Politics expert explains why this election is the most important for the UK since 1945

Interview with Dr Steve McCabe

Transcript

00:00This is the most historic election since the Second World War, insofar as the economic

00:07situation that the Labour Party have inherited is dreadful. Now of course, as we know, Labour

00:11have won a pretty big majority, not quite as big as some polls have indicated, but mainly

00:18because of course the Conservative Party have basically self-destructed and of course the

00:23consequences of this are, as I say, we've got a party and a government and the opposition

00:29is going to spend a lot of time trying to work out where it goes from here. But of course

00:33the real joker, if you like, in this particular pack is the Reform Party under Nigel Farage,

00:40who his eighth time is now an MP with three other comrades. But in the sense that what

00:45he is going to be trying to do is to use that influence in Parliament to really push forward

00:51his agenda, because of course having got 15 plus percent of the vote, he wants to build

00:57upon that. And of course he's successfully undermined the Conservative Party and he's

01:02said during the night, I'm coming for the Labour Party. So I think the chaos that we've

01:06seen in recent years is going to continue. Basically we want stability and economic prosperity

01:12and everything that goes with it. Starmer's got to watch his back.

01:17Four million votes for reform, four seats. Does our voting system need to change?

01:23Well undoubtedly there is a sort of argument that proportional representation will deal

01:28with that. And quite clearly, this has always been the argument of parties like the Liberal

01:33Democrats, who of course attract a fair number of votes, but have never got what they felt

01:38is a true representation of the people that vote for them. So quite clearly there will

01:43be a push of reform to get proportional representation. What are the chances of Labour agreeing to

01:49that? I think it's probably zero. Why would they allow that? Because they know in five

01:53years' time they're going to be facing the electorate again and there's a great danger

01:56that sort of reform could be in power.