An exultant Keir Starmer today boasted “we did it” after crushing right-wing Conservative leader Rishi Sunak in a landslide victory 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 of his victory at a rally in central London alongside his wife Victoria Starmer after the party formally reached 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” after 14 years of Conservative leadership and promised that “a 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 by scoring a narrow victory in his own seat of Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
In a speech, the broken-down 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 announced his victory at a rally in central London after Labour formally reached the 325 seats needed to control the House of Commons in a historic victory for the left-wing party.
Starmer and his wife Victoria (pictured) arrived at the Tate Modern gallery in London on Thursday evening.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged Sir Keir had won by nervously securing a victory in his own safe seat of Richmond & Northallerton, North Yorkshire.
Outgoing British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak walks past the Conservative campaign headquarters, following the general election results, in London, Britain, July 5, 2024.
Also with an impressive 21,225 votes, Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK and friend of Donald Trump, snatched the seat of Clacton in Essex from the second-placed Conservatives with 12,820 votes, and warned that his party is “going for Labour”.
Speaking after the result, a smiling Farage said: “I think what Reform UK has achieved in just a few weeks is truly extraordinary.”
He added: “There is no enthusiasm for the Labour Party. This Labour government is going to be in trouble, very, very soon. We are going after the Labour Party, make no mistake about it.”
Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to congratulate the right-wing leader, saying: ‘Congratulations to Nigel Farage on his great WIN for a seat in Parliament amidst the electoral success of Reform UK.
‘Nigel is a man who truly loves his country.
Farage had originally intended to spend much of the rest of the year campaigning for Trump in the US before announcing he would be “coming out of retirement” to stand as a candidate in Clacton in this election.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, right, greets UK 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 tried to become an MP.
Moments after polling stations closed at 22:00 GMT, the dramatic exit poll was published, showing Sir Keir winning 410 of the 650 seats.
With most of the results in, Labour had won 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and the Conservatives 118.
“With such a mandate comes great responsibility,” Starmer said, adding that the fight to regain people’s trust after years of disillusionment “is the defining battle of our time.”
Speaking at the Tate Modern art gallery at the end of the day in London, he said Labour would offer “the sunlight of hope, pale at first but growing stronger as the day goes on”.
For Starmer, it is a historic victory and a great triumph after spending “four and a half years working to change the party.”
“We have the opportunity to fix our public services because we changed parties,” he said defiantly.
‘We have had the opportunity to make work profitable because we changed parties.
“We have the opportunity to deliver results for workers, for young people, for vulnerable people, for the poorest in society because we changed the party.”
Britain has been through a long series of turbulent years (some of them seen as the result of Conservative leadership) that have left many voters pessimistic about their country’s future.
The UK’s exit from the European Union, followed by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dealt a severe blow to the economy, while lockdown-breaking parties organised by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff sparked mass distrust and anger across the country.
Rising levels of poverty, crumbling infrastructure and an overstretched and underfunded National Health Service have led to the country being dubbed “broken Britain”.
Johnson’s successor, Liz Truss, pushed the economy to the brink with a package of drastic tax cuts and famously lasted just 49 days in office.
Today, Truss lost her seat to Labour, becoming just one of a series of senior Conservative MPs ousted in a historic election rout.
On a dramatic night, former Prime Minister Liz Truss lost her seat to the Labour Party
Penny Mordaunt was among the cabinet ministers swept away by the red wave
Former Interior Secretary Suella Braverman, in her speech, said she was “remorseful” about her party’s behavior and how it had abandoned the values of its core supporters.
Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg also quit parliament amid the overnight Tory bloodbath.
But Truss was not the only senior Tory forced to give up her seat to Labour: Conservative politician Penny Mordaunt, UK Secretary of State for Defence Grant Shapps and former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg were all victims of the brutal Tory cull.
In his farewell speech, Mr Shapps said the Conservatives had “lost” the election rather than Labour winning it, and had “tested the patience” of the public by being divided.
Ms Mordaunt, who would likely have been a leadership contender had she survived, said her party had taken a “blow because it failed to live up to the trust people had placed in it”.
She also warned against a shift to the right: “Our renewal as a party and as a country will not be achieved by speaking to an ever-shrinking portion of ourselves, but by being led by the people of our country.
“And if we want to become the natural party of government again, then our values must be those of the people.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who will now be considered a leading candidate to replace Suank, said the party had let down the British people.
“You, the great British people, voted for us for 14 years and we failed to keep our promises,” he said.
‘I will do everything in my power to rebuild trust.
“We have to listen to you, you have spoken very clearly to us.”
The Conservatives are expected to lose the 365 seats they won less than five years ago and fall to 144, their worst result in modern political history.
Mr Sunak is expected to announce he is stepping down as leader but will remain in office until a replacement is elected.
Overall, the centrist Liberal Democrats won around 70 seats, with the Green Party winning four seats, up from just one before the election.
One of the big losers was the Scottish National Party, which held a majority of Scotland’s 57 seats before the election but looked set to lose all but a handful of them, mainly to Labour.