London: Official results show Britain’s Labour Party has won enough seats to have a majority in the UK Parliament will form the next government. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak managed to retain his parliamentary seat but ultimately conceded defeat to the Labour Party. Despite a hard-fought campaign and efforts to maintain his position as the UK's leader, Sunak acknowledged the will of the electorate as the Labour Party secured over 300 seats and a majority in the Parliament.
The rival party had won 326 of the 650 seats by 5 a.m. Friday, meaning leader Keir Starmer will become prime minister and can form a majority government.
“We did it,” Starmer says as official results show Labour has won a majority
“We did it,” Starmer told supporters at the Tate Modern museum in London. Starmer, looking set to take charge at 10 Downing Street on Friday, took to social media with a message for voters: "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."
His party's wins started to stack up with Houghton and Sunderland in north-east England becoming the very first constituency to declare its result in favour of Labour's candidate Bridget Phillipson as counting kicked off up and down the country.
“I take responsibility for the loss,” Sunak said. “To the many good, hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight, despite their tireless efforts, their local records and delivery, and their dedication to their communities. I am sorry.”
He added that he has called Labour leader 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,” Sunak said.
Labour suffers in areas with big Muslim communities over its Gaza stance
While the Labour Party appears headed for a landslide U.K. election victory, it seems clear that it has suffered in areas with big Muslim communities over its stance on the conflict in Gaza.
A prominent Labour member, Jonathan Ashworth, lost his Leicester South seat in central England to an independent candidate who had Gaza at the heart of his campaign.
Ashworth, who was expected to be appointed to the Cabinet, lost around 20,000 votes when compared to the election of 2019.
Even Labour leader Keir Starmer saw his majority in his Holborn and St. Pancras seat in north London reduced, with more than 7,000 votes going to a pro-Gaza candidate.
After the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants, Starmer took a strongly pro-Israel stance and maintained it even as the death toll in Gaza swelled. Many Muslims who had been traditional Labour voters were aghast and have clearly turned to other candidates.
Former Labour leader Corbyn holds onto London seat
Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party into the general elections of 2017 and 2019, has held onto his seat in north London — but this time as an independent.
Corbyn, who had been suspended from Labour following a row over antisemitism, decided to stand as an independent candidate in the Islington North constituency he has represented since 1983.
Corbyn won the seat by nearly 7,000 votes over his Labour opponent. Corbyn had won the seat by more than 26,000 votes at the last election.
Earlier on Thursday as voting began, Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty walked hand-in-hand to their local polling booth on a sunny day in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire, northern England. A little later, Starmer and wife Victoria were at their polling station in Camden, north London, sporting Labour red colours.
Sunak, 44, was facing the impossible challenge of overcoming voter anger against the incumbent Tories after 14 years in power. The 61-year-old Keir Starmer-led Labour Party, meanwhile, maintained a strong lead over the Tories throughout the six-week campaign.
Both leaders wrapped up their poll pitches with contrasting messages -- Sunak urging voters not to hand "tax-raising" Labour a "supermajority" and Starmer playing down the prospect of a landslide win for fear of a low turnout impacting the final outcome. Sunak continued to drive home the message on his X account, asking voters: "Can you trust Labour with a supermajority?"
Candidates were fielded for 650 constituencies across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with 326 required for a majority in the first past the post system.
Besides the two main parties, voters were choosing from a list of candidates representing the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Scottish National Party (SNP), SDLP, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Fien, Plaid Cymru, Workers' Party, the anti-immigration Reform Party and several contesting as Independent.
Around 40,000 polling booths operated across the country from 7 am local time for an estimated 46 million registered voters to mark a cross next to their chosen candidate on a paper ballot.
Polling experts have forecast a low turnout, which stood at 67 per cent in the last general election in December 2019 when Johnson won 365 seats, giving him an 80-seat majority. Labour won 202 seats, the SNP 48, the Lib Dems 11, DUP eight, Sinn Fein seven, Plaid Cymru four, SDLP two, Alliance party one, and Greens one.
The UK has a five-year general election cycle and Sunak had until January 2025 to go to the polls but chose a surprise summer election when he named July 4 as the voting date in May. It is the first time he sought the voters' mandate, having been chosen Tory leader and Britain's first Indian heritage Prime Minister by the Conservative Party membership following political turmoil in October 2022.
The general election was also the first test at the ballot box for Keir Starmer, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn after Labour's defeat in 2019.
