Live Updates: Labour Party Wins U.K. Election, With Landslide Projected

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London, England July 5, 6:49 a.m.

Live Updates: Labour Party Wins U.K. Election, With Landslide Projected Keir Starmer will be Britain's next prime minister, ending 14 years of Conservative government. Rishi Sunak, the outgoing prime minister, apologized for his party's campaign performance.

Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Pool photo by Darren Staples Andrew Testa for The New York Times Andrew Testa for The New York Times Mary Turner for The New York Times Mary Turner for The New York Times Mary Turner for The New York Times Mary Turner for The New York Times Andrew Testa for The New York Times July 5, 2024, 1:01 a.m. ET July 5, 2024, 1:01 a.m. ET Mark Landler and

Britain's Labour Party was on course to win a landslide election victory Friday morning, sweeping the Conservative Party out of power after 14 years in an anti-incumbent revolt that heralded a new era in British politics. The outgoing prime minister, Rishi Sunak, appearing tired and somber, conceded his party's national defeat in the early morning hours, shortly before the Labour Party's parliamentary majority was confirmed. "The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight," Mr. Sunak said from his constituency.

He said that he had called Keir Starmer, the Labour leader and incoming prime minister to congratulate him. Mr. Sunak, who won his local constituency, said he would travel to London to deliver his formal resignation to King Charles III and apologized for his party's performance.

Mr. Starmer, appearing before a crowd of supporters, promised to "rebuild our country," adding: "Change begins now."

Partial results indicated that Labour was on course to win more than 400 of the 650 seats in the British House of Commons, versus less than 150 for the Conservatives.

That would be the worst defeat for the Conservatives in the nearly 200-year history of the party, raising questions about its future. Reform U.K., an insurgent, anti-immigration party, was projected to win four seats but a significant share of the vote, a robust performance that came at the expense of the Conservatives. The magnitude of the Tory defeat will reverberate through Britain for months, if not years.

Here's what else to know:

Labour's makeover: For Mr. Starmer, a low-key lawyer who only entered Parliament in 2015, it was a remarkable vindication of his four-year project to pull the Labour Party away from the left-wing policies of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, and rebrand it as a plausible alternative to the increasingly erratic rule of the Conservatives.

Right-wing ferment: Reform U.K.'s strong showing was a victory for Nigel Farage , the party's leader and a veteran political disrupter who won a seat after failing in seven previous bids to get into Parliament. From his new perch, Mr. Farage could try to poach the remnants of the debilitated Conservatives.

Unhappy electorate: Voters expressed frustration with the torpid economy , a major increase in immigration following Britain's departure from the European Union and an overburdened National Health Service , which resulted in long waiting times for patients.

July 5, 2024, 1:43 a.m. ET July 5, 2024, 1:43 a.m. ET Reporting from London The Conservatives' reversal of fortune is apparent in the "red wall," a set of coal and factory towns in the Midlands and north of England that long voted for the Labour Party but swung dramatically to the Conservatives in 2019.

Initial results indicate that many of these voters flocked back to Labour, whose party color is red, in this election. Labour was also helped by a strong performance for Reform U.K., the upstart right wing-party that cut into the Conservatives' vote share and retained one seat in a Midlands former mining area.

In Bolsover, the Labour candidate, Natalie Fleet, defeated the Conservative incumbent who had swept into office in 2019, Mark Fletcher, winning just over 40 percent of the vote.

Ms. Fleet, 40, is a working-class product of the Midlands. A onetime single mother who had a child at 16, she ran for a seat in the neighboring district of Ashfield in 2019, falling victim to the Conservative rout. This time, Ms. Fleet said in brief comments to The New York Times before the election, the mood among voters was so much better that her youngest child, who is 10, joined her in knocking on doors.

When a Times journalist visited the area weeks before the election, it was clear that residents had yet to adjust to the changes wrought by immigration. In Shirebrook, a onetime mining town that is one of Bolsover's poorer precincts, a sporting-goods company hired hundreds of workers from Eastern Europe to staff a large warehouse more than a decade ago, and memories of that linger.

"The Conservatives have policies that we agree with," Alison Owen said, citing immigration. But Ms. Owen, 52, a restaurant supervisor who was playing bingo at a social club that serves former miners, said, "We're Labour, through and through."

Key Players › Rishi Sunak Prime minister and Conservative Party leader

Keir Starmer Labour Party leader

Nigel Farage Reform U.K. leader

Ed Davey Liberal Democrats leader

uly 5, 2024, 1:15 a.m. ET July 5, 2024, 1:15 a.m. ET Reporting from London Britain's outgoing chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt , narrowly held onto his seat in Parliament on Friday, in a testament to the extraordinarily difficult political environment facing the Conservative Party in Britain's general election.

Mr. Hunt won 42.6 percent of the vote in Godalming and Ash, a new constituency created after local boundaries were redrawn, but that includes much of the area he has represented since 2005. The candidate placing second, Paul Follows of the centrist Liberal Democrats, took 41 percent.

With picture-postcard villages, country pubs and an unmistakable air of affluence, there are few greater strongholds for the Conservatives than Surrey, where voters chose Mr. Hunt as a lawmaker in five consecutive elections. But this campaign, he told The New York Times in an interview last month, "was definitely the toughest it's ever been."

The fact that the second most powerful man in the government saw himself as the underdog was testament to the scale of the threat facing the Conservatives.

Angry at economic stagnation, the impact of Brexit and a crisis in public services after years of government austerity, many traditional Tory voters were deserting the party in the prosperous English districts that have long provided its most reliable support, according to pre-election opinion polls.

In places like Chiddingfold — a leafy village 50 miles southwest of London where the local pub dates from the 14th century — the most potent election threat came not from Labour but from the centrist Liberal Democrats, or Lib Dems, whose poll ratings had been rising before the election. The party's more moderate brand of politics is more palatable to conservative-leaning voters unwilling to switch to Labour.

uly 4, 2024, 11:50 p.m. ET July 4, 2024, 11:50 p.m. ET Rishi Sunak, the outgoing British prime minister, conceded his Conservatives party's defeat early Friday, while holding onto his seat in Parliament.

Mr. Sunak took 47.5 percent of the vote in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in northern England. Although he won by a slimmer margin, it was likely a relief for Mr. Sunak, who was reportedly worried about maintaining his once-safe seat in the days leading up to the vote.

But it was also a somber moment, as Mr. Sunak acknowledged in his acceptance speech for his seat that his party had lost. "The Labour Party has won this general election," Mr. Sunak declared, adding that he had called Keir Starmer, the Labour leader and incoming prime minister to congratulate him.

Few in Richmond expected his ouster from Parliament. Mr. Sunak's Conservative Party has long held sway in the rural Yorkshire area. If he had lost the race, he would have been the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat in Parliament.

"If they put a billy goat in for Richmond, Conservative, it would get in," said Lawrence Hathaway, 94. "It's always been Conservative."

But this year Mr. Sunak — a multimillionaire whom opponents have painted as failing to understand the needs of ordinary people — was facing historic headwinds after 14 years of Conservative leadership. The party presided over a tumultuous exit from the European Union and Britain has wrestled with a cost of living crisis for years, with inflation reaching 11.1 percent in 2022 and only recently returning to target levels.

Opinion polls indicated that voters were also frustrated by the government's mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic , worried about their health-care system and exasperated by the leadership of Mr. Sunak's predecessor, Liz Truss , who lasted only 45 days in office.

In Richmond, some felt that Mr. Sunak was being blamed for problems that started before his tenure and go much deeper than any one prime minister could handle.

"Most people here like Rishi Sunak," said Barbara Richmond, 70, who has a holiday home nearby, though she does not vote in Richmond.

"For most Yorkshire people, it's family first," she said. "And he's a family man."

But many were fed up with scandals that have plagued the Conservative Party. There was "Partygate," in which Boris Johnson and his staff at Downing Street broke the government's own lockdown rules during the pandemic, helping trigger Mr. Johnson's downfall . There was the economic chaos unleashed by Ms. Truss's ill-advised tax cut plan. And in recent weeks, Conservative staff members were alleged to have made bets about the timing of the snap election.

"I'm very exasperated," said Carol Sheard, a retired woman in her 70s, who votes in Mr. Sunak's constituency. "It's like a circus."

Even some of Mr. Sunak's supporters were lukewarm on him. On the campaign trail, the prime minister made a number of missteps, including leaving the D-Day commemorations early . Immensely wealth y, he often seemed unable to connect with ordinary voters.

"He's so out of touch," said John Morrison, 86. But he said he had still voted Conservative.

"Like a lot of people, I held my nose and voted for Rishi," he said. "He's the best of a bad lot."

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uly 4, 2024, 10:40 p.m. ET July 4, 2024, 10:40 p.m. ET Jeremy Corbyn, an independent candidate running for Parliament, won his seat against a candidate from the Labour party, which he once led.

It was a vindication for Mr. Corbyn, who was running for the first time against the party he led from 2015 to 2020.

Mr. Corbyn, who has held the seat since 1983, was suspended as Labour leader and eventually purged by the party over his response to allegations of antisemitism during his tenure.

For many in his constituency — an area of London with pockets of deep wealth alongside deprivation — the race meant choosing between a longstanding affinity for Labour and a politician who had represented the area for more than 40 years and was a deeply familiar presence in the community. For others, Mr. Corbyn's handling of alleged antisemitism on the hard-left of the Labour Party while he was its leader was an enduring stain on his reputation.

Heading into Election Day, a poll by YouGov had declared the race to be a tossup, with the Labour candidate, Praful Nargund, holding a slight lead over Mr. Corbyn.

Paul Anthony Ogunwemimo, who said he had lived in the area for 14 years, called Mr. Corbyn "a very nice man." But he had voted for the Labour candidate on Thursday, he said, largely to support Keir Starmer, who replaced Mr. Corbyn as the head of the party.

Hibbah Filli, who was born and raised in Mr. Corbyn's constituency, said many of her friends and family members had voted for him in the past as "more of a Labour thing." Voting for the first time on Thursday, she said she had backed Mr. Corbyn.

"I feel like he's very dedicated to the community," she said. "I feel like he's done a good job for a long time, and I feel like we need a diverse range of voices in Parliament."

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uly 4, 2024, 5:25 p.m. ET July 4, 2024, 5:25 p.m. ET Stephen Castle , Mark Landler and

Keir Starmer is set to become the next prime minister of Britain, after his Labour Party delivered a decisive win in the general election on Thursday.

"Across our country, people will be waking up to the news that a weight has been lifted, a burden finally removed from the shoulders of this nation," a jubilant Mr. Starmer told supporters in central London in the early hours of Friday morning.

Using the analogy of a rising "sunlight of hope," pale at first and getting stronger, he said the country had "an opportunity after 14 years to get its future back."

Mr. Starmer will replace the outgoing prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who took office less than two years ago and called Mr. Starmer to congratulate him.

Mr. Starmer, a 61-year-old former human rights lawyer, has led a remarkable turnaround for the Labour Party, which just a few years ago suffered its worst election defeat since the 1930s. He has pulled the party to the political center while capitalizing on the failings of three Conservative prime ministers.

"He has been ferociously — some would say tediously — boring in his discipline," Jill Rutter, a research fellow at the London research group U.K. in a Changing Europe, told The New York Times recently . "He's not going to set hearts racing, but he does look relatively prime-ministerial."

Mr. Starmer was raised in a left-wing, working-class family in Surrey, outside London. He was not close with his father; his mother, a nurse, suffered a debilitating illness that took her in and out of the hospital. Mr. Starmer became the first college graduate in his family, studying first at Leeds University, and then law at Oxford.

He was named after Keir Hardie, a Scottish trade unionist who was Labour's first leader. As a young lawyer, he represented protesters accused of libel by McDonald's. He later rose to become Britain's chief prosecutor and was awarded a knighthood.

Elected to Parliament in 2015, he succeeded the left-wing Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader in 2020 and began remaking the party. He dropped Mr. Corbyn's proposal to nationalize Britain's energy companies and promised not to raise taxes on working families. He committed to supporting Britain's military, hoping to banish an anti-patriotic label that clung to Labour during the Corbyn era.

Mr. Starmer also rooted out the antisemitism that had contaminated the party's ranks under Mr. Corbyn. Though he has not drawn a link between that and his personal life, his wife, Victoria Starmer, comes from a Jewish family in London.

In his early morning speech on Friday, he told supporters that it was the deep changes in the party that had allowed for the decisive victory, but he added that now, the hard work would begin. "I don't promise you it will be easy. Changing a country is not like flipping a switch," he said. "We will have to get moving immediately."

uly 4, 2024, 4:30 p.m. ET July 4, 2024, 4:30 p.m. ET Esther Bintliff and

Thursday's general election is a pivotal moment for Britain after 14 years of Conservative Party government. Polls suggest that the center-left Labour Party is set to return to power in what would be a fundamental realignment of British politics.

Millions of voters in 650 constituencies are voting for candidates to represent them as members of Parliament. The political party that wins the most seats usually forms Britain's next government, and that party's leader also becomes prime minister.

To win an overall majority, a party must secure 326 seats. If the top party falls short of that, it can try to form a government with backing from other parties.

Here's a look at the key parties and players in the race:

Conservative Party Leader: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak

Mr. Sunak took office in October 2022, succeeding Liz Truss, whose sweeping tax cut plan spooked the financial markets and forced her out of office after just seven weeks. But Britain's high mortgage rates and stagnant economy have persisted, and under Mr. Sunak, the Conservatives have suffered stinging losses in parliamentary special elections and elections for mayors and local councils .

Defenders of Mr. Sunak , 44, say he is a victim of the global economic headwinds coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, and argue that he deserves credit for steadying the markets. But critics say he never followed that up with a convincing strategy to recharge growth. Nor did he fulfill two other promises: to cut waiting times in the National Health Service and to stop the small boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel. Some say that Mr. Sunak, a onetime Goldman Sachs banker whose wife is the daughter of an Indian technology billionaire, is simply not relatable.

Labour Party Leader: Keir Starmer

Labour has maintained a double-digit lead in the polls for more than 18 months . Mr. Starmer, 61, a former public prosecutor and human rights lawyer, has methodically repositioned the party as a center-left alternative to the divided, erratic, sometimes extremist Conservatives. If Labour prevails, Mr. Starmer would become the party's first prime minister since Gordon Brown left office in 2010.

A Labour government would operate under strict financial constraints , which has raised questions about whether Mr. Starmer would have to raise taxes to pay for promised investments in the N.H.S. and other public services. While he has issued a blanket promise not to raise taxes on "working people," Labour is expected to raise taxes on oil and gas companies, private equity firms and high-income foreigners who live in Britain.

Reform U.K. Leader: Nigel Farage

A small anti-immigration party, Reform has risen in the polls in recent months, and Conservative officials fear it could siphon away supporters from their candidates. Mr. Farage, a champion of Brexit and a vocal supporter of Donald J. Trump, originally said he would not run in the election, but changed course last month when he announced he would stand for Parliament in Clacton , a small seaside town where 70 percent of voters chose Brexit in 2016. That has shaken up the race and could help Labour by dividing the right-wing vote.

Liberal Democrats Leader: Ed Davey

The Liberal Democrats, a small centrist party, are well placed to win seats in affluent areas like Surrey, where right-leaning voters find the party more palatable than Labour. The Lib Dems made health and social care major priorities of their campaign, and were helped by Mr. Davey, 58, who spoke movingly about his personal struggles, including caring for his disabled teenage son. He also subjected himself to publicity stunts, including bungee jumping and paddle boarding, trying to draw attention away from the party's bigger rivals.

Other parties In Scotland, the once-dominant Scottish National Party has been weakened by a funding scandal and the departure of Nicola Sturgeon as first minister, giving Labour a chance of picking up more seats there and easing Mr. Starmer's path to becoming prime minister. The Green Party made sizable gains in local elections in early May, and pre-election polling suggested that it was picking up support among left-wing voters , especially 18- to 24-year-olds, alienated by Labour's move to the center.

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