Keir Starmer will be Britain’s next prime minister, with his Labour Party winning a landslide majority in the parliamentary election while Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party is projected to suffer historic losses, according to an exit poll on Thursday.
The poll showed the Labour Party would win 410 seats in the 650-seat parliament, ending 14 years of Conservative-led government.
Sunak’s party is projected to win only 131 seats, down from 346 when parliament was dissolved, as voters punish the Conservative Party for the cost-of-living crisis and years of instability and infighting that have seen five different prime ministers in power since 2016.
In the past six national elections, only one exit poll has produced the wrong result – in 2015 when the poll predicted a shaky parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority. Official results will come in the next few hours.
Sunak surprised many in Westminster and his own party by calling an election earlier than necessary in May, despite opinion polls showing the Conservatives trailing Labour by around 20 points.
They had hoped the margin would narrow, as traditionally happens in British elections, but despite a fairly disastrous campaign it did not.
It began when he was drenched in rain outside Downing Street while announcing the vote, then his aide and Conservative candidates became embroiled in a gambling scandal over questionable bets placed on the election date.
Sunak’s premature departure from a D-Day commemoration in France to give a TV interview angered military veterans, with even members of his own party saying it raised questions about his political acumen.
Although polls have shown there is little enthusiasm for Labour leader Starmer, his simple message that it is time for change appears to be resonating with voters.
Unlike in France, where Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally party made historic gains in last Sunday’s election, the disenchanted British public has shifted to the centre-left.
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