On UK election day, Labor aims for a landslide victory ending 14 years of conservative rule. Plus, government unveils plans, Auckland speed limit debates, screen time advice.
Sir Keir Starmer to be Britain’s next PM as incumbent Conservatives on track for fewest seats in Party’s history.
Rishi Sunak concedes defeat: “the British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight...to the many good hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight despite their tireless efforts... I am sorry.”
The result sees Nigel Farage elected to parliament with his populist Reform UK Party.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has conceded defeat in the UK national election, saying the opposition Labour Party had won.
“The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory,” Sunak said after winning his 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.
Sunak said the British people had delivered “a sobering verdict”.
“There is much to learn and reflect on and I take responsibility for the loss,” he said.
“To the many good hard working Conservative candidates who lost tonight despite their tireless efforts... I am sorry.”
Concluding his speech in North Yorkshire, where he retained his seat, Sunak said: “I will now head down to London where I will say more about tonight’s vote before I leave the job of Prime Minister to which I have given my all.
“I will then return here to my family’s home and I look forward to spending more time with you all in the weeks, months and years ahead.”
Latest poll figures show the majority of voters were eager to enact change. A final YouGov projection before polls opened shows that the Labour Party was on track for the biggest majority of any party in the country since 1832.
Starmer: ‘I will speak out for you’
“I will speak out for you, have your back, fight your corner, every single day.”
That’s what the man tipped to be the United Kingdom’s next Prime Minister told his constituents in his victory speech after winning his seat of Holborn & St Pancras with a majority of 11,572.
Starmer is due to have a majority of 170 MPs, according to an exit poll.
Starmer told his constituents: “I promise this: Whether you voted for me or not, I will serve every person in this constituency. The mothers I sat with who have lost children to knife crime, the pensioners who can’t get the doctors appointments they desperately need, the local businesses who have struggled so hard to keep their head above water.
Earlier
Top of mind for voters are issues such as the cost of living, the state of the country’s National Health Service (NHS), and immigration policies, among other topics.
YouGov polling has found that almost three-quarters of people believe the country is worse off now than it was 14 years ago when Conservatives took Government.
The country has had five different Prime Ministers in the last 14 years, including Liz Truss, who lasted only 49 days and could not outlast a lettuce. In that time, the country also went through nine different Foreign Secretaries and eight Home Secretaries.
According to YouGov projections, some of the biggest names in the Conservative Party could be about to lose their seats in the House of Commons, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
If those projections are correct, Starmer will be the most successful Labour leader in electoral terms, winning a projected 431 seats, overtaking the record set by Sir Tony Blair in 1997, when he won 419 seats.
YouGov also projects the Tories will get 102 seats, a far cry from the 365 elected under Boris Johnson in 2019.
Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats are projected to get 72 seats, while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could get three seats, one more than the Greens.
Who is Keir Starmer, the man polls say could be the UK’s next Prime Minister?
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC is a barrister and a politician. He has been the leader of the Labour Party in the UK since 2020, when he took over the party leadership from Jeremy Corbyn.
The 61-year-old was Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras between 2015 and 2024, and was previously Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
The son of a nurse and a toolmaker, he is a married father-of-two.
His parents were both Labour Party supporters and he is said to have been named after the party’s founder, Keir Hardie.
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer on the campaign trail in Macclesfield. Photo / Supplied
He had a fairly blue collar upbringing and claims to never have forgotten his humble roots, even as he ascended in his career as a human rights lawyer.
“We didn’t have a lot when we were growing up,” he said in a speech last month. “I know what it feels like to be embarrassed to bring your mates home because the carpet is threadbare and the windows cracked.”
Much has been written about the man set to become Britain’s Prime Minister but perhaps the most curious rumour is that he was the inspiration behind Mark Darcy, the character played by Colin Firth in Bridget Jones’ Diary.
Author Helen Fielding, who penned the Bridget Jones booked, has quashed the rumour, although she admitted she thought Starmer and Darcy were very similar.
In an interview with the Radio Times in 2020, Fielding said Starmer reminded her of Darcy. “Well, I think he’s fantastic. But no, I’ve never met him. They are very similar, though. He’s so good and decent and intelligent, but so buttoned up. I always want to say: ‘Come on, Keir, loosen your tie, ruffle up your hair.’ He doesn’t think of himself as sexy, but he’s really sexy. And when he and Boris spar, it does remind me of Mark and Daniel,” she said.
Starmer is a vegetarian, a football fan, and a self-described socialist.
