What happened and what happens next?

6 hours ago

Matt Murphy & Graeme Baker, BBC News, London and Washington DC

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Sir Keir Starmer has become Britain's new Prime Minister after Labour won a landslide victory in the general election.

The Conservative Party suffered a dramatic collapse after 14 turbulent years in power, during which five prime ministers ran the country. They lost 250 seats on a devastating night.

Rishi Sunak, the outgoing prime minister, took responsibility for the result and apologised to his defeated colleagues in a brief statement outside No. 10 Downing Street in the rain. He said he would resign as party leader in the coming weeks.

Delivering his first speech as prime minister after dozens of cheering Labour supporters lined Downing Street, Sir Keir pledged to run a “government that serves” and usher in an era of “national renewal”.

“For too long we have turned a blind eye to the growing insecurity of millions of people,” he said. “I want to make it very clear to those people: Not this time.”

“Changing a country is not like flipping a switch. The world is now a more unstable place. It will take time, but there is no doubt that the work of change will begin immediately.”

The result marks a stunning reversal from the 2019 election, when left-wing politician Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party suffered its worst election defeat in nearly a century.

Meanwhile, former Conservative chancellor Robert Buckland, who lost his seat, described it as “the end of the election” for the Conservatives.

It's the party's worst result in 200 years, and an ideological fight over its future direction is expected.

It was the result of a long night. Let me tell you what it all means.

A huge victory for Labour

There are 650 members in the House of Commons in the UK. Each of their “seats” represents a constituency or district.

So far, Labour has won 412 seats, while the Conservatives have fallen to just 121 and the centrist Liberal Democrats have won 71. The Brexit Party's successor, Reform UK, looks set to win four seats, as does the left-wing Green Party.

In Scotland, only one seat has been declared in the Skye and Rossshire constituency.

Labour's surge was aided in part by the collapse of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which was reduced to nine seats overnight amid a series of controversies over its finances.

Labour is expected to win a majority of 170 seats in the House of Commons, which, although a huge number, is still short of the 179 seats Labour won under Tony Blair in the 1997 election.

But if we look at it from a different perspective, the Conservative Party's victory in the 2019 election under Boris Johnson gave them a majority of 80 seats, which is considered a very strong achievement.

Let me remind you that if one party has a majority, it doesn't have to rely on other parties to pass laws. The bigger the majority, the easier it is.

But the Labour Party has suffered several notable defeats by independent candidates who campaigned on a platform of support for Gaza, especially in areas with large Muslim populations.

The Labour Party has come under increasing pressure over its stance on the conflict. In February, it called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, but critics said it was too slow to get there.

Center-left parties in other Western countries were watching closely ahead of the elections, fearing a backlash from their own voters over their support for Israel.

Sir Keir Starmer's first meeting with Charles I after the election

Big names are falling one by one (but some survive)

There were several key moments as each constituency lined up all of its candidates on stage and announced the results live on television.

Perhaps most notably, the defeat of Liz Truss, the former prime minister who lasted just 49 days in No 10 before being ousted from the party, was narrowly defeated by Labor in the South West Norfolk constituency, despite having previously held a majority of 24,180 seats.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Conservative business secretary and Brexiteer, was one of the biggest names to suffer defeat, losing his East Somerset and Hanham seats to Labour.

He told the BBC he could “blame no one but myself” for the defeat, but said he took “a little hope” from the fact that the Conservatives could “at least be the official opposition” – a reference to concerns that the Conservatives would not even have that hope.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps looked bewildered after losing seats in southern England.

House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, who competed with Rishi Sunak for the party leadership position before becoming prime minister, lost her seat in Portsmouth.

As the night wore on, other Conservative cabinet ministers also lost their posts, including Education Minister Gillian Keegan, Culture Minister Lucy Fraser and Veterans Affairs Minister Johnny Mercer.

However, Jeremy Hunt, a former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, retained his seat, but his majority was significantly reduced.

Prime Minister Sunnack won the Yorkshire seat with a majority of about 12,000 votes, but in his acceptance speech he acknowledged and confirmed that his party had lost the election.

Labour has lost two high-profile figures, with Jonathan Ashworth and Thangam Debbonaire both expected to join Keir Starmer's cabinet.

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Jacob Rees Mogg and the other candidates in his constituency. Neither of them won.

A new prime minister will be elected within a day.

Things move very quickly in British politics. There is very little time between an election result and a new Prime Minister being sworn in.

At mid-morning a moving van arrived and removed Rishi Sunak from No. 10 Downing Street. He was then taken to Buckingham Palace where he offered his resignation to Charles III.

And just 14 hours after the first exit poll results were released, Sir Keir was formally invited by the monarch to form the next government.

Moments later – in full view of the world's media – he walked down Downing Street and addressed the nation for the first time as Prime Minister.

He has already begun appointing a new cabinet.

Angela Rayner was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Rachel Reeves became the first female Chancellor of the Exchequer.

David Lammy became the new Foreign Secretary, and Yvette Cooper became the Home Secretary.

Prime Minister Sunak wished the new prime minister well in a speech before submitting his resignation to the king.

“His success will be our success, and I wish him and his family well,” Mr. Sunack said. “Whatever our differences in this election, he is a decent, public-spirited man who I respect.”

So who is Keir Starmer?

He is relatively new to politics.

Sir Keir began his professional life as a solicitor in the 1990s and was appointed Crown Prosecutor and the Chief Crown Prosecutor in England and Wales in 2008.

He was first elected in 2015 in the Holborn and St Pancras constituency in north London and took over as party leader following Labour's crushing defeat in the 2019 general election, vowing to usher in a “new era” after Jeremy Corbyn's left-wing leadership.

Sir Keir was re-elected in the same constituency on Thursday, and in his victory speech said people were “ready for change” and promised to “end performance-based politics”.

“Change starts right here, because this is your democracy, your community, your future,” he said. “You voted. Now it’s time for us to deliver.”

The Labour leader has largely avoided making big promises during the campaign.

But in a speech outside Downing Street, Sir Keir said his government would work to “rebuild” Britain's public services such as the NHS, cut energy costs and secure our borders.

“You have given us a clear mandate, and we will use it to make a difference,” he pledged.

You can read Keir Sir's full profile here.

Nigel Farage finally becomes MP

Reuters

Nigel Farage after being elected.

The rebellious party in this election was Reform UK, the right-wing successor to the Brexit Party and UK Independence Party.

Its leader, Nigel Farage, finally won the seat on his eighth attempt, but his party lost just four seats instead of the 13 it had initially hoped for. Still, it was a better performance than UKIP and the Brexit Party achieved, and Mr Farage is celebrating.

The party's vote share appears to be around 14%.

The Reform Party was embroiled in controversy during the campaign due to aggressive statements from some of its candidates and activists.

Others joining Farage in the House of Commons include former Conservative deputy leader Lee Anderson, Reform Party founder Richard Tice and Rupert Lowe.

With its new standing in parliament, the party could cause problems for the Conservatives and attract more voters from the rest of the party's base.

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