King Charles asks Starmer to form government after Labour election landslide

London: Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has swept to power in Britain, crushing the 14-year-old Conservative government to claim what is expected to be one of its biggest parliamentary majorities in history.

Speaking in central London after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat on Friday morning (UK time), Starmer said many people would be waking up to find “a burden finally removed from the shoulders of this great nation”.

He became the 58th person to lead Britain later in the day when he met with the King at Buckingham Palace and was asked to form a government.

“Change begins now,” Starmer, 61, told supporters, vowing to put the “country first, party second”. “We have earned the right to relight the fire.”

A fierce voter backlash across the United Kingdom will reduce the number of Tory MPs to a record low, with millions seeking fresh leadership after a tumultuous period that included Britain’s departure from the European Union, political infighting and scandal that led to four prime ministers in five years, the pandemic, war in Ukraine and a cost-of-living crisis.

King Charles III, right, shakes hands with new British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer as the pair meet at Buckingham Palace.Credit: AP

With 648 of the 650 seats declared by Friday 2pm (local time), Labour had won 412 – well past the 326 required for a majority in the House of Commons. The projected victory is similar in scale to Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour landslide.

Sunak, who announced he would step down as Tory leader once formal arrangements for a successor had taken place, said the British people had delivered a “sobering verdict” and apologised for his party’s performance after calling Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.

“The Labour Party has won this general election,” Sunak said after winning his own parliamentary seat in northern England.

“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.”

Addressing the nation in Downing Street on Friday morning (UK time) before going to Buckingham Palace to meet the King, Sunak said he had heard the anger of the electorate.

Rishi Sunak, pictured in Downing Street with his wife, Akshata Murty, on Friday morning (UK time), resigns as Tory leader.Credit: Bloomberg

“I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change, and yours is the only judgment that matters,” he said.

The result is likely to resonate around the world, with political power swinging back to an internationalist, centre-left party at a time when right-wing populists are advancing in many countries.

But turnout was on course to be about 60 per cent, down 7 per cent on the previous election and close to a record low, suggesting public dissatisfaction with mainstream politics.

Labour secured about 34 per cent of the vote – a historically low figure for a winning side – while the Conservatives vote was down to 23 per cent, cannibalised by Nigel Farage’s insurgent populist Reform UK with 15 per cent.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer waves to party workers and supporters during a post-election rally at the Tate Modern in London.Credit: AP

The Conservatives were on track to win fewer than 130 seats, down from 365 at the previous election, after a six-week catalogue of errors and self-inflicted damage. Their previous worst result at a general election was 156 seats in 1906.

Among senior Conservatives to lose their seats were former prime minister Liz Truss, defence secretary Grant Shapps, leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, justice minister Alex Chalk, education minister Gillian Keegan, culture minister Lucy Frazer, science minister Michelle Donelan and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the architects of Brexit.

Foreign leaders began congratulating Starmer. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on social media platform X: “Congratulations to my friend and new UK Prime Minister [Keir Starmer] on his resounding election victory. I look forward to working constructively with the incoming [Labour] government.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Starmer’s victory as historic, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he was looking forward to deepening “the close friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom”.

Labour won scores of seats because of the rise of Reform UK, which split the right-wing vote, punishing the Conservatives under Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system.

Farage won his first seat in the House of Commons on his eighth attempt.

“There is a massive gap on the centre-right of British politics, and my job is to fill it and that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” Farage said after the result for Clacton-on-Sea was announced.

The Reform UK of Nigel Farage (second from right) cannibalised much of the Conservative vote.Credit: AP

“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years, and hopefully be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029.”

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, expelled from his own party after 41 years as an MP, pulled off a shock win in Islington North, where he ran as an independent.

Beating Labour candidate Praful Nargund by 24,120 votes to 16,873, Corbyn said: “This result is to me a resounding message from the people of Islington that they want something different, they want something better.”

Labour also lost two seats — including one held by campaign spokesman Jonathan Ashworth — to pro-Palestinian independent candidates, an indication of how Starmer’s position on the Israel-Hamas war has hurt his party among many Muslim voters.

With agencies

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