Britain’s Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the country is ready for change after his party secured a landslide victory in the UK general election. The man who will be the next Prime Minister, told the British public: “You have voted, it is now time for us to deliver. Tonight, the people have spoken and they are saying they’re ready for change.” He vowed: “To end the politics of performance and return to politics as a public service.”
Sir Keir said the fight for trust will be the “battle that defines our age” and he would be judged on his ability to show that politics could be a force for good in the world. He accepted that his mandate from the British people was a “great responsibility” and he pledged to start work straight away on improving the country. “Our task is nothing less than renewing the ideas that hold this country together: national renewal,” he proclaimed.
Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat after winning his parliamentary seat in northern England, saying: “The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory. Today, power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner, with goodwill on all sides. That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.”
Labour will have a huge majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, with the Conservative Party reduced to its lowest number of MPs on record. With all but one seat declared, Labour had won 412 (up 211) with the Tories reduced to 121 (down 251) while the Liberal Democrats surged to 71 seats (up 63).
Pro-Brexit and anti-immigration campaigner Nigel Farage has been elected a UK MP at his eighth attempt with his Reform UK party emerging as a new force in British politics after being founded as the Brexit Party in 2018 and renamed in 2022. It had never won a seat in an election before.
Reform UK only won five seats, despite receiving more than 4.1 million votes or 14.3% of the total number of ballots cast. That was more than the Liberal Democrats with 3.5 million or 12.2%. Mr. Farage attributed the lower number of seats his party won to the UK’s First Past The Post voting system.
He was elected in Clacton, an Essex town that had one of highest leave votes in the Brexit referendum of 2016. “There is a massive gap on the centre right of British politics and my job is to fill it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Believe me folks, this is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” Mr. Farage declared.
Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey said his party recorded its best results in a century”.
Among senior Tories, former 49-day Prime Minister Liz Truss, House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and former Conservative minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg all lost their seats. Ms Truss had a majority of 24,000, the other two had majorities of more than 15,000. Ms. Mordaunt, who was seen as a future leadership contender, said the party had “taken a battering because it failed to honour the trust that people had placed in it. If we want again to be the natural party of government, then our values must be the people’s”.
Sir Jacob said it was “clearly a terrible night”, suggesting voters had been put off by the revolving door at No. 10 Downing Street. “Voters expect the prime minister they have chosen to remain the prime minister and for it to be the voters who decide when that person is changed”, he told the BBC. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was among several cabinet ministers to lose their seats.
Photo: Facebook Screenshot – Keir Starmer
