1 of 2 | British Labor Party leader Keir Starmer (L) arrives with his wife Victoria Starmer at a polling station in London to vote during Thursday’s snap election. An authoritative exit poll released moments after the voting concluded showed Starmer will be the country’s next next prime minister as Labor appeared en route to a landslide victory. Photo by Neil Hall/EPA-EFE
July 4 (UPI) — Exit polling performed for major British broadcasters showed the Labor Party heading to a landslide victory in Thursday’s snap election as polls closed across the nation and initial results trickled in.
The center-left party will hold a resounding majority of 170 seats, according to an exit poll for the BBC, ITV News and Sky, meaning party leader Keir Starmer will become Britain’s next prime minister after 14 years of continuous rule by the Conservative Party.
The poll predicted Labor will have a total of 410 members of Parliament, a bit short of the historic Labor tally after the 1997 election that handed the premiership to Tony Blair.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, meanwhile, are shown crashing to one of the worst defeats in the party’s modern history. Their projected 131 MPs would represent the Tories’ worst performance in terms of seats since 1900.
The centrist Liberal Democrats were expected to finish third with 61 MPs, followed by the Scottish National Party with 10 and the right-wing Reform UK forecast to garner 13 seats.
“To everyone who has campaigned for Labor in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labor Party — thank you,” Starmer wrote in a social media post moments after the poll was released.
To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party – thank you. https://t.co/q6yDNPnAbo— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 4, 2024
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and closed at 10 p.m. Thursday with citizens able to vote by mail.
The first results to trickle in backed up the projections of expected Labor wins and Tory losses. Labor held onto its seats in Blyth and Ashington in Northumberland as well as in Houghton and Sunderland South in the evening’s very first results.
Meanwhile, Reform UK, led by the controversial populist figure Nigel Farage, showed its strength and the Conservatives’ vulnerability on their right flank by finishing second ahead of the Tories in each of the initial pair of results. The four-year-old party is projected to win 13 seats.
“This is an historic moment,” Reform UK Deputy Leader David Bull told the BBC. “I think what you’re seeing is the shy ‘Reformers’ coming out in droves.”
The vote has seen a dramatic turnaround in British politics, just one election cycle removed from the Labor Party having its worst showing at the polls. Now, they appear poised to take over the government.
The Conservatives under Sunak have spanned the country looking for the votes they need to hold onto power. The Tories, however, have been saddled with a lagging economy, protests by public service workers and issues over immigration.
That does not include the Conservative’s own leadership issues. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson left after being involved in the infamous “Party-gate” scandal during the COVID-19 pandemic, only to see his replacement Liz Truss last for less than two months on the job before Sunak.
The Labor Party last ruled in 1997 with Blair as prime minister.
Sunak and Starmer were both seen casting their votes Thursday morning — Sunak in North Yorkshire with his wife, while Starmer went to his polling station at Holborn and St. Pancras with his wife.
“Imagine a British moving forward together with a Labor government,” Starmer told supporters before the vote on Wednesday, according to The Guardian. “That’s what we are fighting for, let’s continue that fight. If you want change, you have to vote for it.”
Starmer had said he was concerned about low turnout in the snap election, which could upend projections. Brits are casting their ballots in some 650 constituency elections nationwide.
Pre-election polling gives the Labor party a strong advantage.
The Yougov MRP poll predicts Starmer’s party could win 431 seats for a majority of 212.
According to final Telegraph poll, Labor will win 39% of the vote, almost twice the 20% of poll respondents who said they will support Conservatives.
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