Historic landslide victory in UK general election gives UK centre-left a boost

Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks at the Tate Modern in London on Friday to celebrate his victory in the 2024 general election.

Ricky Vigil/Getty Images Europe

LONDON – A shockwave through British politics.

While the far right is on the rise across the Channel in France, Britain is leaning in the opposite direction. Official election results on Friday showed a landslide victory for the centre-left Labour party, its first in the 19 years of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s leadership. Future Prime Minister Keir Starmer described his victory as historic early on Friday, saying “change starts now”. “We can look forward again.” “Go in the morning,” Starmer told supporters before sunrise.

For the Conservative party of Margaret Thatcher, Boris Johnson and the current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, this was almost the worst defeat ever in their party’s 200-year history. Prominent members of parliament including former prime ministers Liz Truss, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Penny Mordaunt have lost their seats in British Parliament. Mr Sunak kept his seat but resigned as Conservative leader on Friday and apologised to the country.

“I’m sorry. “I have given my all to this job but you have sent a clear signal that the British government needs to change,” Mr Sunak told reporters during his final remaining visit to Downing Street, home to his wife. “I hear your anger and disappointment and I take responsibility for this loss.”

Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, spoke in Northallerton, northern England, early on Friday morning after retaining his council seats in Richmond and Northallerton.

The Conservative Party, in power for 14 years, was punished at the polls for all the mayhem that occurred during its tenure. Johnson’s Partygate scandal, in which the then-Prime Minister hosted parties and lied during the COVID-19 lockdown. And Johnson’s successor Liz Truss’ disastrous 2022 budget shocked financial markets. The United Nations says there are now more children living in poverty in the UK than in any other wealthy country. Without London we’d be poorer than Mississippi.

The election also upended Britain’s two-party system and led to a surge in support for smaller parties. The Environmental Green Party had its most successful election night ever, winning a record four seats compared to one in the previous parliament. The centrist Liberal Democrats were able to increase their number of MPs in parliament.

And the far-right, anti-immigration Reform UK Party will enter its first parliament with four seats, including one for Nigel Farage, the party’s leader and Brexit supporter, who had previously run unsuccessfully seven times.

In Scotland, the once-dominant Scottish National Party, which campaigned for Scottish independence from the UK, collapsed, with Labour winning most of the SNP’s seats.

In Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, the nationalist Sinn Féin party, which seeks independence for Northern Ireland from the UK and the annexation of Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland in the south, won the most seats, making it the region’s largest party. Party in the UK parliament.

But it was not a major win for Labor, as anger over the Gaza war delivered shocking losses to the party on a triumphant night, with the party losing four former strongholds to independent, pro-Palestinian candidates.