Five things we have learned from the election results

1. There is no such thing as a safe seat. Michael Fabricant was the biggest scalp in the region losing his seat after 32 years, but the defeat of Amanda Milling in Cannock Chase – but the close shaves for Mark Pritchard in The Wrekin and Mark Garnier in Wyre Forest suggest that nowhere is off limits.

2. The bigger they come, the harder they fall. Eight serving cabinet ministers have so far lost their seats, a record for any election. Liz Truss lost her South West Norfolk seat just 20 months after resigning as Prime Minister, and Jacob Rees-Mogg was another big name to fall. But it is not only the Tory big beasts who are licking their wounds – Labour shadow ministers Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire are also among the casualties.

3. Nigel Farage is the kingmaker. Reform UK may have just four MPs, but the party has effectively determined the results of the past two elections. His decision to stand down hundreds of candidates in 2019 was crucial to delivering Boris Johnson his 80 seat majority. And his decision to take the battle to the Tories in the West Midlands and north has meant Labour has turned a disastrous defeat into a landslide win, without significantly increasing its share of the vote.

4. The Labour-Conservative duopoly is on the brink of collapse. Labour's landslide masks the fact that the party took just 33.9 per cent of the vote, which in previous elections would have condemned the party to disappointing defeat. The Conservatives took 22.6 per cent, a record low in modern times. Reform UK came second in more than 100 seats, and will pose a headache to both the major parties.

5. Electoral Reform will be back on the agenda. Labour secured less than 2.5 the number of votes compared to Reform, but more than 10 times as many seats. There is a slight irony that the Liberal Democrats, who have for decades campaigned for proportional representation, have the third largest number of MPs, despite coming fourth by share of the popular vote. Expect Reform, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens to be making a lot of noise.