Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has secured a landslide victory in the UK election.
“We did it! You campaigned for it, you fought for it, you voted for it, and now it has arrived. Change begins now. And it feels good, I have to be honest. Four and a half years of work changing the party. This is what it is for: a changed labour party, ready to serve our country, ready to restore Britain to the service of working people”, Starmer, the incoming prime minister, said in his victory speech.
In a surprise move, outgoing Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak used his speech during his constituency count earlier to reveal that he had called Starmer to concede.
Many prominent Conservative party politicians, including Defence Minister Grant Shapps and Education Minister Gillian Keegan, lost their seats.
There was a surge in support for the Liberal Democrats, while the populist right wing Reform UK party picked up support from disgruntled Conservative voters to win a clutch of parliamentary seats.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) had what party leader John Swinney called a “very poor result” losing dozens of seats.
Former cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg was among the biggest of Tory beasts to be booted out of their seats as the Labour Party returned to power after 14 years with a crushing victory. On a humiliating night for Rishi Sunak’s party, some of the Conservatives’ biggest names – including eight Cabinet members – were defeated by their rivals. Among those to be ousted in a brutal election night bloodbath was Mr Rees-Mogg who who lost his Somerset North East & Hanham to Labour’s Dan Norris by more than 5,000 votes. Afterwards he said he could not blame anybody ‘other than myself’ and that it had been ‘a very bad night for the Conservatives’. Sir Keir Starmer boasted ‘we did it’ today after Rishi Sunak conceded he has lost the election. Glum-looking Defence Secretary Grant Shapps suffered a ‘Portillo Moment’ as he was defeated by Labour in Welwyn Hatfield by around 3,000 votes.
