Some surpise winners from the UK election

[rpannier]

Jeremy Corbyn: Polls had varied over the last couple of weeks. I had seen polls that put Corbyn up by 1-3%. But there were also ones that had him behind; one had him behind by more than 9%.
Not only did he win, but he won rather handily. I guess parachuting in a guy who is strongly linked with private health care, and has been pushing for split public/private health care in the UK wasn't such a good idea.

Adrian Ramsay: A tip of the hat to Waveney Valley. They ousted the conservative. What makes this especially notable is not just that they've elected the Tories for decades now, but it's a rural area, which most pundits felt wouldn't go for a Green.

Shockat Adam: In what was probably the biggest surprise for Labour (on the negative side), Jonathan Ashworth was parachuted into heavily Labour supporting Leicester South. Ashworth was chosen by the NEC (National Labour Council), who chose him rather than allow the local constituency to choose their candidate. Ashworth's loss is a big deal as he was the National Labour Party's Campaign Coordinator, and very powerful within the party. Adam, an independent, ran on an 'End the War in Gaza' campaign.

Richard Tice: The odious Richard Tice of Reform Party. Tice, who is close to Farage (in both manner and politics), beat the moderate Tory, Matt Warman, in Boston and Skegness which was considered one of the most safe seats for the conservatives. (I will admit, this one is a bitter disappointment just because the toad won.)

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Interesting thread, though I'm not sure Ashworth is best described as "parachuted"

He won the seat in a 2011 by-election when the sitting Labour member resigned to run for Leicester mayor; although he wasn't local, he seems to have won a race voted on by the local members:

There was wide interest in the Labour candidate selection. One local councillor, Rory Palmer, entered the contest but—having accepted the offer of becoming Soulsby's deputy—subsequently withdrew. The official shortlist of five candidates was confirmed on 18 March and included three Leicester city councillors, Patrick Kitterick (who was also Chair of Leicester South Constituency Labour Party), Mian Mayat and Neil Clayton, along with Jonathan Ashworth, a former advisor to Gordon Brown and the then Head of Party Relations, and Josephine Channer, a councillor in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. On 19 March local Labour Party members selected Jon Ashworth, who won 106 votes out of 153 cast on the first ballot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Leicester_South_by-election#Candidates

After that, he won the seat handily in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Though I admit there's been a lot of infighting in Leicester Labour over the past few years, and I don't know what, if any, his role in it was.