A jubilant Keir Starmer boasted “we did it” today after crushing right-wing Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak and delivering a landslide victory for the Labour Party in the UK’s first general election in almost five years.
Sir Kier, who will officially become prime minister later in the day, boasted of his victory at a rally in central London alongside his wife Victoria Starmer after the party formally secured the 326 seats needed to gain a majority in the House of Commons.
In an impassioned speech, the left-wing politician said the British people had “voted to turn the page” after 14 years of Tory leadership, and vowed that the “transformed Labour Party is ready to put Britain back at the service of working people”.
It came just minutes after Rishi Sunak conceded defeat and acknowledged that Sir Kier had won the tense election with a narrow victory in his own seat of Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
In a speech, the devastated outgoing prime minister said: “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight, there is much to learn… and I take responsibility for the loss.”
Sir Keir Starmer trumpeted his victory at a rally in central London after the Labour Party formally secured the 325 seats needed to take control of the House of Commons, in a historic win for the left-wing party
Starmer and his wife Victoria, pictured, arrived at the Tate Modern gallery in London earlier on Thursday evening
Devastated Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged Sir Keir had won as he nervously secured a victory in his own safe seat of Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire
Outgoing British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walks outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after the General Election result in London, Britain, July 5, 2024
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK and friend of Donald Trump, also received an impressive 21,225 votes to win the Essex seat of Clacton from the Conservatives, who came second with 12,820 votes. He warned that his party was “hunting for Labour”.
After the result, Farage said with a grin: “I think what Reform UK has achieved in just a few weeks is truly extraordinary.”
He added: ‘There is absolutely no enthusiasm for Labour. This Labour government is going to be in trouble – very, very quickly. We are coming for Labour, there is no doubt about that.
Trump congratulated the right-wing leader via his social media platform Truth Social, saying: “Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a seat in Parliament amid successful reforms in the British election.
‘Nigel is a man who truly loves his country.
Farage was originally scheduled to spend most of the year campaigning for Trump in the US, before announcing he would “come out of retirement” to stand in Clacton at the election.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, right, greets United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage during a campaign rally at the Mississippi Coliseum on August 24, 2016 in Jackson, Mississippi
Nigel Farage has won the seat of Clacton, Essex, the eighth time he has attempted to become an MP
Moments after polling stations closed at 22:00 GMT, the dramatic exit poll was released, showing Sir Keir had won 410 of the 650 seats
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After almost all the results were known, Labour had won 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, to the Conservatives’ 118.
“A mandate like this carries with it a great responsibility,” Starmer said, adding that the fight to regain people’s trust after years of disillusionment is “the defining struggle of our time.”
In a speech at the Tate Modern art gallery in London, he said Labour would offer “the sunlight of hope, faint at first but growing stronger as the day goes by.”
For Starmer it is a historic victory and a huge triumph after ‘four and a half years of hard work to change the party’.
“We have the opportunity to restore our public services because we changed parties,” he said defiantly.
‘We have been given the opportunity to make work pay because we changed parties.
‘We have the opportunity to make a difference for working people, young people, vulnerable people and the poorest in society, because we have changed the party’.
Britain has endured a series of turbulent years, some of which have been attributed to the Conservative leadership, leaving many voters pessimistic about the future of their country.
The UK’s exit from the European Union, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, left the economy battered. At the same time, lockdown-breaking parties thrown by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff fueled widespread distrust and anger across the country.
Rising poverty, crumbling infrastructure and an overstretched and underfunded national health service have led to the country being nicknamed ‘Broken Britain’.
Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, pushed the economy to the limit with a package of drastic tax cuts and, famously, stayed in power for just 49 days.
Truss lost her seat to Labour today, one of several leading Conservative MPs ousted in a historic election battle.
In a dramatic night, former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her seat to Labour
Penny Mordaunt was one of the ministers swept away by the red wave
Former Interior Minister Suella Braverman said during her count that she “regretted” her party’s behaviour and how it had neglected the values of its core supporters
Former minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also walked out of parliament in the Tory bloodbath last night
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Truss was not the only senior Tory to lose her seat to Labour, however. Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt, UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg were also victims of the brutal Tory vote.
In his farewell speech, Mr Shapps said the Conservatives had ‘lost’ the election rather than Labour winning it, and that he had ‘tried the public’s patience’ by being divided.
Ms Mordaunt, who would likely have been a leadership candidate had she survived, said her party had “taken a blow because it had not honoured the trust people had placed in it”.
She also warned against a retreat to the right: ‘We will not achieve our renewal as a party and as a country by talking to an ever smaller part of ourselves, but by allowing ourselves to be guided by the people in our country.
‘And if we want to be the natural governing party again, our values must be those of the people.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who is now seen as a leading candidate to succeed Mr Suank, said the party had failed the British people.
“You, the great British people, voted for us for 14 years and we failed to deliver on our promises,” she said.
‘I will do everything I can to restore confidence.
“We have to listen to you, you spoke to us very clearly.”
The Conservatives are expected to reduce their seats from 365 MPs, where they had them less than five years ago, to 144, their worst performance in modern political history.
Sunak is expected to announce he will step down as leader but will remain in office until a replacement is chosen.
All in all the centrist Liberal Democrats won about 70 seats, with the Green Party winning four, compared to only one before the election.
One of the biggest losers was the Scottish National Party, which held most of Scotland’s 57 seats before the election but looked set to lose all but a few seats, mainly to Labour.
