WE DID IT, SAYS STARMER AS LABOUR CROSSES THE LINE
BBC – July 5, 2024
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has won the UK general election, telling joyous supporters: “We did it.”
The party crossed the line with more than 150 seats still to declare, as it heads for a forecasted majority of 170.
The Tories are set for the worst result in their history, with just 144 MPs.
Speaking in central London, Sir Keir said “change begins now”, adding “it feels good, I have to be honest”.
It came minutes after Tory leader Rishi Sunak conceded defeat, saying the Labour Party “has won this general election” and that he takes “full responsibility” for the Conservatives’ loss.
The prime minister said he had called Sir Keir to “congratulate him on his victory”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has won a seat in Parliament at his eighth attempt, in Clacton, promising “this is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you”.
Reform has four MPs so far – including chairman Richard Tice and former Tory Lee Anderson – and is finishing second in many parts of the country, taking large amounts of votes from the Conservatives.
The Scottish National Party is now forecast to be reduced to just eight MPs, as Labour regains dominance in Scotland.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Commons leader Penny Mordaunt and former minister Sir Jacob-Rees Mogg are among the senior Tories to lose their seats.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has defeated his old party to retain his Islington North seat as an independent.
But another high profile former Labour MP, George Galloway, failed to retain the Rochdale seat he won at a by-election in February, losing to Labour’s Paul Waugh.
The Liberal Democrats are benefitting from a collapse in Tory support and are predicted to get 56 MPs, slightly fewer than the 61 predicted by the exit poll but still their best result since 2010.
Carla Denyer, co-leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, has beaten Labour in Bristol Central and her party is predicted to gain another seat to double their current number of MPs.
Sir Keir Starmer’s predicted landslide would be short of the 179 majority won by Tony Blair in 1997 and the party may achieve it on a smaller share of the vote than former leader Jeremy Corbyn won in 2017, according to Sir John Curtice.
It will mean a Labour prime minister in Downing Street for the first time since 2010 and a battle for the future direction of the Conservatives if, as seems likely, Rishi Sunak stands down as leader.
Labour’s Rachel Reeves – who looks set to be the first female chancellor in a few hours’ time – said she did not want to pre-empt the result but it was “clear that the British people have voted for change” and a “brighter future” under Sir Keir Starmer.
In her victory speech in Leeds West and Pudsey, she said: “We will not let you down and I can’t wait to get started.”
The Conservatives may avoid the wipe-out predicted by some opinion polls but they are still set for the worst result in the party’s history, losing 218 MPs – a devastating blow after 14 years in government.
ReutersPenny Mordaunt, who lost to Labour by just 780 votes, had been tipped to make another attempt to be Tory leader after the election.
Conceding defeat, she said her party had lost because it “had failed to honour the trust people had placed in it.”
Former attorney general Sir Robert Buckland, the first Tory MP to lose his seat as results began rolling in, told the BBC his party was facing “electoral Armageddon” and Labour’s likely victory was a “big vote for change”.
And he angrily lashed out at colleagues, such as former home secretary Suella Braverman, for what he called “spectacularly unprofessional and ill-disciplined” behaviour during the campaign.
“I’m fed up of personal agendas and jockeying for position,” he added, warning that the upcoming Tory leadership contest was “going to be like a group of bald men arguing over a comb”.
The SNP are “not winning that argument” on Scottish independence, First Minister John Swinney.
“Opinion polls still show that about half the population in Scotland want our country to be independent,” he told the BBC.
“That’s not manifested itself in the election result tonight and that’s something we’ve got to look at very carefully as a party and to think about how we can remedy that situation.”
The Liberal Democrats are, meanwhile, squeezing the Tory vote in the south of England, with leader Sir Ed Davey saying: “It looks like this will be our best result for a generation.”.
Mr Sunak had insisted he could still win right to the end despite failing to make a dent in Labour’s commanding opinion poll lead over the six-week campaign.
Mr Sunak surprised many in his own party by announcing a summer election.
But his campaign was hit by a series of gaffes, from the rain-drenched announcement in Downing Street to his decision to leave a D-Day celebration in Normandy early to record a TV interview and confused messaging about a Labour “super majority”.
