UK Election: Big win for Labour, historic loss for Rishi Sunak’s party: Exit poll

London:

Keir Starmer will be Britain’s next prime minister, with his Labor Party poised to win a huge majority in parliamentary elections, an exit poll indicated on Thursday, while Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are set to suffer historic losses.

The poll showed Labor would win 410 seats in the 650-seat parliament, ending 14 years of Conservative-led government.

Sunak’s party was predicted to hold just 131 seats, down from 346 when parliament was dissolved, as voters punish the Conservatives for a cost-of-living crisis and years of instability and infighting that have seen five different prime ministers since 2016.

In the last six national elections, only one exit poll has revealed wrong results – in 2015, when the poll predicted a hung parliament, when in fact the Conservatives won a majority. The official results will be released in the next few hours.

Sunak surprised Westminster and many in his own party by calling the election earlier than necessary, in May, with the Conservatives trailing Labor by around 20 points in opinion polls.

He expected the gap to narrow, as has traditionally been the case in British elections, but the deficit failed to narrow in a rather disastrous campaign.

It started badly, with him being drenched in rain outside Downing Street as he announced the vote, before Tory aides and candidates were caught up in a gambling scandal over suspicious bets placed on the election date.

Sunak’s early departure from D-Day commemoration events in France to give a television interview angered veterans, and even those within his own party said it raised questions about his political acumen.

Although polls suggest there is little enthusiasm for Labor leader Starmer, his simple message that it was time for change appears to have resonated with voters.

Unlike in France, where Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party won historic victories in last Sunday’s elections, the disenchanted British public appears to have moved to the center-left.

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