According to early forecasts, the opposition Labour Party has clearly won the general election in Great Britain. It can count on 410 of the 650 seats in parliament.
Prime Minister-to-be Keir Starmer with his wife on their way to vote on Thursday Photo: Claudia Greco/rtr
LONDON taz/dpa/rtr/ap/ | The Labour Party has won the general election in Britain. The joint “exit poll” of the main British television networks gives the former opposition party 410 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, more than double the number at the last election in 2019. Labour leader Keir Starmer will become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on Friday.
The previously governing Conservatives will fall to 131 seats, just a third of their 2019 result. According to initial forecasts, numerous cabinet ministers have lost their direct mandates, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to retain his parliamentary mandate.
The second big loser is the Scottish National Party (SNP), which has so far been dominant in Scotland and holds only 10 of Scotland's 56 direct mandates. This means that its claims to demand a new independence referendum based on a good result in this election are probably dead.
Nigel Farage's right-wing populist party, Reform UK, achieved a respectable victory with 13 seats, more than expected. The big gains are also attributed to the Liberal Democrats, who achieved their best result in 100 years with 61 seats.
The worst result in 200 years
For the Conservatives, on the other hand, it is likely to be the worst result in almost 200 years. The victorious Labour Party remains just below Tony Blair's record result at the change of power in 1997, when Labour replaced the Conservatives with 418 seats. Based on initial forecasts for vote share, the party is also behind most opinion polls in recent weeks and is well below the 40 per cent forecast.
However, this election is a huge victory for Labour and, even more so, a devastating defeat for the Conservatives after 14 years in power.
A series of crises and scandals have plagued the party that has been in power since 2010. At the end of May, Sunak – encouraged by the good inflation figures – called elections for 4 July. The British were able to cast their vote until 11 pm on Thursday.
The election was due to take place no later than January 2025. However, the earlier date of the election did not change the fact that Labour continued to dominate the polls, even if the party leader, Starmer, is not considered to be very charismatic.
Counting until Friday
The 650 seats in the lower house are allocated by direct mandate. The absolute majority in the House of Commons is 326 seats. In the last election in 2019, the Conservatives won 365 seats, while Labour won 202 seats.
The counting of the constituencies will take place on Friday morning. King Charles III officially entrusts the new prime minister with forming a government on Friday.