The UK’s ruling Conservative Party suffered an historic defeat in Thursday’s election, according to exit polling, with Keir Starmer’s Labour Party the primary beneficiary of the collapse in support.
Exit surveys predicted the party of current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will lose a stunning 234 seats, the worst result in the party’s history, leaving it with an estimated 131 members in the House of Commons. The Labour Party, meanwhile, is expected to end the night with about 410 seats, returning the party to power for the first time since its defeat in 2010 under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
“We’ve not really given enough thought to what the electorate wants,” said one unidentified Tory minister quoted by Politico. “Some of it is our own mismanagement.”
“No two ways about it, it’s a catastrophic comedown even from the turn of the year,” said another. “Over-promoted ex-[advisers] who steered us at full tilt into this iceberg should be exiled to Ascension… or somewhere a little more remote.”
““We will go through a grieving process, then we will have to at some point earn the right to be heard again,” said Conservative minister Steve Baker to the BBC.
Sunak has been criticized by party members for calling the risky early election. The British Prime Minister, the wealthiest in history and the country’s first leader of Indian descent, has ruled without an electoral mandate since the resignation of his predecessor Liz Truss in 2022. Truss, herself an unelected Prime Minister, resigned after less than two months in power, symbolizing the highly chaotic nature of UK politics since former Tory leader Boris Johnson’s ascent to power in 2019.
“People wanted change and people have voted for that in large numbers,” said Labour MP Rachel Reeves, who is set to become chancellor in Starmer’s cabinet.
Indeed, exit polling indicates the desire for change was the primary motivating factor in Thursday’s election, with the Labour Party sailing to victory despite perhaps the lowest voter turnout ever recorded.
Defenders of former party leader Jeremy Corbyn have pointed out that Starmer’s Labour Party won Thursday with a lower share of the popular vote than the 40% garnered during the party’s narrow loss under Corbyn in 2017. But the UK’s first-past-the-post electoral system rewarded Starmer’s strength in more rural constituencies whereas support for Labour under Corbyn was more concentrated among younger voters in urban areas.
Labour was also granted an assist this year from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which split the right-of-center vote. The populist party surprised observers with its better than expected performance, winning 13 seats and pushing the Conservative Party into third place in many constituencies.
Starmer has earned the ire of many Labour supporters for expelling Corbyn from the Labour Party over his response to a concocted antisemitism “crisis” in the party. Corbyn was opposed by Zionist donors in the UK, who rejected his defense of the Palestinian cause.
“The [Zionist] lobby’s campaign against Corbyn got help from the Israeli government, British intelligence, and the entire British media, including the liberal Guardian newspaper, the BBC, the right wing of the Labour Party, and even the CIA,” reported the website Modoweiss.
“The public deserves answers about the UK’s new opposition leader and his relationship with the British national security establishment, including the MI5 and the Times newspaper,” wrote journalist Matt Kennard in 2020, criticizing Starmer’s links to British intelligence services. Corbyn ran for reelection Thursday against Labour Party candidate Praful Nargund, a venture capitalist veteran of the UK’s private healthcare industry recruited to unseat the leftist MP.
Starmer’s allies have signaled the party will promote neoliberal policy during his time as prime minister, with Reeves claiming the UK will be a “safe haven” for wealthy investors. “Starmer has promised to work with business to stimulate growth, with an agenda that includes planning reform and state investment in green technology,” reported the Financial Times.
“Labour will also pursue a traditional agenda of reforms to worker rights,” the newspaper added, without elaborating.
Results indicate Corbyn will win reelection in his Islington North constituency, maintaining a platform in parliament to criticize Labour’s establishment-oriented leader and his support for Israel's deadly military operation in Gaza.