04/07/2024 – 18:04
Polls released shortly after polls closed in the United Kingdom on Thursday (July 4) indicate a landslide victory for the center-left Labour Party, which should lead party leader Keir Starmer to lead the British government.
According to the survey, Labour is expected to receive 410 seats in Parliament, while the Conservatives are expected to receive 131.
The Liberal Democrats are in third place with 61 seats, up 53 from the previous term. The newly-formed Reform party, led by Brexit architect and right-wing populist Nigel Farage, surprised in its first election and is expected to take 13 seats.
The country’s first national vote since Boris Johnson’s Conservative victory in 2019 came after a surprise call by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to hold it six months early.
If the exit poll results hold, Sunak’s gamble has backfired spectacularly, with polls throughout the six-week campaign – and for the past two years – pointing to a major defeat for his party.
Analysts say this is likely to be the Conservative Party’s worst defeat in its history.
Starmer, 61, is expected to take over as leader of the largest party in parliament. The last Labour leader to lead the country was Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010, succeeding fellow Labour leader Tony Blair who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007.
Labour is projected to win its first general election since 2005 by historic proportions, with several polls on the eve of the election predicting its biggest ever victory.
Conservatives punished
Voting began at 7am (local time) at more than 40,000 polling stations across the country, from church halls, community centres and schools to more unusual venues such as pubs and even a ship.
Exit polls in the UK typically provide an accurate picture of how the main parties are performing.
Results from the UK’s 650 constituencies will be released overnight, with the winning party expected to reach 326 seats – the threshold for a parliamentary majority – by dawn on Friday.
Polls suggest voters will punish the Conservatives after 14 years of often chaotic rule and could sack a number of government ministers, with talk that even Sunak himself may not be safe.
This would make him the first sitting British prime minister not to retain his post in a general election.
More information coming soon…
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