Nation Runner

Flag of United KingdomCountry desk · updated 25 Oct

United Kingdom

The House of Commons still has 650 seats. On 4 July 2024 the Labour Party won 411 of them, more than the 326 seats needed for a majority, with 33.7 percent of the vote. GOV.UK lists Andy Burnham as Prime Minister and John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 20 July 2026. A YouGov poll for The Times and Sky News, taken on 20 and 21 September 2026, put the Labour Party on 23 percent and the Conservative Party and Reform UK on 21 percent each. That poll is not a forecast, and it does not change who sits in the House today.

Key takeaways

  1. 1

    Polls. Labour leads the latest YouGov poll at 24%, 1 points ahead of Conservative. Biggest move since 15 Sept: Conservative +3.

  2. 2

    Headlines. The tone is brightening: 12% of the last 14 days' headlines read grim, 4% upbeat. Top topic: Politics (42%).

  3. 3

    Government. Government barometer 56/100 (Builder). 0 of 2 moves on file read as smart, 0 as harmful.

Headline mood · 14 days

Line: mood · bars: stories

25 Oct · 8 stories · neutral1 upbeat · 6 neutral · 1 grim

What the headlines are about

  • Politics 42%
  • Other 24%
  • Economy 18%
  • Security 11%
  • Society 4%
  • Climate 2%

A simple word-list estimate from the daily wire headlines. Not a judgement.

Poll trend · YouGov

  • Labour24%-3
  • Conservative23%+3
  • Reform UK21%-1
  • Liberal Democrat12%+1
  • Green11%
  • SNP3%

Change against the 6 Oct poll.

Map · mood compared

United Kingdom

Overall mood: 12% grim, 4% upbeat · today +0

What changed today

25 Oct

  • 25 Oct: 8 stories (average 8); tone as usual.
  • Latest YouGov poll (13 Oct): Labour -3, Conservative +3 against 6 Oct.

New headlines

3 more headlines
Earlier this week: 10 more headlines

Headlines and summaries come from the linked sources; the selection is automatic.

Go deeper

Parties, people, promises, money

Result · 4 Jul 2024 · offices 20 Jul 2026

Who sits in this Commons, and who holds the two offices we can cite.

The House of Commons still has 650 seats. On 4 July 2024 the Labour Party won 411 of them, more than the 326 seats needed for a majority, with 33.7 percent of the vote. GOV.UK lists Andy Burnham as Prime Minister and John Healey as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 20 July 2026. A YouGov poll for The Times and Sky News, taken on 20 and 21 September 2026, put the Labour Party on 23 percent and the Conservative Party and Reform UK on 21 percent each. That poll is not a forecast, and it does not change who sits in the House today.

The room

House of Commons

650 seats · 326 to govern · 4 July 2024 · 24 other seats drawn as their own bucket

The deal

Labour, 411 seats

411 of 650 seats on 4 July 2024. A majority of the House is 326. The vote share on the same result is 33.7%.

The mood

Election vs now

4 July 2024 vote share, then YouGov voting intention for 6–7, 13–14, and 20–21 September 2026. Not a forecast.

  • Lab
    23.0%
  • Con
    21.0%
  • Reform
    21.0%
  • Green
    14.0%
  • LD
    12.0%
  • SNP
    2.0%
  • Plaid
    1.0%

The latest point is YouGov for The Times and Sky News, 20–21 September 2026: Labour Party 23, Conservative Party 21, Reform UK 21, Greens 14, Liberal Democrats 12. The first point is the election, not the same question.

The trend

From election night to now

Public pollster blend — not a forecast

The split

Vote share against seat share

Both from the 4 July 2024 result. Seat % is seats ÷ 650.

The mismatch

Seats they hold vs the poll

Beige is the share of 650 seats from 4 July 2024. Blue is the YouGov voting intention for 20–21 September 2026. The poll is not a forecast and it does not move the seats.

The faces

Open a dossier

Prime Minister, Chancellor, and three opposition leaders with a free portrait on file.

Tap a face for the full profile

The rude gauge

Growth king or a fight with work

Who grows the pie, who picks a fight with work. Cabinet sits at 56 / 100. This gauge is an editorial reading, not a court and not a prize. Each person is scored on six topics from the public record named on the row: energy supply, hiring, capital, building, hours in paid work, and paperwork. The number is the average of those topics, times ten. If every topic were still the untouched middle, the label would say not scored. Open a row for the breakdown, so one word is not the whole record.

Against the workBuilderGrowth king

Full causal chains live on every promise

This week

The pulse

Result

General election

Labour 411 seats, 33.7% of the vote. Source: parliament.uk general election 6.

Offices

Prime Minister and Chancellor

GOV.UK: Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister and John Healey is appointed Chancellor.

Politics 101

How this country actually works

What this Commons drawing is

650 seats. 326 to govern. Seven parties cited, plus a remainder.

The hemicycle uses the 4 July 2024 party totals on parliament.uk. Labour 411, Conservative 121, Liberal Democrat 72, SNP 9, Reform UK 5, Green Party 4, Plaid Cymru 4. That is 626. The other 24 seats stay in one bucket so they are not painted as Labour. 326 is half of 650 plus one. No by-election since July 2024 is applied.

Who holds the two offices this desk names

Prime Minister and Chancellor, from GOV.UK, 20 July 2026.

Andy Burnham is listed as Prime Minister from 20 July 2026. John Healey is listed as Chancellor of the Exchequer, appointed 20 July 2026. The desk does not add a tax rate or a benefit figure from a page it has not cited.

Elections

What is on the calendar

National elections and the major votes on these desks, for about the next 24 months. The date comes from the election authority. A poll appears only when a named pollster published it in the last 60 days.

UK general election

Expected

Expected by August 2029

No polling day is set. The current Parliament first met on 9 July 2024. Under section 4 of the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 it dissolves on the fifth anniversary, 9 July 2029, if not dissolved earlier; polling day is the 25th working day after that, Wednesday 15 August 2029 at the latest. The Prime Minister can ask for an earlier dissolution.

Date source: House of Commons Library

How foreigners are seen

Openness in United Kingdom

Published surveys only. Each figure shows its source and year.

Who's welcomed

Share of adults in United Kingdom with a favourable opinion of each country Pew asked about.

Openness score

Three separate measures, each in its own year. We do not blend them.

What expats say

InterNations Expat Insider 2025: rank out of 46 destinations, 1 is best.

  • Ease of settling in36 of 46
  • Culture and welcome37 of 46
  • Local friendliness33 of 46
  • Finding friends39 of 46

InterNations, Expat Insider 2025

In plain words

  • Expats ranked United Kingdom 36 of 46 for ease of settling in (2025); its best sub-score was local friendliness at 33.
  • Of the 3 countries Pew asked about here, United States drew the most favourable opinions (50%, 2025).
Sources and method

Pew asks adults for their opinion of a country. That is a view of the country, not of its people or of any visitor. We never estimate a pair that was not asked.

InterNations ranks come from expats living in the country (46 destinations). Gallup's Migrant Acceptance Index runs from 0 to 9. MIPEX scores integration law and policy from 0 to 100.

What it means for you

What it means for you

Only figures with a source, a date, and a link. Anything not listed here is not on file.

  • Work

    The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is 12.71 pounds an hour from 1 April 2026. The 18 to 20 rate on the same date is 10.85 pounds, and the under-18 and apprentice rates are 8.00 pounds.

    Low Pay Commission, GOV.UK, 2026-04-01 Source

  • Taxes

    The standard VAT rate is 20 percent. It has been 20 percent since 4 January 2011. A reduced rate of 5 percent and a zero rate apply to the goods and services GOV.UK lists, including home energy at 5 percent and most food at zero.

    GOV.UK, 2011-01-04 Source

  • Taxes

    For 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 the standard Personal Allowance is 12,570 pounds. On the GOV.UK table for a standard allowance, the basic rate is 20 percent from 12,571 to 50,270 pounds. Scotland sets different bands.

    GOV.UK, 2026-04-06 Source

  • Benefits

    The Universal Credit standard allowance for 2026/27 is 424.90 pounds a month for a single claimant aged 25 or over, and 338.58 pounds for a single claimant under 25. A couple where one or both are 25 or over is 666.97 pounds. These are the standard allowances, not the full award.

    Department for Work and Pensions, 2026-02-16 Source

  • Housing

    Average UK monthly private rent was 1,400 pounds in August 2026, a provisional estimate in the ONS bulletin released 16 September 2026. England was 1,459 pounds, Wales 846, and Scotland 1,013 in that same month. Northern Ireland was 874 pounds in the 12 months to June 2026. This is a national average, not the rent cap where you live.

    Office for National Statistics, 2026-09-16 Source

  • Work permit

    A Skilled Worker visa usually requires pay of at least 41,700 pounds a year, or the going rate for the job, whichever is higher. GOV.UK also says some applicants can qualify at 33,400 pounds, and healthcare and education use different pay rules. The page was updated on 14 September 2026.

    GOV.UK, 2026-09-14 Source

Sources, licences and image credits

Data

  • Wire (public RSS feeds): X, BBC Politics, Guardian Politics.
  • Polls: YouGov Source.
  • 4 July 2024 vote share, then YouGov voting intention for 6–7, 13–14, and 20–21 September 2026. Not a forecast.
  • Editorial economic-competence gauge, not a court and not a Nobel. Six axes: energy, hiring, capital, building, hours in work, red tape. Scores are a judgement from public records of this term and the last — not a bribery charge, not a voting recommendation.

Survey sources

  • United Kingdom — Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index 2016: Gallup. Neli Esipova, John Fleming and Julie Ray, “New Index Shows Least-, Most-Accepting Countries for Migrants”, Gallup, 23 August 2017. The United Kingdom score 6.61 is from the Gallup World Poll, 2016, also shown in the table on “Divided World: Acceptance of Migrants”. Gallup’s 2019 country tables that were checked do not publish a United Kingdom score, so 2019 is omitted. Source. Gallup allows a contextual citation when the publication date and a link are given. The table and graphics are not reproduced.
  • United Kingdom — MIPEX overall score 2020: MIPEX. Solano, Giacomo & Huddleston, Thomas (2020). Migrant Integration Policy Index 2020. Barcelona/Brussels: CIDOB and MPG. ISBN 978-84-92511-83-9. Overall score list: United Kingdom 56. Country page: “Scoring 56 on the MIPEX 100-point scale.” Source · PDF. © 2020 MPG and CIDOB. The book asks for this academic citation. The overall score is cited; the book is not reproduced. Public or commercial reuse beyond citation is not claimed.

Image credits

  • Labour Party logo — Labour Party · Public domain Source
  • Conservative Party logo — Conservative Party (UK) · Public domain Source
  • Liberal Democrats logo — Liberal Democrats · Public domain Source
  • Scottish National Party logo — Scottish National Party · Public domain Source
  • Reform UK logo — Reform UK · Public domain Source
  • Green Party of England and Wales logo — NovaSpark451 · CC0 Source
  • Plaid Cymru logo — Plaid Cymru · Public domain Source
  • Geometric mark for other Commons seats, not a party logo — Nation Runner · Original geometric mark. Not an official party logo. Public domain. Source
  • Flag of the United Kingdom — Wikimedia Commons contributors · Public domain Source
  • Andy Burnham, Prime Minister — Prime Minister's Office · Open Government Licence v3.0 Source
  • John Healey, Chancellor of the Exchequer — Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street · Open Government Licence v3.0 Source
  • Kemi Badenoch, Leader of the Conservative Party — Roger Harris · CC BY 3.0 Source
  • Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats — House of Commons · CC BY 3.0 Source
  • Nigel Farage, Leader of Reform UK — Laurie Noble · CC BY 3.0 Source
  • John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland — Scottish Government · CC BY 4.0 Source
Questions the desk actually answers

FAQ

Questions the desk actually answers

Is the United Kingdom desk live on Nation Runner?
Yes. It draws the 4 July 2024 Commons result from parliament.uk and the Prime Minister and Chancellor named on GOV.UK from 20 July 2026. It is an editorial dashboard, not an official record.
Which culture figures does the UK desk show?
Gallup’s Migrant Acceptance Index for the United Kingdom in 2016 (6.61 out of 9) and the MIPEX 2020 overall score (56 out of 100). A 2019 Gallup score is omitted because the 2019 tables checked do not publish one. Pew Spring 2025 rows already on the perceptions page are cited there, not re-invented.
Does the money tab score UK party donations?
No. Zeros mean the access scale is not filled. Donations are published by the Electoral Commission. A zero is not a finding that a party has no donors.
How we source this

Election figures: parliament.uk. Offices: GOV.UK, 20 July 2026. Culture figures: Gallup 2016 and MIPEX 2020 only.

Cookies Language and theme stay in this browser. Analytics (DataFast) only if you accept, and only if this deploy has a website id. Privacy.