UK election 2024 as it happened: Rishi Sunak concedes defeat to Keir Starmer; Labour to form majority government

Hi there, I’m Rob Harris, the Europe correspondent for the Herald and the Age.

It’s almost 9am here in London where things are moving quickly.

Within a few hours Rishi Sunak will say goodbye from Downing Street (let’s hope he has an umbrella). Sir Kier Starmer will be invited to form a government by the king.

A white removal van has arrived outside 10 Downing Street as Sunak prepares to step down as prime minister.

Rishi Sunak departs the Conservative Party’s headquarters in London. Credit: Bloomberg

It is a historic morning in Britain, with Labour winning from opposition for just the fourth time in its long history.

Starmer becomes only the seventh Labour prime minister in the party’s history.

But he comes to power knowing Labour’s public support is shallow, with 34 per cent of the national vote, the lowest-ever winning share and only 10 points higher than the Conservatives.

The Tories have suffered a devastating defeat and have sunk to their worst-ever result. The Tory vote – 24 per cent – was decimated by Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK which snared 14 per cent, but just 4 seats.

They will win fewer than 125 seats, lower than the party’s worst performance of 156 in 1906.

It is a generational wipeout for them which included the ousting of former prime minister Liz Truss. They have also lost seats formerly held by Tory prime ministers including Theresa May, Boris Johnson, David Cameron and, of course, Truss.

There are lessons for Australian Labor to takeaway too, there are now five pro-Gaza independent MPs - more than the number of Reform MPs elected: Ayoub Khan, Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Iqbal Hussain Mohamed and Jeremy Corbyn.

This is where we’ll leave our live coverage for today, but I’ll be providing updates throughout the day. You can keep up with the latest here.

Thanks for reading.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has commended the UK Labour party’s plan to build new nuclear power stations as he congratulated the country’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer.

“I take this opportunity to commend Sir Keir Starmer and the UK Labour Party for their goals to make Britain ‘a clean energy superpower’ and to achieve ‘energy independence’,” he said in a statement. “The new British Government’s plan includes building new nuclear power stations and small modular reactors to help the UK ‘achieve energy security and clean power while securing thousands of good, skilled jobs.’

“There is much Australia can learn from the British experience.”

Dutton also highlighted the two country’s defence partnership and said the Coalition would work with the Albanese government to continue to “nurture Australia’s special, spirited, and significant relationship with Britain”.

“In these precarious times, there is no more important endeavour for our two nations than injecting speed and resolve into our defence objectives and partnership under the AUKUS agreement,” he said.

London stocks climbed after UK’s Labour Party surged to a landslide victory, bringing a sense of stability to investors who expect it to end years of market volatility.

The blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.3 per cent after logging its best day in almost two months in the previous session. The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 was up 0.2 per cent just past 7am (UK time).

The FTSE small cap was flat.

Keir Starmer is set to become Britain’s next prime minister today, ending 14 years of Conservative government.

The pound held firm after the win, and was last up 0.1 per cent against the US dollar.

Reuters

Labour leader Keir Starmer won’t actually become prime minister until a carefully choreographed ceremony later today, during which King Charles will formally ask him to form a new government.

It’s a moment that embodies the fact that, technically at least, the right to govern in the United Kingdom is still derived from royal authority, centuries after real political power was transferred to elected members of parliament.

King Charles with then-prime minister Rishi Sunak and then-opposition leader Keir Starmer. Credit: AP

The process is swift, if somewhat brutal for departing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Sunak will travel to Buckingham Palace around 10.30am (UK time) to offer his resignation to the king. Then Starmer will arrive for his first audience with Charles.

The prime minister-to-be will sweep into the palace for a ceremony known as the “Kissing of Hands,” though no kissing actually occurs. After the king asks Starmer to form a government, he will bow and shake Charles’ hand.

Traditionally, the new prime minister then leaves the palace in a prime ministerial car and returns to Downing Street to make a statement around 12.20pm (about four hours from now).

AP

Keir Starmer’s victory brings to an end 14 years of Conservative Party-led government, which included five prime ministers, a global pandemic and a referendum to leave the European Union.

Here are some of the defining moments of the Conservatives’ four terms in power.

Liz Truss, the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, has lost her seat by less than 700 votes, becoming the latest prominent Conservative figure to be punished by voters.

Labour’s Terry Jermy defeated Truss in the race for her seat of South West Norfolk, which she has held for 14 years.

Former prime minister Liz Truss.Credit: AP

Truss won a 26,000 vote majority in the 2019 election.

She succeeded Boris Johnson as prime minister in September 2022 but resigned just 44 days later following a disastrous mini-budget that sent the currency to record lows against the US dollar.

The defeat means the Conservatives no longer hold any of the seats belonging to their four prime ministers between 2010 and 2022. They have also lost Theresa May’s old seat of Maidenhead, Boris Johnson’s former seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and David Cameron’s former seat of Witney.

Eight current and former cabinet ministers. Every seat in Wales. Votes shed to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in key seats across the country.

That is the scale of the defeat facing the Conservative Party. The BBC’s polling expert Professor John Curtice is calling it the worst in the party’s history. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the British people had delivered “a sobering verdict”.

Here are the current and former cabinet ministers who have lost their seats:

• Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, lost his seat to Labour by more than 3000 votes. He had been touted internally as a future successor to Sunak as party leader.
• Penny Mordaunt, who served in a senior ministerial role as Leader of the House of Commons, also lost her seat to a Labour candidate.
• Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, lost the seat he had held since 2015 to Liberal Democrats candidate Max Wilkinson by more than 8000 votes.
• Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, lost by a considerable majority to the Liberal Democrats in Chichester. The Conservatives had held the seat for 100 years.
• Johnny Mercer, the veterans minister, was defeated by Labour challenger Fred Thomas, a former Royal marine.
• Jacob Rees-Mogg, a key figure in the Vote Leave campaign who served as Brexit opportunities minister under Boris Johnson, lost his seat to Labour challenger Dan Norris. His seat had been abolished in a boundary review and replaced with a new constituency, including a suburb of Bristol historically supportive of Labour.
• Lucy Frazer, the serving secretary of state for culture, media and sport, was defeated by the Liberal Democrats after 10 years in parliament.
• Robert Buckland, a former justice secretary, also lost his seat to Labour.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt retained his seat, clinging on with a tiny majority of just 891 votes.

In Wales, the Conservatives lost an astonishing 12 seats, with Labour picking up nine.

Former prime minister Liz Truss lost to Labour’s Terry Jermy in her seat of South West Norfolk.

And now, the congratulatory messages have begun rolling in.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted his congratulations to Keir Starmer on X/Twitter.

“Congratulations to my friend and new UK Prime Minister [Keir Starmer] on his resounding election victory,” he wrote. “I look forward to working constructively with the incoming [Labour] Government.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described Starmer’s victory as historic and said there was “lots of work ahead to build a more progressive, fair future for people on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has also sent his congratulations, saying he was looking forward to deepening “the close friendship between Israel and the United Kingdom”.

Keir Starmer says he will return the government to the service of the British people in a speech claiming victory on a momentous night for the UK Labour Party.

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

“Change begins now,” he told the Labour faithful. “We have earned the right to relight the fire.”

He said politics can be a “force for truth” and vowed to put the “country first, party second”.

“Make no mistake, that is the great test of politics in this era,” he said. “The fight for trust is the battle that defines our age.”

Starmer is just the fourth person to lead Labour from opposition into government in Britain. The party has won 362 seats so far, a landslide delivering them power for the first time in 14 years.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he has called Labour leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him after conceding his Conservative Party has lost the election.

“The Labour Party has won this general election,” Sunak said, with Labour 10 seats short of a majority as counting continues. “Today, power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner with goodwill on all sides.”

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrives at Northallerton Leisure Centre, where he has conceded defeat in the UK general election. Credit: AP

Sunak, who retained his seat of Richmond in North Yorkshire, said he had “given his all” to the job of prime minister but took responsibility for his party’s bruising defeat.

He is now on the way to London, where he said he would have more to say about the loss.

There are 201 seats still to be declared across the country.