Britain's Labour Party wins in a landslide
The Conservatives were unseated after 14 years of rule
What happened
Britain's center-left Labour Party won Thursday's national election in a landslide, unseating the Conservatives after 14 years of increasingly tumultuous rule. Labour claimed at least 412 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, making Keir Starmer the next prime minister.
With two seats left to tally, the Conservatives had won just 121 seats, the party's poorest showing ever. Several prominent Tories lost their reelection bids, including Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, Brexit champion Jacob Rees-Mogg and the previous prime minister, Liz Truss. The new hard-right, anti-immigrant Reform UK took four seats, with leader Nigel Farage becoming a member of Parliament on his eighth try.
Who said what
"Change begins now," Starmer, 61, told supporters after Labour reached the 326 seats required for a governing majority. "Thank you, truly — you have changed our country." Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had called Starmer to congratulate him on his win after British voters "delivered a sobering verdict."
Since Brexit, "politics in Britain has been a clown show, and today, its voters decided it was time for the circus to move on," Helen Lewis said at The Atlantic. Starmer's government will have a "commanding majority but a demoralizing inbox" of economic problems to tackle, while the Tories "spend the next few days asking what the hell went wrong," perhaps taking solace in the fact that their loss was more a "punishment for their incompetence" than a "defeat for their ideology."
What next?
Sunak said he would tender his resignation to King Charles III at Buckingham Palace this morning. The king would then ask Starmer to form the next government. The new prime minister should be in 10 Downing Street by around midday Friday.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Syria’s Kurds: abandoned by their US allyTalking Point Ahmed al-Sharaa’s lightning offensive against Syrian Kurdistan belies his promise to respect the country’s ethnic minorities
-
The ‘mad king’: has Trump finally lost it?Talking Point Rambling speeches, wind turbine obsession, and an ‘unhinged’ letter to Norway’s prime minister have caused concern whether the rest of his term is ‘sustainable’
-
5 highly hypocritical cartoons about the Second AmendmentCartoons Artists take on Kyle Rittenhouse, the blame game, and more
-
How long can Keir Starmer last as Labour leader?Today's Big Question Pathway to a coup ‘still unclear’ even as potential challengers begin manoeuvring into position
-
Judge tosses DOJ petition for Oregon voter dataSpeed Read The decision was made following a letter sent by the DOJ to Minnesota
-
Trump inches back ICE deployment in MinnesotaSpeed Read The decision comes following the shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE agents
-
Trump sues JPMorgan for $5B over ‘debanking’Speed Read Trump accused the company of closing his accounts for political reasons
-
Minnesota roiled by arrests of child, church protestersSpeed Read A 5-year-old was among those arrested
-
Migrant death in ICE custody ruled homicideSpeed Read Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, died of asphyxia, the coroner said
-
ICE memo OKs forcible entry without warrantSpeed Read The secret memo was signed last May
-
DOGE shared Social Security data, DOJ saysSpeed Read The Justice Department issued what it called ‘corrections’ on the matter
