Labour would lose its majority and nearly 200 seats if a general election was held today, a new mega poll suggests.
While Sir Keir Starmer would still come out on top, it would be in a “highly fragmented and unstable” parliament with five parties holding over 30 seats.
More in Common, which used the data of more than 11,000 people to produce the analysis, said the results show the UK’s First Past the Post (FPTP) system is “struggling to function” in the new world of multi-party politics, and if the results come true it would make government formation “difficult”.
The model estimates Labour would win, but with barely a third of the total number of seats and a lead of just six seats over the Conservatives.
According to the analysis, Labour would lose 87 seats to the Tories overall, 67 to Reform UK and 26 to the SNP – with “red wall” gains at the July election almost entirely reversed.
Nigel Farage’s Reform partywould emerge as the third largest in the House of Commons, increasing its seat total 14-fold to 72.
A number of cabinet ministers would lose their seats to Reform – the main beneficiary of the declining popularity of Labour and the Tories – including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper, Ed Miliband, Bridget Philipson, Jonathan Reynolds and John Healey.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, would lose Ilford North to an independent, the analysis suggests.
Luke Tryl, director of More in Common UK, said the model is “not a prediction of what would happen at the next general election”, which is not expected until 2029.
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But he said the polling highlights a significant acceleration of electoral fragmentation since July’s vote, and that the UK’s First Past the Post system “is struggling to deal” with it.
Under the UK’s FPTP system, the person with the most votes in each constituency becomes the MP and candidates from other parties get nothing.
There has long been criticism that this can generate disproportionate results.
At the July election for example, Labour won 411 seats out of 650 on just under 34% of the popular vote.
Reform UK took 14.3% of the popular vote – the third party by vote share – but only won five seats.
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2:27
Farage attacks UK’s voting system
Tories would ‘struggle to come close’ to forming government
More in Common’s analysis found 271 seats would be won on under a third of the vote.
Labour would win 228 seats, the Conservatives 222 and Reform 72. The Liberal Democrats would win 58 seats, with the SNP on 37 and the Greens on two.
The Tories would be highest in terms of national vote share – at 26% compared with Labour’s 25% – but this would still be their second-worst vote share in history and they would “struggle to come even close” to forming a majority government without making gains against Reform on the right or the Lib Dems on the left, Mr Tryl said.
In a post on X, he said he had “no idea” what the model would mean for coalition building if it became a reality at the next election, saying government formation would be “difficult”.
More in Common used the MRP technique, which uses large amounts of individual and constituency-level data.
‘Uncertain future’
The results are similar to a model by JL Partners published this week, which shows Labour would lose 155 seats, leaving it on 256, if an election were held today.
The analysis, which used council by-election data, put the Tories on track to win 208 seats, Reform on 71, the Lib Dems on 66 and the SNP on six.
If the results played out at the next election, it would “make governing almost impossible for any of the parties, sending the country into an unsure future”, JL Partners said.
The government of India may consider stablecoin regulations in its Economic Survey 2025-2026, while the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) takes a “cautious” approach to crypto and pushes for a central bank digital currency (CBDC), revealing a divergence in policy recommendations.
The government will “present its case” for stablecoins in the annual report published by India’s Ministry of Finance, which outlines key policy recommendations and the state of the economy, business publication MoneyControl reported, citing an official familiar with the matter.
However, the central bank continues to urge a “cautious” approach to stablecoins, according to RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra. Speaking at the Delhi School of Economics on Thursday, he said:
“We have a very cautious approach towards crypto because of various concerns that we have. Of course, the government has to take a final view. There is a working group which was set up earlier, and they will make a final call as to how, if at all, crypto is to be handled in our country.”
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhorta speaks at the Delhi School of Economics on Thursday. Source: Business Today
Malhorta dismissed concerns that India needs to respond to stablecoin innovation led by the United States, following the passage of the GENIUS bill in June, because India has a robust domestic digital payments infrastructure, unlike the US.
This includes the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), a 24/7 payments network, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), which settles payments hourly and is also available 24/7, and the Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system for large transactions, Malhorta said.
The Stablecoin market is dominated by dollar-denominated tokens. Source: RWA.XYZ
The government of India regulating cryptocurrencies would mark a significant departure from its long-held anti-crypto stance and would legitimize digital assets in the world’s most populous country, spurring crypto adoption and potentially raising asset prices.
Officials continue to cast doubt on “unbacked” cryptocurrencies
In October, Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of commerce and industry, said the government neither encourages nor discourages cryptocurrencies, but he also cast doubt on crypto as an asset class.
Most cryptocurrencies do not have sovereign backing or underlying assets that give them value, Goyal said.
Consulting company Cornerstone Research reported a significant drop in the number of enforcement actions implemented by the current leadership of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, compared to that under the previous administration.
In a report released on Wednesday, Cornerstone reported that, under SEC Chair Paul Atkins, the number of enforcement actions against public companies and their subsidiaries decreased by about 30% in fiscal year 2025 compared to those in fiscal year 2024.
The company said the data was “consistent with the general pattern for other fiscal years when the SEC administration changed,” referring to former Chair Gary Gensler.
SEC enforcement actions from FY 2016 to FY 2025. Source: Cornerstone
Although the financial regulator dropped investigations and lawsuits against several crypto companies following Gensler’s departure, the report only referenced the SEC’s case against Coinbase, dropped in February.
Earlier this week, the SEC’s Division of Examinations released its examination priorities for the fiscal year through 2026, not mentioning cryptocurrencies or digital assets.
“The dismissal is consistent with the stated priorities of the current SEC administration,” said Cornerstone. “Chair Atkins has signaled that a ‘top priority’ of his administration will be ‘to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.’”
The SEC operated with limited staff for 43 days amid a US government shutdown that ended last week, curtailing its enforcement and oversight capabilities. Following its return to normal operations, the agency released its examination priorities for 2026 and continued reviewing applications for initial public offerings, exchange-traded funds, and other matters within its purview.
Awaiting market structure bill in Congress
As of Tuesday, Republican leaders on the Senate Banking Committee expected to pass a comprehensive bill on digital asset market structure by early 2026.
The initial timeline, anticipating the legislation being signed into law before the end of the year, was delayed by the government shutdown and pushback from Senate Democrats on DeFi provisions.
If passed, the law could grant the Commodity Futures Trading Commission significant authority to regulate digital assets. Atkins said that, under the SEC’s potential authority, it would not be “lax” on enforcement, likely including cases involving crypto.
Sir Keir Starmer is preparing for a likely visit to China in the new year, Sky News understands.
Political editor Beth Rigby told the Electoral Dysfunction podcast with Baroness Harriet Harman that she had heard from two sources that the prime minister would make the trip – which will be controversial – at the end of January.
She told the Labour peer: “Now, we’ve had this from a couple of different sources.
“As I understand it, it’s not been confirmed, but I guess until they get on the plane, these things are never confirmed.
“But, you know, they might not really want people talking about the prime minister going to China, given the backdrop of the China spy case, and all of those allegations and all that controversy around China in the UK, the super embassy [proposal].”
She added: “But Harriet, what do you think? The prime minister should be going to China, shouldn’t he? Given that we economically want to grow ties with China? What do you think?”
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Baroness Harman replied:“I think he should, but I think there’s no naivety around the government about, although there’s opportunities to cooperate with China on climate change, on trade, that there’s also major challenges that they’ve got to be wary of – so I think they’ll be going, but with eyes wide open.”
The trip is likely to be controversial given the UK’s fractious relationship with China, made worse by recent allegations of spying in parliament.
Earlier this week, MPs and peers were warned of new attempts to spy on them by China.
The security service MI5 sent a warning to those working in Westminster about two recruitment headhunters to watch out for who are working for Chinese security services.
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in the UK said: “These claims by the UK side are pure fabrication and malicious slander. We strongly condemn such despicable moves of the UK side and have lodged stern representations with them.
“We urge the UK side to immediately stop this self-staged charade of false accusations and self-aggrandisement, and stop going further down the wrong path of undermining China-UK relations.”
Rigby said the trip would be a “massive moment”, noting that the last prime minister to visit China was Theresa May in 2018.
Last month Donald Trump met Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
The US president described the talks with China’s president as “amazing” and said “on the scale of one to 10, the meeting with Xi was 12”.
You can listen to the Electoral Dysfunction episode in full from 6am tomorrow.