Britain's Labor Party cruised to a landslide victory on Friday in a parliamentary electionindicated a poll and partial returns as voters punished the Conservatives in government after 14 years of economic and political upheaval.
As the sun rose, the official results showed Labor with 326 of the 650 seats, as the counting of votes continued. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had already conceded defeat and said he called the centre-left Labor leader. Keir Starmer to congratulate him on becoming the next prime minister of the country.
Sunak said the British people have “pronounced a critical verdict”.
Starmer will face an electorate tired and impatient for change against a bleak backdrop of economic malaise, growing distrust of institutions and a frayed social fabric.
“Tonight people here and across the country have spoken and are ready for change,” Starmer told supporters in his north London constituency as the official count showed he had won his seat “You voted. Now is the time to vote.”
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As thousands of poll workers tallied millions of ballots at counting centers across the country, the Conservatives absorbed the shock of a historic defeat that will leave the depleted party in disarray and likely spark a contest to replace Sunak as leader.
“Nothing has gone right in the last 14 years,” said London voter James Erskine, who was optimistic about the change in the hours before the polls closed. “I just see this as the potential for a seismic shift, and that's what I'm hoping for.”
While the suggested result appears to counter recent electoral shifts to the right in Europe, including in France and Italy, many of these same populist currents are flowing in Britain. Britain's reform leader Nigel Farage has muddied the race with the anti-immigrant sentiment of his “Take Back Our Country” party and eroded support for the Conservatives, who already had a dire outlook.
Labor is on course to win about 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, and the Conservatives 131, according to the poll. These would be the fewest seats for the Conservatives in their nearly two-century history and would leave the party in disarray.
In a sign of the volatile public mood and anger against the system, some smaller parties appeared to have done well, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and Reform UK. A key unknown was whether Farage's far-right party could turn its success in capturing more than a handful of seats in Parliament.
Former Conservative leader William Hague said the poll indicated “a catastrophic result in historical terms for the Conservative Party”.
Still, Labor politicians, accustomed to years of disappointment, were cautious.
“The exit poll is encouraging, but obviously we don't have any of the results yet,” vice president Angela Rayner told Sky News.
The poll is carried out by pollster Ipsos and asks people in dozens of polling stations to fill in a replica ballot showing how they voted. It usually provides a reliable, though not exact, projection of the outcome.
Britons vote on ballots, marking their choice in pencil, which are then counted by hand. Final results are expected by Friday morning.
Britain has experienced a series of turbulent years, some from the Conservatives themselves and some not, which have left many voters pessimistic about their country's future. Britain's exit from the European Union followed by the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine damaged the economy, while blockade-breaking parties organized by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff they caused widespread anger.
Johnson's successor, Liz Truss, further shook the economy with a package of drastic tax cuts and lasted just 49 days in office. Rising poverty and cuts to state services have led to complaints of 'Broken Britain'.
Hundreds of communities were locked in tight contests in which traditional party loyalties outweighed more immediate concerns about the economy, crumbling infrastructure and the National Health Service.
In Henley-on-Thames, about 40 kilometers west of London, voters like Patricia Mulcahy, who is retired, felt the nation was looking for something different. The community, which normally votes conservative, may change its stripes this time.
“The younger generation is much more interested in change,” Mulcahy said. “So I think whatever happens in Henley, in the country, there's going to be a big change. But whoever comes in, they've got a big job ahead of them. It's not going to be easy.”
Anand Menon, professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King's College London, said British voters were about to see a marked change in the political atmosphere from the tumultuous “pantomime politics” of recent years.
“I think we're going to have to get used to a relatively stable government again, with ministers staying in power for quite some time and with the government being able to think beyond very short-term and medium-term goals,” he said. .
In the first hour the polls were open, Sunak made the short journey from his home to vote at Kirby Sigston Village Hall in northern England. He arrived with his wife, Akshata Murty, and walked hand in hand into the town hall, which is surrounded by rolling fields.
Hours later, Starmer walked into a north London polling station with his wife, Victoria, to cast his vote.
Labor has not pledged to grow the sluggish economy, invest in infrastructure and make the UK a “clean energy superpower”.
But nothing went wrong in his campaign either. The party has won support from large parts of the business community and endorsements from traditionally conservative newspapers, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid, which praised Starmer for “dragging his party to the center of British politics”.
The conservatives, for their part, have suffered gaffes. The campaign got off to an inauspicious start when rain drenched Sunak as he made the announcement outside 10 Downing St. Sunak then returned home early after commemorations in France marking the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Several conservatives close to Sunak are being investigated on suspicion that they used insider information to place bets on the election date before it was announced.
Sunak has struggled to remove the taint of political chaos and mismanagement that has gathered around the Conservatives.
But for many voters, the lack of trust applies not only to the governing party, but to politicians in general.
“I don't know who it is for me as a working person,” said Michelle Bird, a dockworker from Southampton on England's south coast, who was undecided about whether to vote Labor or Conservative in the days leading up to the election. “I don't know if it's the devil you know or the devil you don't.”
