The UK’s opposition Labour Party is on course to win a huge parliamentary majority in the country’s general election, unseating the incumbent Conservatives after 14 years.
Early projections show Labour would gain its second-largest majority after former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s 179-seat majority in 1997. A nationwide result will likely be declared early Friday, with Keir Starmer, leader of center-left Labour, expected to become the country’s next prime minister.
In comments overnight, Starmer said: “Tonight people here and around the country have spoken. And they’re ready for change.”
Millions of people across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on Thursday voted for their local representatives in the 650-member House of Commons, the U.K.’s lower house of parliament. Ballots are being counted, with constituencies announcing their winning candidate as soon as votes are tallied.
Penny Mordaunt lost her seat
The Leader of the House – who was widely considered a contender for future prime minister, got 13,715 votes, losing by nearly 1,000 to Labour in the Portsmouth North constituency in southern England.
It was a swing of 18% from the Conservatives to Labour, according to the BBC.
Mordaunt said the party’s renewal could not involve continuing to talk to “an ever-smaller circle of ourselves.”
She added: “If we want again to be the natural party of government then our values must be the people’s.”
Mordaunt ran unsuccessfully in the two Conservative leadership contests of 2022, with some support from the moderate wing of the centre-right party.
She also played a notable part in King Charles’ coronation last May, when she carried a ceremonial sword through Westminster Abbey, helping raise her public profile.
Defence Minister Grant Shapps lost to Labour
Defence Minister Grant Shapps lost his seat, becoming the most senior Conservative cabinet member so far to be defeated.
Labour’s Andrew Lewin defeated Shapps in the Welwyn Hatfield constituency in southern England he had held for nearly two decades. Lewin won 19,877 votes compared to Shapps’ 16,078.
Shapps, a loyal supporter of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, had held other cabinet roles, including in the departments of energy, housing and transport, and a six-day stint as interior minister under former leader Liz Truss.
The 55-year old former businessman was regarded as being one of the Conservatives best media communicators, often deployed in the aftermath of scandals or to defend the government at awkward times, such as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What is crystal clear to me tonight is it’s not so much that Labour won this election but that the Conservatives have lost it. On door after door voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private, and do that, and then be united in public,” he said in his speech after the result.
“Instead we’ve tried the patience of traditional Conservative voters with the propensity to create an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions which have become increasingly indulgent and entrenched. Today voters have simply said, ‘If you can’t agree with each other, then we can’t agree to vote for you.’ We forgot a fundamental rule of politics, that people do not vote for divided parties.”
‘It’s now time for us to deliver’ – Keir Starmer
Labour leader Keir Starmer held his seat in Holborn and St Pancras, with the Conservatives in fourth place, beaten by an Independent campaigning on the issue of Gaza, and the Green candidate.
He called his victory a “huge privilege”, but his majority was significantly reduced.
“Tonight, people here and around the country have spoken and they are ready for change, to end the politics of performance and return to politics as public service,” Starmer said.
“You have voted, it’s now time for us to deliver.”
