A jubilant Keir Starmer boasted ‘we did it’ today after after crushing right-wing Conservative leader Rishi Sunak in a landslide win for the Labour Party in the UK’s first national election in almost five years.
Sir Kier, who will officially become prime minister later in the day, boasted his victory at a rally in central London alongside his wife Victoria Starmer after the party formally crested the 326 seats needed to control the House of Commons.
In an impassioned speech, the left-wing politician said the British people had ‘voted to turn the page’ on 14 years of Conservative leadership – and vowed the ‘changed Labour party is ready to restore Britain to the service of working people’.
It came just minutes after Rishi Sunak admitted defeat, acknowledging that Sir Kier had won the tense election as he took a small victory in his own Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire, seat.
In a speech, the broken 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 crested the 325 seats needed to control the Commons in a historic win for the leftist party
Starmer and his wife Victoria pictured arrived at the Tate Modern gallery, London, earlier on Thursday evening
Broken Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged that Sir Keir had won as he nervously took a victory in his own safe Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire, seat
Outgoing British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walks outside Conservative Campaign Headquarters, following the results of the general election, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024
Also netting an impressive 21,225 votes, Nigel Farage, Reform UK leader and pal of Donald Trump, nabbed the Essex seat of Clacton from the Conservatives who came second with 12,820 votes, and warned his party is ‘coming for Labour’.
Speaking after the result, a grinning Farage said: ‘I think what Reform UK has achieved in just a few short weeks is truly extraordinary.’
He added: ‘There’s no enthusiasm for Labour whatsoever. This Labour government will be in trouble – very, very quickly. We’re coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that.
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to congratulate the right-wing leader, saying: ‘Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his big WIN of a Parliament Seat Amid Reform UK Election Success.
‘Nigel is a man who truly loves his country.
Mr Farage had originally intended to spend much of the rest of the year campaigning for Trump in the US before announcing he would ‘come out of retirement’ to run in Clacton in this election.
Republican Presidential nominee 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 Clacton, Essex, seat, the eighth time he has attempted to become an MP
Moments after ballot stations closed at 10pm GMT, the dramatic exit poll was released – showing Sir Keir winning 410 of the 650 seats
With almost all the results in, Labour had won 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and the Conservatives 118.
‘A mandate like this comes with a great responsibility,’ Starmer said, saying that the fight to regain people’s trust after years of disillusionment ‘is the battle that defines our age.’
Speaking at the Tate Modern art gallery as drawn broke in London, he said Labour would offer ‘the sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day.’
For Starmer, it is a historic win and a massive triumph after spending ‘four-and-a-half years of work changing the party’.
‘We have the chance to repair our public services because we changed the party,’ he said defiantly.
‘We have have the chance to make work pay because we changed the party.
‘We have the chance to deliver for working people, young people, vulnerable people, the poorest in society because we changed the party’.
Britain has experienced a long run of turbulent years – some of it considered to have been a result of Conservative leadership – that has left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future.
The UK’s exit from the European Union, followed by the Covid19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine leading to a battered economy, while lockdown breaching parties hosted by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff caused massive distrust and anger throughout the country.
Rising levels of poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and an overstretched and underfunded National Health Service have led to the nation being dubbed ‘Broken Britain’.
Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, pushed the economy to its limits with a package of drastic tax cuts and famously lasted just 49 days in office.
Today, Truss lost her seat to Labour, and was just one of a slew of senior Conservative MPs kicked out in a historic electoral reckoning.
In a dramatic night, former prime minister Liz Truss lost her seat to Labour
Penny Mordaunt was among the Cabinet ministers washed away in the red wave
Ex-home secretary Suella Braverman , at her count, said she was ‘sorry’ for the behaviour of her party and how it had abandoned core supporters’ values
Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also left Parliament in the Tory bloodbath overnight
But Truss was not the only senior Tory forced to give up her seat to Labour with Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt, the Secretary of State for Defense of the United Kingdom Grant Shapps, and former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg falling victim to the brutal Tory cull.
In his parting shot, Mr Shapps said the Conservatives had ‘lost’ the election rather than Labour winning it – and ‘tried the patience’ of the public by being divided.
Ms Mordaunt, who is likely to have been a leadership contender if she had survived, said her party had taken a ‘battering because it failed to honor the trust that people had placed in it’.
She too warned against a retreat to the right: ‘Our renewal as a party and a country will not be achieved by us talking to an ever smaller slice of ourselves but being guided by the people of our country.
‘And if we want again to be the natural party of government, then our values must be the people’s.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman, who will now be considered a leading contender to replace Mr Suank, said the party had let the British people down.
‘You, the great British people, voted for us over 14 years and we did not keep our promises,’ she said.
‘I will do everything in my power to rebuild trust.
‘We need to listen to you, you have spoken to us very clearly.’
The Conservatives are expected to be slashed from the 365 MPs secured less than five years ago to 144, their worst performance in modern political history.
Mr Sunak is expected to announce he is quitting as leader but stay on until a replacement is chosen.
Altogether the centrist Liberal Democrats won around 70 seats, and The Green Party has won four seats, up from just 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 handful, mostly to Labour.
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