THE LABOUR PARTY, led by Sir Keir Starmer, scored a resounding victory in Britain’s general election on July 4th. Its majority is the largest won by any government since 1997. The party flipped seats in all corners of Britain, defeating Conservative candidates in constituencies that had been blue since the 19th century.

Yet this was not a popular triumph. In absolute numbers, the party attracted fewer ballots than it did under Jeremy Corbyn in 2019. Labour’s share of the vote, at 34%, is the lowest level for a governing party since at least the first world war (see chart 1). Instead of inspiring the masses, Sir Keir spearheaded a fearsomely efficient election-winning machine: it won 42 seats in Parliament for every 1m ballots cast, higher than any other major party in the past century. As a result, some argue that this was a shallow victory, even a hollow one. That goes too far.