Britain’s Labour Party is on set to win a landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Friday, according to exit polls and partial results, as voters punish the ruling Conservatives after 14 years of economic and political turmoil.
As the sun rose, official results revealed Labour had 326 of the 650 seats, but vote counting proceeded.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had already admitted defeat and claimed he called center-left Labour Party leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on becoming the country’s next prime minister.
Starmer will face a jaded electorate eager for change amid a gloomy backdrop of economic stagnation, increasing distrust of institutions, and a dissolving social fabric. Tonight, people here and around the country have spoken, and they are ready for change,” Starmer told supporters in his north London area, as the official count confirmed he had won his seat. “You’ve voted. It’s time for us to deliver.”
As thousands of electoral staff collected millions of ballot papers at counting centres across the country, the Conservatives absorbed the shock of a historic defeat that would devastate the party and possibly force a struggle to replace Sunak as leader.
While the results so far indicate that Britain will defy recent rightward electoral trends in Europe, particularly in France and Italy, many of the same populist undercurrents exist in the country.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has roiled the campaign with his party’s anti-immigrant “take our country back” rhetoric, undermining support for the Conservatives, who were already facing dismissal opportunities .
The exit poll predicted that it would win approximately 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, while the Conservatives would gain 131.
With more than half of the official results in, the general picture of a Labour landslide was confirmed, though estimates of the final count varied. The BBC predicted that Labour will win 410 seats and the Conservatives 144. Even a higher Tories tally would result in the party with the fewest seats in nearly two centuries, causing turmoil.
(Source: AP)
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