British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak departed from Buckingham Palace following his resignation as prime minister late Friday morning, after the Conservative Party suffered staggering losses in the general election.
He left 10 Downing Street after giving his final speech as prime minister, hours suffering a landslide defeat by the left-of-center Labour Party, which will form a government for the first time in 14 years.
Sunak said earlier that he took responsibility for his party’s loss, and that he had called Labour leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.
Voters in the U.K. cast their ballots Thursday in a national election to choose the 650 lawmakers who will sit in Parliament for the next five years. With almost all results counted, Labour, led by Starmer, has gained at least 400 seats in Parliament.
After more than a decade in power under five different prime ministers, Sunak‘s Conservatives are set to have their seats in the 650-seat House of Commons cut down to around 130. That would be the Tories’ worst result in the party’s two-century history and one that would leave the party in disarray.
Here’s the latest:
Sunak resigns
Rishi Sunak has departed from Buckingham Palace following his resignation as prime minister, after the Conservative Party suffered staggering losses in the general election.
Sunak officially left the post after tendering his resignation to King Charles III in his final audience with the monarch. Sunak was driven to the palace in a chauffeur-driven ministerial car, and left in a private vehicle.
Sunak leaves 10 Downing street after final speech as prime minister
Rishi Sunak has left the prime minister’s residence and headed to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to King Charles III.
“This is a difficult day, but I leave this job honored to have been prime minister of the best country in the world,” Sunak said in his final speech outside 10 Downing Street.
Sunak wished his victorious rival, Labour leader Keir Starmer, all the best: “Whatever our differences in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited man who I respect.”
Sunak said he had given the job his all.
Sunak conceded defeat earlier in the morning as vote counts confirmed exit polls that had projected a landslide defeat for his Conservatives to the Labour Party.
After Sunak resigns, Starmer will go to the palace to seek the king’s blessing to form a government. After performing the “kissing of hands,” the new prime minister will head to his official residence, where he is expected to speak.
China says it hopes to work with the UK ‘on the basis of mutual respect’
“Developing a stable and mutually beneficial China-UK relationship is in line with the fundamental interests of the two peoples, and is conducive to both sides responding to global challenges together and promoting world peace and development,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Friday.
“We hope to work with the UK to move China-UK relations forward on the right track on the basis of mutual respect and win-win cooperation,” Mao said at a daily press briefing.
China-UK relations have been roiled in the last few years by blocks on Chinese investment in Britain over national security concerns, tensions in the South China Sea and China’s crackdown on democracy and free speech in the former British colony of Hong Kong in violation of its pledge to keep such institutions intact until 2047.
Left-wing disruptor George Galloway loses his seat after only a few months in Parliament
One of the casualties of the Labour Party’s landslide win was a former member.
George Galloway, the leader of the Workers Party of Britain, lost the seat he won only months ago in a special election where he mobilized support against the Labour Party’s stance on Gaza.
Galloway, who did not stay to listen to the result, lost his Rochdale seat to Labour’s Paul Waugh, a former journalist.
Rochdale, like many other northern towns, has a sizable Muslim population.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has faced criticism within Muslim circles over his strong backing for Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. He has subsequently shifted his position to call for a ceasefire.
Galloway, a left-wing disruptor, was expelled by Labour in 2003.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss loses her seat
Liz Truss, the former prime minister whose premiership lasted just 49 days, has lost her lawmaker’s seat in the election.
Truss lost her Norfolk South West seat to Labour by just several hundred votes. Truss quit as prime minister in 2022 after a tumultuous and historically brief term marred by economic policies that roiled financial markets.
Several other high-profile and senior Conservative lawmakers also lost their seats, including House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, education secretary Gillian Keegan and former business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Australia, New Zealand leaders congratulate Starmer
The leaders of Australia and New Zealand have sent their congratulations to Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on his election victory.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a social media post on X that he looked forward “to working constructively” with the new British government.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also took to X to congratulate Starmer, writing: “New Zealand and the UK are great friends and can do so much more together.”
Luxon added his thanks to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “for your service to your nation and friendship to New Zealand.”
Larry the cat seen waiting patiently outside Downing Street
As the U.K. awaits a new prime minister, one feline was also patiently waiting to be let into No. 10 Downing Street.
Larry, Britain’s mouse-catcher in chief and long time resident at the leader’s official residence, was pictured waiting outside the famous black door early Friday.
The tabby cat was not bothered by the large crowd of press photographers waiting outside ahead of the change of power expected later Friday. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to go to King Charles III to tender his resignation, and soon after Labour leader Keir Starmer will meet the monarch to be officially appointed.
Larry was recruited by former Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle rats seen scuttling close to the British leader’s official residence, and entered Downing Street in February 2011.
Starmer: We will put the country first, party second
Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is set to become the first Labour prime minister in 14 years, says his government will always put “country first, party second.”
He said a “mandate like this comes with great responsibility,” and added that his government will be focused on “national renewal.”
“We have to return politics to public service,” he said.
With more than half of all 650 seats counted, Labour looks set to secure one of its biggest ever majorities in the House of Commons.
Starmer is expected to pay a visit to King Charles III later Friday to get the monarch’s permission to form a new government.
Labour wins at least 326 seats, enough to have a majority
Official results show Britain’s Labour Party has won enough seats to have a majority in the UK Parliament and will form the next government.
The party had won 326 of the 650 seats by 5 a.m. Friday as counting continued.
That means leader Keir Starmer will become prime minister and can form a majority government.
“We did it,” he said at a victory party in London. “Change begins now.”
Hope is “shining once again on a country with the opportunity after 14 years to get its future back,” Starmer said.
Prime Minister Sunak concedes that Labour has won
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the British people have “delivered a sobering verdict,” and the Labour Party has won the election.
Sunak, who held onto his lawmaker’s seat in North Yorkshire, told those gathered: “The Labour party has won this general election.”
He said he took “responsibility” for his party’s loss, and that he had called Labour leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.
He added that he will head to London in the coming hours, and promised that the transition to Labour will be orderly.
Sunak is expected to go to see King Charles III at Buckingham Palace on Friday to officially resign. After that, Starmer is expected to be driven to the palace to get the king’s permission to form a government.
Labour is way ahead with more than half of all seats counted
With more than half of the 650 seats declared so far, Labour is emerging way ahead of other parties with at least 250 seats.
The governing Conservatives have 44 seats, while the left-of-center Liberal Democrats have won 32 seats.
The hard-right, anti-immigration Reform UK has won 4 seats so far.
The Scottish National Party has four seats, while the Green Party has 1 seat.
Labour suffers in some areas over its Gaza stance
While the Labour Party appears headed for a landslide U.K. election victory, it seems clear that it has suffered in areas with big Muslim communities over its stance on the conflict in Gaza.
A prominent Labour member, Jonathan Ashworth, lost his Leicester South seat in central England to an independent candidate who had Gaza at the heart of his campaign.
Ashworth, who was expected to be appointed to the Cabinet, lost around 20,000 votes when compared to the election of 2019.
Even Labour leader Keir Starmer saw his majority in his Holborn and St. Pancras seat in north London reduced, with more than 7,000 votes going to a pro-Gaza candidate.
After the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas militants, Starmer took a strongly pro-Israel stance and maintained it even as the death toll in Gaza swelled. Many Muslims who had been traditional Labour voters were aghast and have clearly turned to other candidates.
Anti-immigration Reform UK leader Nigel Farage wins a seat in Parliament
Nigel Farage, the leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, has been elected to Parliament.
Farage won the contest in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, becoming a lawmaker at his eighth try after seven failed election attempts.
Partial results show the anti-immigration Reform, successor to the Brexit Party, has taken votes from both the Conservatives and Labour.
Farage said the party was “going to come second in hundreds of constituencies.” It is not yet clear how many seats Reform will win.
He said there is a “massive gap” in the right of British politics, and it was his job to fill it.
“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years,” he said.
Former Labour leader Corbyn holds onto his London seat
Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party into the general elections of 2017 and 2019, has held onto his seat in north London — but this time as an independent.
Corbyn, who had been suspended from the party following a row over antisemitism, decided to stand as an independent candidate in the Islington North constituency he has represented since 1983.
Corbyn won the seat by nearly 7,000 votes over his Labour opponent. Corbyn had won the seat by more than 26,000 votes at the last election.
Defense Secretary Grant Shapps loses his seat
U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, long a key figure in the Conservative Party, has lost his seat in the general election.
Shapps lost his contest for Welwyn Hatfield, a seat north of London, by nearly 4,000 votes, or by 8 percentage points to his Labour Party opponent Andrew Lewin.
Shapps, 55, is the most senior Cabinet minister to lose their seat so far. He was widely considered to be the government’s most trusted media performers over many years and had been tipped as a potential Conservative leadership candidate to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Labour leader Starmer says voters are ready for change
Labour leader Keir Starmer says “voters have spoken and they are ready for change” as an exit poll points to a landslide win for his party.
Starmer spoke as he won his seat in north London but on a much-reduced majority.
Addressing the audience, he spoke of the need to return politics to “public service” and the need for “change.”
He thanked voters for electing him to serve “my home, where my kids have grown up, where my wife was born.”
“It all starts with you. Change begins in this community,” he said. “You have voted, it is now time for us to deliver.”
Anti-immigration party Reform UK wins its first seat in the election
Reform U.K., the recently formed anti-immigration party, has won its first seat in the general election.
Lee Anderson, the former Conservative deputy chairman who defected to Reform a few months ago, held onto his seat in Ashfield in central England with 43% of the vote.
Reform has posed a serious headache to the governing Conservatives, luring many previously staunch Tory voters with its promises to cut immigration.
The exit poll suggested that the party, which is led by divisive right-wing politician Nigel Farage, could win up to 13 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons.
Count Binface makes an appearance at vote counting center
Count Binface, the comedy independent candidate hoping to unseat Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his seat of Richmond and North Allerton, has appeared at a vot…
