United Kingdom – 2024

Background

The twin effects of COVID-19 and a last-minute Brexit deal that satisfied no-one has polarised and divided British politics like no time before it. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s solemn promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’ was sufficient to hand him an 80-seat majority in parliament, which very quickly looked insecure with the triumvirate of the shambolic handling of the pandemic, the Russia Report, and good, old-fashioned sleaze and corruption.

Even so, it’s no simple task for a more centrist Labour under Sir Keir Starmer to boot the Conservatives out of office, despite the latter party’s abysmal popularity. Once a heartland, Scotland has increasingly become a single-party state in both Holyrood and Westminster.

SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon continues to agitate for a second referendum (especially post-Brexit) in order to rejoin the EU. In Wales, Plaid Cymru under Adam Price have been taking a similarly populist stance, and despite the principality voting with England to leave the EU, what was once a dormant and distant dream for independence has become a very real prospect. The two leaders, already on friendly terms, coordinate their efforts to ensure the UK election as a whole results in a hung parliament, thereby strengthening their collective hand.

The Brexit Party, their sole purpose fulfilled, have morphed into The Reform Party. Nigel Farage managed to agree a formal pact with Johnson that didn’t transpire on equal terms in 2019.

The Liberal Democrats, revived under the charismatic Layla Moran, reached out to Labour as one of her first acts in power that went much further than the ‘understanding’ enjoyed by Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown in the run-up to the 1997 landslide. Despite their low base of seats, Starmer was shrewd enough to understand he needed both the Lib Dems’ and Greens’ support to make the numbers stack up. The price for coalition was PR to once and for all bring the UK into the 21st Century, becoming a truly pluralistic, representative democracy in the process.

Usually out of sight and out of mind, the battles in Northern Ireland take much more centre stage than usual, with calls for a border poll to reunite with the south. With only Sinn Féin unaffiliated with one of the duopolies, every single seat will matter in the ultimate struggle for supremacy!

Notes

I have changed every single aspect from the base file of 2019, except the constituencies and Endorsers. If you have any suggestions for the latter (especially websites/online media as opposed to print, please let me know!). Issues have been added such as transgenderism, UBI (Universal Basic Income), and BLM. (Black Lives Matter).

In the strictest sense, you can only win a majority as either Labour or the Conservatives… but in all the testing I did for this, very rarely did either reach the 326 threshold by themselves.

6 thoughts on “United Kingdom – 2024”

  1. The Conservatives seem incredibly powerful during my playthroughs as the Lib Dems, and Labour seems conversely quite weak.

  2. Would love a version without the coalition (not sure that’s very likely). Also think the NHS should have a much higher priority than some of the issues added (particularly in light of Covid, which maybe should have its own issue). Think Keir Starmer’s charisma rating is pretty harsh

  3. Good start! I played as Labour on hard — I was frustrated by the number of constituencies where I wasn’t on the ballot. Ultimately, I didn’t really need the coalition as I managed to get a big majority. I think coalition building should be reserved for a hung parliament. I would love to see parties like the Lib Dems and the Greens run in every constituency in England and Wales.

    A few other notes. Starmer’s charisma is pretty low. I didn’t have any issues in my playthrough, but a 3 strikes me as rather underrated. It was also very easy to research corruption scandals against Johnson, which basically destroyed the Tories over the course of the campaign.

    Also, I have to wonder why ‘Transgenderism’ is a major political issue. I know that Trans politics are very contentious in the UK, but the issue was rated higher than housing and the NHS in terms of importance to the electorate. This doesn’t make sense to me.

    Overall, it’s a good scenario. With a little work, it should be fantastic!

  4. Initial comments I think Keir needs a bit of an upgrade considering he’s regularly outpolls Boris head to head, maybe shouldn’t be as Charmastic as him but atleast 5 and more stamina than Boris, Boris should be downgraded on that front as we have seen since Covid. I would put the Tories slightly ahead but only a point or two over Labour and Liberals down to 7%

  5. Keir isn’t standing in his own seat and Lib Dems aren’t even running in Berwick which they controlled for years before 2015

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