Revealed: How many battleground election targets did Labour win and lose?

Labour gained more than 200 of the constituencies it had labelled as “battleground areas” at the general election, taking the vast majority – but missing out on taking more than 30, LabourList analysis reveals.

Extensive research by LabourList into a party volunteer sign-up website found that the party had labelled 253 constituencies as “battleground areas”, with activists encouraged to campaign for a Labour victory in those seats.

Some 231 of these were areas Labour hoped to gain, ranging from the most marginal Burnley to areas with substantial Conservative majorities at the last election, such as Tamworth.

The seat list also included every seat in Scotland except Orkney and Shetland.

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Based on the election results, Labour managed to win 216 of the 253 constituencies labelled as “battleground areas”, including wins in 198 of the 231 seats it hoped to gain. These included seats such as Banbury, Dover and Deal, Finchley and Golders Green, Loughborough, both Swindon seats and Worcester,

Of the 22 “battleground areas” Labour was defending, the party held on in 18 of them – losing three to independents and one to the Greens.

The “battleground areas” did not include Leicester East, which Labour lost to the Conservatives amid a surge for independent candidates, Islington North, which the party lost to Jeremy Corbyn, or Dewsbury and Batley, which Labour also lost to an independent on the issue of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The party’s “battleground areas” list included almost a dozen constituencies Labour had previously described as “non-battleground” seats.

Labour managed to win all but one of these constituencies, including the former seats of Penny Mordaunt and Jacob Rees-Mogg. The only constituency Labour failed to gain from those 11 was Isle of Wight East, where the party was pushed to fourth and lost vote share amid a surge in support for Reform UK and the Green Party.

Note Labour’s efforts to direct activists to particular places were responsive to campaign developments on the ground, so the “battleground” list at the time of LabourList’s analysis may have changed throughout the campaign.

The 11 ‘non-battleground seats’ later dubbed ‘battleground areas’ – and how they voted

• Bexleyheath and Crayford: Labour gain from Conservative
• Derbyshire Dales: Labour gain from Conservative
• Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard: Labour gain from Conservative
• Isle of Wight East: Conservative hold
• Isle of Wight West: Labour gain from Conservative
• Mid Derbyshire: Labour gain from Conservative
• North East Somerset and Hanham: Labour gain from Conservative
• North Northumberland: Labour gain from Conservative
• Portsmouth North: Labour gain from Conservative
• Reading West and Mid Berkshire: Labour gain from Conservative
• Weston-super-Mare: Labour gain from Conservative

Read more on how the night unfolded:

Liz Truss loses South West Norfolk: Beaten by a lettuce, beaten by Labour

Scotland results: Labour makes big gains as SNP obliterated

Wales results: Labour bags 27 of 32 seats as Tories wiped off the map

Red Wall: Gains in Stoke, Grimsby, Redcar, Workington, Hartlepool, Barrow, Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Bolsover

Jacob Rees-Mogg: Senior Tory loses seat as Labour mayor Dan Norris wins

Gaza: Jon Ashworth loses in Leicester as independents win Blackburn and Batley

Islington North: Jeremy Corbyn holds on in strong result over Labour

Nuneaton, Stevenage, Swindon, Worcester: Labour wins in key bellwether marginals

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Read more on how Labour fought this campaign in key battlegrounds:

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