from areas in the north known as the "red belt", regions that have always voted labour. Under his leadership there were also large concerns about a building anti-semite movement in the labour party. Further, Jeremy Corbyn was a very left wing labour leader, the new labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is considered to be a much more centrist (some say right leaning) leader.

Now, we technically don't vote for the prime minister or our country's leader in the UK. Our country's leader is the monarch, King Charles the Third. We technically vote for who we want to represent the needs of our local area in parliment, AKA we choose an MP (Member of Parliment). When those votes have been cast, the Monarch invites the Member of Parliment with the most backing from the House of Commons to form a government. With the advent of political parties, that generally means that the Monarch invites the Member of Parliment who is the leader of the party with the most seats, to form a government in His name. It is conceivable however that the head of the winning party, may not have won their election and therefore not become a Member of Parliment, just being leader of the winning party does not cause you to automatically become prime minister. That is technically not in the control of the British public.

Rishi Sunak is not required to step down as leader of the conservative party, however it is generally the done thing for a defeated prime minister to step down as their party's leadership as evidently their leadership did not inspire enough confidence in the public to win. A conservative party leadership election is only done by those who are members of the conservative party, it is not offered to the public to choose.

[marniemccartney]

Larry the cat, lives in No.10 Downing Street full time, regardless of which Prime Minister moves in. He has his own staff looking after him. 🐱

[luketruscott]

I'm a British citizen and the main reason why there was hardly any news about it in America is because the voting happened on the 4th of July which is an national holiday in the states

[Rachel_M_]

That cat is Larry. His official title is "Chief Mouser To The Cabinet Office". He has free range of Downing Street.

[adriandaw]

Sir Keir Starmer is the new Prime Minister. He is criticised for not being charismatic enough, but charisma gave us the Johnson debacle, so good. He is also not a career politician, but was a barrister (senior lawyer) specialising in human rights, and then became the head of the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions, pretty much the senior lawyer in the land. This was why he got a knighthood. He actually has real world experience.

[kjono]

The UK is somewhat of a two party system in that Labour and Conservatives are the largest parties and so tend to have a greater reach and influence in elections.
A lot of tactical voting was done this election to vote out the Conservatives, which is why Labour saw such a large increase in seats.
Liberal Democrats prioritised seats over votes this election, focussing their efforts in certain constituencies rather than the UK as a whole - this is how they gained more seats than the new party: Reform, despite having less overall votes, also taking many of the votes from those who wanted the Conservatives out but didn't want Labour in.
The SNP is the Scottish National Party, they are also the main independence party in Scotland, they tend to win in most places in Scotland for both the Holyrood Elections (Scottish Parliament Elections) and General Elections (UK Parliament), however, following some rather notable legal issues, change of party Leader (Scotland's First Minister) and the tactical voting to vote out the Conservatives, they lost a number of seats to Labour.