Ok, if we're in prediction mode.
Labour win large majority, but not quite as big as some think.
Low turnout c. 60-65%
Labour won't win as many seats as Blair did first time round, but could get around 400.
Conservatives may well have their lowest seats ever, but won't get as bad as double figures. Too many will vote for them regardless. Say around 120-150 seats.
SNP to lose a few of their seats due to recent scandals and no longer be the third party but will remain quite popular in Scotland. LD/Labour to take most of those they lose. Say 30 - 35 seats.
LD to become the third party again with around 40-50 seats.
Was a bit worried about Reform taking a few seats but think Farage fucked it (maybe deliberately) with his Russia comments. May get a decent number of overall votes but not many seats/ Might get about 10 seats. Farage to win this time round (then defect to Tories at some point in the future)
Greens could get 3-4, but like Reform get a decent amount of votes but not many seats.
Difficult to call. Agree that it will be low turnout. The difficulty is polling, there’s an abnormally in Reform. The pollsters have to factor in the popularity of a new party at a GE with higher than usual support for a new party. You Gov actually changed their methodology a week or 2 ago and I think others have too to try and make it more accurate. Problem as I understand it that they use a number of factors including previous election results, previous opinion polling vs actual votes placed etc. to take the sample polling and set that against a far larger number that will actually be real votes. They don’t have that data for Reform and I understand that is causing them a headache. Under You Govs original methodology Labour has a far bigger lead and Reform don’t have as big of a vote share. I also look at footage of reform campaigning and people aren’t turning up in massive numbers to cheer them on, at a few of them counter protests are inflating the numbers of those present and then there’s the Trumpian rally in Birmingham 5000 turned up. Then I compare it to John Majors campaign where he brought his soap box and stood up in public spaces. It really gained momentum and people were turning up in bigger and bigger numbers, he won undecided voters in big numbers and won a GE he wasn’t necessarily expected to win. So basically I wonder if reforms polling flatters to device. You also have to factor people getting to the booth and hesitating, especially in marginal seats (and there’s lots of them this time) and voting one of the 3 main parties instead to keep the other 2 out knowing reform in reality won’t win their particular seat.
I think Labour will win a bigger share of the votes and a bigger share of the seats than in 1997 but not necessarily as many votes overall due to a low turnout. They look set do well in Wales and I think might do better than expected in Scotland too.
I think the Tories are in for a big kick in, maybe even worse case scenario. Apparently all the major opinion poll companies can only agree on 13 seats that they will definitely win, the rest just being too close to call.
I think Lib Dem’s will win somewhere near the higher end of the predictions and surprise a few people. I think they will be the major beneficiaries of tactical voting.
Greens look set to win a couple, holding on to Brighton and set to win a Bristol seat. I’d love to see them win a couple more but can’t see it.
I think Reform will probably end up with half a dozen seats give or take. I’d be surprised if it’s more for the reasons stated above but wouldn’t outright expect no more. There’s just no data on how their vote share will relate to seats.