LONDON: Britain’s Labor Party cruised to a landslide victory in Friday’s general election, exit polls and partial results showed, as voters punished the ruling Conservatives 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 has already conceded defeat and said he called centre-left Labor leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on becoming the country’s next prime minister.
Starmer will face an exhausted electorate impatient for change against a bleak backdrop of economic weakness, growing distrust of institutions and a fraying social fabric.
“Tonight the people here and across the country have spoken and they 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 deliver.”
As thousands of election staff counted millions of ballots at counting centers across the country, the Conservatives absorbed the shock of a historic defeat that would have left the depleted party in disarray and likely set off a contest to replace Sunak as leader.
“Nothing has gone well for the last 14 years,” said London voter James Erskine, who was optimistic about 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.”
Although the results so far suggest that Britain will prevent recent electoral shifts to the right in Europe, including France and Italy, many of the same populist currents are running at home. UK reform leader Nigel Farage launched the race with his party’s anti-immigrant “take back our country” stance and undermining support for the Conservatives, who already faced poor prospects.
The exit poll showed him on track to win around 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, with the Conservatives on 131.
With more than half of the official results in, the broad picture of Labour’s landslide was confirmed, although estimates of the final tally varied. The BBC predicted that Labor would end up with 410 seats and the Conservatives 144. Even that higher number of Tories would leave the party with the fewest seats in its almost two-century history and cause disarray.
“It’s clear tonight that Britain will have a new government in the morning,” former defense secretary-to-be Grant Shapps said after losing his seat — one of a group of Conservative government ministers who were defeated.
In a sign of changing public mood and anger at the system, some smaller parties appeared to fare well, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and Reform UK. Farage won his race in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, securing a parliamentary seat at his eighth attempt.
A key unknown remained whether Farage’s hard-right party could turn its success into gaining more than a few parliamentary seats.
Britons vote on paper ballots, marking their choice with a pencil, which are then counted by hand. Final results are expected later Friday morning.
Britain has experienced a series of turbulent years – some of the Conservatives’ own making, some not – that 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, rocked the economy, while parties thrown by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff sparked widespread anger over quarantine violations.
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 public services led to complaints of a “broken Britain”.
Hundreds of communities have been locked in tight contests where traditional party loyalties come second to immediate concerns about the economy, crumbling infrastructure and the National Health Service.
In Henley-on-Thames, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of London, voters like Patricia Mulcahy, who is retired, sensed the nation was looking for something different. The community, which normally votes conservative, could change its line this time.
“The younger generation is much more interested in change,” Mulcahy said. “So I think whatever happens in Henley, in the country, there will be a big shift. But whoever gets in has a big job ahead of them. It won’t be easy.”
Anand Menon, professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King’s College London, said British voters would soon see a significant change in the political atmosphere from the tumultuous “pantomime politics” of the past few years.
“I think we will have to get used to a relatively stable government again, with ministers who stay in power for quite a long time and a government that can think beyond short- to medium-term goals,” he said. .
Labor has not delivered on its promises to grow the sluggish economy, invest in infrastructure and make Britain a “clean energy superpower”.
But nothing went wrong in his campaign either. The party has won support from much of the business community and support from traditionally conservative newspapers, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid, which praised Starmer for “pulling his party back to the center of British politics”.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, were plagued by gaffes. The campaign got off to a bad start when Sunak was drenched in rain while making the announcement outside Downing Street 10. Then Sunak left early for commemorations in France to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Several conservatives close to Sunak are under investigation on suspicion of using insider information to bet on the election date before it was announced.
Sunak has struggled to shake off the taint of political chaos and mismanagement that has gathered around the Conservatives.
But for many voters, the lack of trust is not just about the ruling party, but politicians in general.
“I don’t know who is for me as a working person,” said Michelle Bird, a dock worker in Southampton on England’s south coast who was undecided about whether to vote Labor or Conservative in the days before the election. “I don’t know if it’s the devil you know or the devil you don’t know.”
