What we learnt from an election that has changed British politics

John Rentoul takes a closer look at what we gleaned from Thursday night’s historic election

Johnson leaves No 10 to deliver a post-victory speech yesterday (EPA)

As the parties begin their own post-mortems of the election campaign – with the situation particularly bleak for Labour and the Lib Dems – there’s been no shortage of conclusions drawn in the immediate aftermath. Here’s what we’ve really learnt from an historic election that’s changed British politics:

Is there any evidence on why the Labour wall was breached?

Most Labour MPs and canvassers say there were two issues that came up on the doorstep again and again: Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit. They were both bad for Labour, especially in places that voted to leave the EU, but the polling evidence is that Corbyn’s leadership was more important in driving voters away. A Deltapoll survey of former Labour voters who were uncertain this time found 46 per cent gave “don’t like Jeremy Corbyn” as a reason, whereas only 19 per cent said “Brexit”. Some Labour people say the party needs a better salesperson to sell essentially popular policies; others say Corbyn’s policies were wrong.