Labour Party set to win UK election in landslide victory, exit polls show: Live updates

U.K.
Defence
Secretary

Grant
Shapps
lost
his
seat
in
Welwyn
Hatfield
in
Thursday’s
parliamentary
election.

He
was
defeated
by
Labour’s
Andrew
Lewin
who
got
41%
of
the
votes
versus
Shapps’
33.2%
share.

The
Conservative
MP,
who
received
16,078
votes,
has
sat
in
parliament

since
2005.

—
Lee
Ying
Shan

Populist
politician
Nigel
Farage
has
won
his
first-ever
seat
in
British
parliament,
after
seven
prior
failed
attempts.

The
infamous
Brexiteer
won
46.2%
of
the
vote
in
the
Clacton
constituency,
with
the
Conservative
Party
coming
in
second
with
27.9%.

The
result
comes
amid
a

surprisingly
strong
election
performance
by
Reform
UK,
which
has
a
hardline
stance
on
immigration
and
was
born
out
of
the
Brexit
Party.
Exit
polls
indicate
that
the
party
could
secure
13
parliamentary
seats,
having
failed
to
win
any
in
the
2019
election.

Read
more
here.

—
Katrina
Bishop

Labour
leader
Keir
Starmer
—
the
likely
next
prime
minister
of
Britain
—
has
made
his
first
comments
after
exit
polls
suggested
a
landslide
victory
for
his
party.

“Tonight
people
here
and
around
the
country
have
spoken.
And
they’re
ready
for
change,”
he
said.

“To
end
the
politics
of
performance.
A
return
to
politics
as
public
service.
You
have
voted,
it
is
now
time
for
us
to
deliver.”

He
spoke
after
winning
his
seat
—
Holborn
and
St.
Pancras
in
London
—
with
48.9%
of
the
vote.

—
Katrina
Bishop

After
winning
a chaotic
by-election
just
months
ago,
George
Galloway
has
lost
the
parliamentary
seat
of
Rochdale.

Labour
won
with
32.9%
of
the
vote,
to
Galloway’s
Workers
Party
of
Britain’s
29%
share.

On
Feb.
29,
the
controversial
former
Labour
politician
won
a
by-election,
giving
his
party
its
first-ever
Member
of
Parliament
in
Britain’s
House
of
Commons.

Galloway
ran
a
campaign
heavily
focused
on
the
plight
of
Palestinians,
appealing
to
the
Muslim
voters
that
make
up
around
30%
of
the
local
electorate,
many
of
whom
voiced
anger
about
the
war
in
Gaza
and
the
failure
of
the
country’s
two
main
parties
to
push
for
an
immediate
ceasefire.

—
Katrina
Bishop
and
Elliot
Smith

Reform
UK
won
its
first
seat
in
Britain’s
2024
general
election,
taking
the
East
Midlands
constituency
of
Ashfield
from
the
Conservatives.

Reform’s
Lee
Anderson
secured
42.8%
of
the
vote,
followed
by
Labour’s
Rhea
Keehn
with
29%.

Exit
polls
indicate
that
the
right-wing
populist
Reform
party
could
gain
13
seats
in
this
election
—
after
winning
none
in
the
2019
vote.

—
Katrina
Bishop

Labour’s
Rachel
Reeves,
shadow
finance
minister,
has
held
her
seat
with
49.3%
of
the
vote.

It
means
she’s
set
to
become
Britain’s
first-ever
female
chancellor
(the
equivalent
of a
U.S.
Treasury
secretary).

In
a

post
on
X
following
the
result,
she
said:
“It
is
an
honour
and
a
privilege
to
be
returned
as
the
Member
of
Parliament
for
Leeds
West
and
Pudsey.
You
have
put
your
trust
in
me.
And
I
will
not
let
you
down.”

—
Katrina
Bishop

After
14
years
in
opposition,
the
Labour
Party
is
near-guaranteed
to
win
a
sizeable
majority
in
the
next
parliament,
according
to
exit
polls.

Many
of
its
senior
figures,
including
party
leader
Keir
Starmer,
deputy
leader
Angela
Rayner
and
finance
chief
Rachel
Reeves,
have
never
served
in
government.

In
a

manifesto
released
in
June,
the
party
said
it
would
focus
on
“wealth
creation”
and
“economic
growth.”
Reeves,
who
has
long
been
on
a
charm
offensive
with
the
British
business
community,
has
repeatedly
stated
she
will
prioritize
fiscal
discipline
in
all
policymaking.

The
party’s
flagship
pledges
include
the
creation
of
a
new
publicly
owned
energy
company,
a
ban
on
awarding
new
North
Sea
oil
and
gas
licenses,
reducing
patient
waiting
times
in
the
strained
National
Health
Service,
and
renationalizing
most
passenger
rail
services.

It
also
plans
to
raise
money
for
public
services
by
cracking
down
on
tax
loopholes
for
so-called nondomiciled
individuals,
removing
tax
breaks
for
independent
schools,
closing
what
has
been described as
a
“tax
loophole”
for
private
equity
investors,
and
raising
taxes
on
the
purchases
of
residential
properties
by
non-U.K.
residents.
It
said
it
would
make
additional
green
investments
through
a
“time-limited
windfall
tax”
on
oil
and
gas
firms.

The
party
said
it
would
recognize
a
Palestinian
state,
calling
statehood
“the
inalienable
right
of
the
Palestinian
people.” 

—
Jenni
Reid

Leader
of
Reform
UK
Nigel
Farage
said
the
gains
his
party
has
seen
so
far
are
“almost
unbelievable.”

Speaking
after
the
earliest
official
results
put
Reform
in
second
place,
the
populist
Brexiteer
noted
this
outcome
was
“way
more”
than
anyone
expected.

“What
does
it
mean?
It
means
we’re
going
to
win
seats,
many,
many
seats,”
he
said
in
a

video
post
on
X.

“Mainstream
media
are
in
denial,
just
as
much
as
our
political
parties.
This
is
going
to
be
6
million
votes
plus.
This
vote
is
huge.”

In
terms
of
vote
share,
at
the
time
of
writing,
Reform
was
in
second
place
with
23.8%
of
the
vote
—
a
14
percentage
point
increase
on
2019.
Exit
polls
put
the
party’s
seats
at
13.

—
Katrina
Bishop

Labour’s
shadow
finance
minister
Rachel
Reeves
is
expected
to
become
the
U.K.’s
first
female
chancellor,
which
she
said
would
be
a
“huge
privilege.”

Speaking
to
Sky
News,
Reeves
said
she
was
under
“no
illusions
about
the
scale
of
the
challenge”
she
will
face”
if
she
does
take
up
the
role.
Labour
is
forecast
to
win
a
landslide
victory
in
the
U.K.’s
general
election,
and
Reeves
is
also
expected
to
hold
her
seat.

“The
severity
of
the
inheritance
from
the
Conservatives
is
truly
awful.
But
we
will
get
to
work,
starting
to
rebuild
our
economy,
returning
stability
to
the
economy,
and
improving
our
health
service
and
our
schools
after
14
years
of
chaos,
division
and
decline,”
she
said.

Reeves
has
long
been
on
a
charm
offensive
with
the
British
business
community,
repeatedly
stating
she
will
prioritize
fiscal
discipline
in
all
policymaking.

—
Katrina
Bishop

Along
with
a
huge
vote
for
Labour
and
severe
losses
for
the
Conservatives,
one
of
the
major
themes
of
the
night
so
far
has
been
the
apparent
gains
by
Reform
UK.

It
is
forecast
to
win
13
seats
and
has
significantly
increased
its
vote
share
in
early
seats
that
have
been
declared.

The
populist,
right-wing
party
with
a
hardline
stance
on
immigration
was
born
out
of
the
Brexit
Party,
which
was
founded
by
Nigel
Farage
and
focused
on
calling
for
a

“no-deal
Brexit”
between
2016
and
2021.
After
the
completion
of
the
Brexit
process,
it
campaigned
on
issues
such
as
opposition
to
Covid
lockdowns.

The
Brexit
party
did
not
win
any
seats
in
the
2019
general
election.

Farage,
who
has
served
in
the
European
Union
parliament
(on
a
pro-Brexit
stance)
but
repeatedly
failed
to
win
a
seat
in
the
U.K.
legislature,
stepped
down
as
party
leader
in
March
2021.
After
previously
stating
he
would
not
stand
as
an
MP
in
2024
in
order
to
focus
on
supporting
Donald
Trump’s
U.S.
presidential
campaign,
he
reversed
course
in
June
and
said
he
would
both
stand
and
resume
his
role
as
Reform
UK
leader.

Numerous
analysts

argued
that
the
return
of
the
well-known
figure
would
boost
the
party
at
the
expense
of
the
Conservatives.

David
Bull,
co-deputy
leader
of
Reform
UK,
told
the
BBC
during
overnight
vote
counting
that
pollsters
had
underestimated
the
party’s
support,
as
they
had
with
the
number
of
people
who
would
back
a
Brexit
vote.

“I
think
what
you’re
seeing
is
actually
the
shy
Reformers
coming
out
in
droves.
We
saw
this
with
Brexit
didn’t
we,
the
shy
Brexiteers,
so
the
pollsters
were
caught
off-guard
and
once
again
they’ve
been
caught
off
guard,”
Bull
said.
“If
that
is
true
and
we
win
13
seats
that
is
extraordinary.”

A
“shy”
voter
refers
to
someone
who
does
not
reveal
in
polls
which
way
they
will
eventually
vote.

—
Jenni
Reid

Exit
polls
have
a
strong
track
record
of
getting
it
right
in
Britain.

Investec
notes
they
have
correctly
called
the
largest
party
(Conservatives)
in
the
last
four
elections,
with
a
mean
absolute
error
of
the
overall
majority
of
just
11.

“Exit
polls
ask
the
way
that
voters
have

actually
voted
in
contrast
with
polls
published
during
the
campaign,
which
model
voting

intentions,”
Investec
U.K.
chief
economist
Philip
Shaw
wrote
late
Thursday.

“One
can
expect
the
actual
outcome
to
be
reasonably
close
to
the
[exit
poll]
figures
…
With
tactical
voting
perhaps
more
widespread
than
in
previous
elections
however,
perhaps
one
should
not
be
too
confident
about
this.”

Rob
Wood,
chief
U.K.
economist
at
Pantheon
Macroeconomics,
issued
a
note
of
caution,
however,
highlighting
that
in
1974,
exit
polls
overestimated
Labour’s
seats
by
61.
In
recent
history
—
over
the
last
30
years
—
the
largest
exit
poll
mistake
came
in
2019,
when
the
Conservative’s
seats
were
underestimated
by
15,
Wood
added.

After
the
first
few
results
are
announced
before
midnight
London
time,
Investec
said
it
expects
a
“particularly
busy
period
of
declarations
between
03.00
and
04.00
a.m.”

“A
full
set
of
results
is
expected
by
07.00
tomorrow
morning,
although
this
may
be
delayed
by
recounts
in
various
constituencies,”
Shaw
wrote.
“One
further
complication
could
arise
if
postal
votes
having
been
sent
out
late
in
certain
areas
were
to
lead
to
challenges
by
candidates
who
lost
by
a
narrow
margin.”

He
added
that
currency
markets
have
hardly
reacted,
given
the
forecasted
result
was
widely
expected.
“What
will
matter
more
to
markets,
ultimately,
is
what
a
Labour
government
chooses
to
do
if
and
when
it
takes
office.”

—
Katrina
Bishop

Keir
Starmer
is
on
course
to
be
the
U.K.’s
new
prime
minister,
with
exit
polls
suggesting
his
left-of-center
party
could
have
a
majority
of
around
170
seats.

He
will
take
the
post
from

Rishi
Sunak,
who
was
elected
between
general
elections
by
members
of
his
Conservative
Party
in
2022.

Starmer,
61,
has
had
a
rapid
political
ascent
after
entering
U.K.
parliament
less
than
a
decade
ago.
But
many
Brits
still
know
little
about
the
man
who
has
positioned
himself
as
the
country’s
candidate
for
change.

Starmer
was
born
in
1962
in
London,
England,
to
a
father
who
worked
as
a
toolmaker
and
a
mother
who
worked
as
a
nurse.
A
barrister
(or
trial
lawyer),
he
served
as
a
human
rights
adviser
during
former
Labour
Prime
Minister
Tony
Blair’s
landmark
Northern
Ireland Good
Friday
Agreement,
and
in
2008
became
the
head
of
the
U.K.’s
Crown
Prosecution
Service.

Starmer
was
knighted
in
2014
for
his
services
to
criminal
justice
and
was
elected
to
Parliament
the
following
year,
serving
as
shadow
immigration
minister
and
Brexit
minister
for
the
opposition.

Read
the
full
story

here.

—
Karen
Gilchrist

The
first
seat
of
the
2024
general
election
has
been
called
for
Labour
in
the
constituency
of
Houghton
and
Sunderland
South.

Bridget
Phillipson,
Labour’s
education
chief,
was
declared
the
first
member
of
the
U.K.’s
new
parliament.
She
said
that
if
exit
polls
were
correct,
“then
after
14
years,
the
British
people
have
chosen
change.”

Labour
held
the
Houghton
and
Sunderland
South
seat,
but
the
candidate
for
the
Nigel
Farage-led
Reform
UK
party
made
a
significant
gain
on
its
2019
result
(when
it
was
called
the
Brexit
Party),
leapfrogging
the
Conservatives
into
second
place.

Several
constituencies
in
northern
England
race
to
be
the
first
to
declare
in
a
general
election.

In
the
2017
and
2019
votes,
Newcastle
took
that
honor
with
announcements
in
less
than
90
minutes
of
polls
closing.
Between
1992
and
2015,
Sunderland
was
the
first
to
declare
its
seat.

—
Jenni
Reid

The
scale
of
the
projected
Conservative
loss
stems
from
smaller
parties’
gains
as
well
as
Labour’s
challenge,
polling
expert
John
Curtice
told
the
BBC.

The
seat
forecast
shows
how
the
national
share
of
the
vote
has
“moved
decisively
against
the
Conservatives,”
he
said.

“Support
for
the
Conservatives
is
falling
much
more
heavily
in
places
where
they
are
trying
to
defend
a
seat
than
it
is
in
places
that
Labour
already
hold,”
he
said.

“It’s
not
because
Labour
are
doing
spectacularly
better
in
Conservative-held
seats,
it’s
because
Reform
are.
Much
of
the
damage
done
to
the
Conservative
Party
tonight
is
being
done
by
Reform,
even
if
it
is
the
Labour
Party
that
proves
to
be
the
beneficiary.”

Reform
UK
is
the
populist
right-wing
party
led
by
Nigel
Farage.

He
also
noted
that
although
there
has
not
been
a
massive
rise
in
overall
Liberal
Democrat
support,
the
party
is
doing
better
in
seats
where
it
was
challenging
the
Conservatives,
he
continued,
cautioning
that
the
patterns
shown
by
the
polls
may
not
be
exactly
accurate.

“Although
it
looks
like
an
election
in
which
Labour
win
a
landslide,
it
does
not
follow
that
this
necessarily
means
Labour
have
got
a
landslide
in
terms
of
votes,”
he
told
the
BBC.

—
Jenni
Reid

The
Scottish
National
Party
is
set
to
secure
only
10
seat
in
British
parliament,
exit
polls
suggest
—
down
from
48
seats
in
2019.

It
comes
after
a
period
of
turbulence
for
the
pro-Scottish
independence
party.

Former
leader
Humza
Yousaf
Yousaf

resigned
in
April
after
serving
as
Scotland’s
first
minister for
a
little
over
a
year,
taking
over
from
longstanding
leader
Nicola
Sturgeon,
who
announced
her
surprise
resignation
in
February
2023.
Sturgeon
was
being
investigated
by
police
as
part
of
a
probe
into
party
finances,
and
her
husband
Peter
Murrell
was charged
with
embezzlement
earlier
this
year.

John
Swinney
took
over
the
party
leadership
earlier
this
year.

—
Katrina
Bishop

The
result
of
the
2024
U.K.
general
election
is
still
in
the
realm
of
projection
—
but
is
being
widely
described
as
historic.

That’s
in
part
because
of
the
likely
electoral
swing
for
the
Labour
Party.
To
win
even
a
narrow
majority,
Labour
needed
a
bigger
gain
in
parliamentary
seats
than
that
achieved
by
Tony
Blair
in
1997.
Its
projected
170
majority
means
it
is
on
course
to
have
seen
an
unprecedented
upswing.

Exit
polls
put
it
on
410
seats,
up
from
202
in
the
most
recent
general
election
in
2019.

However,
due
to
the
rise
of
smaller
parties,
Labour
may
have
achieved
a
smaller
share
of
the
vote
than
in
2017
under
leader
Jeremy
Corbyn,
when
the
party failed
to
win but
narrowly
prevented
a
Conservative
majority.

Exit
polls
give
the
ruling
Conservative
Party
just
131
seats,
a
slump
from
365
in
the
last
election
and
its
lowest
number
in
post-war
history.

—
Jenni
Reid

The
former
leader
of
the
Scottish
Conservatives,
Ruth
Davidson,
told
Sky
News
the
result
was
a
“massacre”
for
her
party.
But
she
said
that
exit
polls
suggested
it
wasn’t
as
bad
as
some
had
been
expecting
in
the
days
leading
up
to
the
vote.

“There’s
no
dressing
this
up,
this
has
been
..
this
is
a
massacre
—
it
is
a
massacre,”
she
said.

-Matt
Clinch

The
manual
counting
of
millions
of
ballots
has
begun
across
the
U.K.’s
650
constituencies,
with
the
first
results
to
be
declared
imminently
and
announcements
continuing
through
the
night
until
Friday
morning.

—
Jenni
Reid

The
U.K.’s
incumbent
Conservative
Party
had
been
expected
to
lose
power
in
Thursday’s
election,
but
initial
exit
polls
showed
the
staggering
extent
of
the
swing.

A
poll
conducted
by
Ipsos
UK
for
Sky
News,
the
BBC
and
ITV
News
indicates
the
650
seats
of
the
House
of
Commons
will
be
split
approximately
as:

Labour:
410
Conservatives:
131
Liberal
Democrats:
61
Reform:
13
Scottish
National
Party:
10
Plaid
Cymru:
4
Green:
2
Other:
19

In
the
2019
election,
the
Conservatives
won
365
seats
to
Labour’s
202.
The
Lib
Dems
took
11
while
Scotland’s
SNP
won
48.

—
Jenni
Reid

Exit
polls
released
as
voting
closed
in
the
election
put
Labour
on
course
for
a
landslide
victory,
with
the
incumbent
Conservatives
facing
a
bruising
defeat.

The
poll,
conducted
by
Ipsos
UK
for
Sky
News,
the
BBC
and
ITV
News,
points
to
Labour
winning
410
seats
out
of
650,
with
the
Conservatives
on
131.
Smaller
parties
look
set
for
major
gains,
with
the
Liberal
Democrats
on
61
and
Nigel
Farage’s
Reform
UK
on
13.

—
Jenni
Reid

The
first
seat
of
the
2024
general
election
has
been
called
for
Labour
in
the
constituency
of
Houghton
and
Sunderland
South.

Bridget
Phillipson,
Labour’s
education
chief,
was
declared
the
first
member
of
the
U.K.’s
new
parliament.
She
said
that
if
exit
polls
were
correct,
“then
after
14
years,
the
British
people
have
chosen
change.”

Labour
held
the
Houghton
and
Sunderland
South
seat,
but
the
candidate
for
the
Nigel
Farage-led
Reform
UK
party
made
a
significant
gain
on
its
2019
result
(when
it
was
called
the
Brexit
Party),
leapfrogging
the
Conservatives
into
second
place.

Several
constituencies
in
northern
England
race
to
be
the
first
to
declare
in
a
general
election.

In
the
2017
and
2019
votes,
Newcastle
took
that
honor
with
announcements
in
less
than
90
minutes
of
polls
closing.
Between
1992
and
2015,
Sunderland
was
the
first
to
declare
its
seat.

—
Jenni
Reid

While
an
overall
Labour
victory
has
been
forecast
by
pollsters,
many
seats
are
considered
too
close
to
call
—

including
those
of
British
Prime
Minister
Rishi
Sunak
and Finance
Minister
Jeremy
Hunt.

There
are
around
120
of
650
seats
where
the
margin
of
victory
is
expected
to
be
lower
than
5
percentage
points,
according
to
a

projection
model
from
the
Financial
Times.

Well-known
politicians
will
be
seeking
to
avoid
what
in
British
political
lingo
has
become
known
as
a
“Portillo
moment.”
That
is
a
reference
to
former
Conservative
politician
Michael
Portillo,
who
lost
his
seat
in
the
1997 general
election
to
Stephen
Twigg,
his
relatively
unknown
Labour
opponent.
Portillo,
meanwhile,
was
a
big
name
who
had
served
as
defense
minister
and
was
considered
a
potential
future
party
leader.

The
shock
result
was
seen
as
emblematic
of
the
swing
in
Labour’s
favor,
as
the
party
won
a
landslide
under
Tony
Blair
against
incumbent
Prime
Minister
John
Major.

—
Jenni
Reid

Under
former
Conservative
leader
Boris
Johnson,
the
party
won
a
majority
of
365
seats
in
the
last
general
election
in
2019,
to
Labour’s
202
seats.

Turnout
was
67.3%.

By
the
time
parliament
was
dissolved
on
May
30
this
year
in
order
for
the
July
4
election
campaign
to
begin,
a
range
of
political
developments
had
left
that
split
at
344
Conservative
lawmakers
to
205
for
Labour.

—
Jenni
Reid

Millions
of
British
citizens
across
England,
Wales,
Scotland
and
Northern
Ireland
on
Thursday
voted
for
their
local
representative
in
the
House
of
Commons,
the
U.K.’s
lower
branch
of
parliament.

In
typical
British
fashion,
the
weather
was
changeable
and
unseasonably
cool
during
the
nation’s
first
July
general
election
since
1945.

The
U.K.
elects
650
Members
of
Parliament,
known
as
MPs.
According
to
longstanding
convention,
the
prime
minister
is
an
MP
appointed
by
the
monarch
who
can
“command
the
confidence”
of
the
Commons
—
in
practice,
that
is
the
leader
of
the
party
with
the
most
seats.

Prospective
MPs
stand
for
election
in
one
of
the
U.K.’s
650
constituencies.
In
a
system
known
as
“first
past
the
post,”
voters
may
only
choose
a
single
candidate
from
their
local
list,
and
the
person
with
the
most
votes
in
each
constituency
becomes
an
MP.

Unlike
in
other
voting
systems,
there
are
no
second
rounds
or
ranking
of
first-
and
second-choice
candidates,
meaning
it
can
be
difficult
for
smaller
parties
to
translate
an
increased
share
of
the
popular
vote
into
parliamentary
seats.

Around
40,000
polling
stations
were
open
from
7
a.m.
to
10
p.m.
on
Thursday,
and
one
of
the
two
main
parties
—
Labour
or
the
Conservatives
—
is
expected
to
concede
victory
to
the
other
sometime
on
Friday
morning.

—
Jenni
Reid