Former Mayor of London and key figurehead of the “Leave” campaign Boris Johnson (left) and Managing Director of Reid Steel Simon Boyd at a “Leave” campaign event in Christchurch, Dorset ©Ben Birchall/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Read more: Can Sadiq Khan keep London safe?

One clear winner emerged from the May elections. Curiously, the media managed to ignore the victory. In stark contrast to the aftermath of last year’s general election, when everyone attacked the performance of the opinion polls, I can find no journalist or politician this time praising the pollsters for getting London, Scotland and Wales right.

This does not mean that they achieved perfection. But, if the polls were judged like films or TV shows, they would deserve four stars out of five.

They all predicted Sadiq Khan’s comfortable victory in London. Four out of five polling companies were within one point of his final vote share of 57 per cent.

They all predicted that the Scottish National Party would slip back from its vote in last year’s general election, but still come out well ahead of its rivals. Three of the five polls showed the Conservatives overtaking Labour to become the official opposition at Holyrood.

YOU'VE HIT THE LIMIT

You have now reached your limit of 3 free articles in the last 30 days.
But don't worry! You can get another 7 articles absolutely free, simply by entering your email address in the box below.

When you register we'll also send you a free e-book—Writing with punch—which includes some of the finest writing from our archive of 22 years. And we'll also send you a weekly newsletter with the best new ideas in politics and philosophy of culture, which you can of course unsubscribe from at any time

Email

Prospect takes your privacy seriously. We promise never to rent or sell your e-mail address to any third party.
You can unsubscribe from the Prospect e-mail newsletter at any time.