Polls have closed in the UK Election, and the nationwide exit poll says the Labour Party has won around 410 seats, a comfortable majority.
Polls have closed in the UK General Election, and the nationwide exit poll says the Labour Party has won around 410 seats nationwide, replacing the Conservatives after 14 wasted years.
Sir Keir Starmer, a top lawyer who once served as the United Kingdom’s Director of Public Prosecutions and supposedly former hardline leftist radical, who claims to have changed his mind and reformed the Labour party he now leads into a mature and capable governing force, is going to be the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
The Ipsos exit poll claims 410 seats for Labour — the second largest Labour majority ever, if it proves to be correct — and a crushing defeat to the Conservatives, collapsing from 365 seats won in 2019 to an estimated 131 today.
The Liberal Democrats are polled to have enjoyed strong growth to 61 seats. Nigel Farage’s Reform, if this exit poll is correct, have well and truly gained the beachhead they said they wanted with an estimated 13 seats — he will be very happy with this.
UPDATE 2320 — Sunderland South result is first of the night
Labour holds the first result of the night — no surprise there — but what is really surprising is the Reform UK result, gaining over twice as many votes as the Conservative Party. Farage HQ will be cheering this: they will be collecting second-place finishes tonight keenly as they look at where to build their ground operation in the coming months and years.
???? BREAKING: FIRST RESULT OF THE NIGHT
Labour HOLD Houghton and Sunderland South
LAB: 18,847
CON: 5,514
REF: 11,668
LDEM: 2,290
GRN: 1723
— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 4, 2024
UPDATE 2220 — Results appear to be less extreme than polled
There’s no way to get around the fact Labour are winning a historic majority in Parliament tonight. But if the results do resemble the exit poll, then this election sees a much smaller victory for Labour than many polls suggested in recent months, and a much better performance for the Conservatives.
Don’t forget in recent days there was talk of a Labour ‘supermajority’ and we’re not quite there. In recent days there was talk of the Conservatives dipping to double-digits seat numbers. They’re looking like they’ll survive total wipeout and could — sadly, some might say — survive this to bounce back another day.
Even for Nigel Farage’s faction, Reform UK. On 13 seats predicted, that’s absolutely the high-end of predictions.
But predictions are one thing. The real numbers are hours away yet, so stay tuned as they roll in and the real picture emerges.
The counting of individual seats for the Westminster Parliament’s House of Commons is now underway. It will continue in many cases until the early hours of Friday morning. Still, the national swing has all but confirmed that Starmer will lead the largest party and, consequently, will take over the role of Prime Minister on Friday after an audience with the King.
So Britain is getting a left-wing government. The big question is, what kind? If Sir Keir really has reformed as much as claimed, we’re in for continuity Rishi Sunak. If he’s been hiding his true self to get at the levers of power, things could be about to get even more uncomfortable for Britain’s squeezed middle class. Who he appoints to his cabinet in the coming days may telegraph some of this.
Who is Sir Keir Starmer?
Labour Party leader Sir Kier Starmer is one of the least known political figures to ascend to the top job in Britain in recent memory, apparently making the calculation to step back and let the Conservatives self-immolate as an election strategy rather than relying on his own personality or party platform to win voters over to his side.
Much like Joe Biden in the United States, Starmer has promised a ‘return to normalcy’ — whatever that means — as his central pitch to the public, promising a dispassionate technocratic and managerial style of governance.
However, many have warned that underneath his boring exterior, the leftist leader is looking to fundamentally transform the United Kingdom along the lines of the ‘New Labour Revolution’ of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who remains deeply influential within the Labour Party and will undoubtedly be seeking to steer the Starmer ship to continue his globalist agenda.
