Sky News reported, citing the Electoral Commission, that the leader of the British Labor Party, Keir Starmer, who is running for the position of Prime Minister, has been elected as a member of Parliament for his electoral district.
Starmer received 18,800 votes in the Holborn and St Pancras constituency, with independent candidate Andrew Feinstein in second place with 7,300 votes, and Green Party representative David Stansell in third place with 4,000 votes.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was defeated by a Labour candidate, becoming the first Conservative government minister to lose his seat in Parliament.
According to the channel, Shapps won 16,000 votes in his constituency, but his main rival in the Labour Party, Andrew Lowen, won regarding 20,000 votes.
Shapps, a senior figure in the Conservative Party, which has been in power for 14 years, is a staunch supporter of outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and has been defence minister since August 2023, having held several key portfolios in recent years. He was defeated in his north London constituency by a Labour candidate.
According to the poll results published by British television, the Labor Party will win 410 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons, far ahead of the Conservatives, whose share will be limited to 131 seats in their worst electoral result since the beginning of the twentieth century.
In turn, the anti-immigrant Reform Britain party achieved a better-than-expected result, winning 13 parliamentary seats, according to the poll.
This result opens the door wide for the Labor Party to form a government, while it represents a resounding defeat for the Conservatives, whose share of MPs has shrunk from 365 MPs elected 5 years ago to only 131 MPs.
The Liberal Democrats will win 61 seats in the next parliament.
Starmer was quick to thank his voters and the former lawyer will take office as prime minister just nine years following entering politics and four years as Labour leader.
Starmer said the UK was “ready for change”.
“Voters here and across the country have spoken and are ready for change, for an end to showboat politics, and for a return to politics as a service to the public,” he said in a speech in north London.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran leftist who was suspended from the party following an anti-Semitism scandal, won a seat in parliament on Friday as an independent candidate.
Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform Party, won the parliamentary elections on his eighth attempt.
“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the coming years,” he said.
The Conservatives have angered the British following five party leaders headed the government in the country in 14 years.
Voters are looking for change because of austerity policies, the cost of living crisis, and the crumbling public health system, which has prompted the Conservatives in recent days to acknowledge that they are not seeking to win, but rather to limit the majority that the Labour Party will achieve.
Labour Party leader Rishi Sunak congratulated Starmer on his party’s landslide victory in the British elections, saying: “I take responsibility for the results of this election. I called the Labour Party leader to congratulate him on his party’s victory in yesterday’s elections. The Labour Party won the elections and our party is facing a crushing defeat.”
Source: AFP, Agencies
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2024-07-05 16:50:08
