Labour Party wins UK election in a landslide

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has appointed Rachel Reeves as the country's first female finance minister, as he assembles his cabinet following Labour's landslide election victory.

Starmer appointed Angela Rayner as his deputy prime minister and she will also serve as secretary for levelling up, housing and communities.

Other senior appointments so far include Yvette Cooper as interior minister, otherwise known as home secretary. Starmer named David Lammy as the U.K.'s foreign minister and John Healey as defense minister.

—  Vicky McKeever

Newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer thanked his predecessor Rishi Sunak in his inauguration speech at Downing Street on Friday but also made note of how much work needs to be done on the U.K. economy, trade and on international relations.

Next week, Starmer will head to Washington for the NATO summit, marking the 75^th anniversary of the alliance.

—  Vicky McKeever

We're signing off now after 16 hours of live updates. See below for more coverage on the U.K. election:

• Britain's Labour pulled off a thumping election victory with just 34% of the national vote
• What a new Labour government means for investing in the UK
• Outgoing UK PM Rishi Sunak quits as Conservative Party leader after crushing election defeat
• Who is Labour's Keir Starmer, the new leader of Britain?
• Goldman Sachs upgrades UK growth forecast after huge Labour election win
• Trump ally Nigel Farage elected to British parliament for first time
• While much of Europe embraces hard-right parties, the UK has just swung to the left. Here's why

Thanks for staying with us!

Britain needs a "bigger reset," newly-minted Prime Minister Keir Starmer said during his inauguration speech at Downing Street on Friday, shortly after receiving a royal mandate to form a government.

"It is surely clear to everyone that our country needs a bigger reset, a rediscovery of who we are," he said, vowing that his Labour Party will serve "country first, party second."

"You have given us a clear mandate, and we will use it to deliver change. To restore service and respect to politics, in the era of noisy performance," Starmer added, urging followers to join his "government of service in the mission of national renewal."

The Labour Party assumes leadership of a Britain that has been rattled by Brexit negotiations, the Covid-19 pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis fueled by the war in Ukraine during 14 years of rule under the rival Conservative faction.

"Our work is urgent, and we begin it today," Starmer said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Labour's Keir Starmer paid tribute to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his first speech after accepting King Charles III's invitation to form a new government.

"[Sunak's] achievement as the first British Asian prime minister of our country, the extra effort that will have required, should not be underestimated by anyone. We pay tribute to that today," Starmer said during an address outside Downing Street.

"We also recognize the dedication and hard work he brought to his leadership," Starmer said.

- April Roach

Labour Party's Keir Starmer met with King Charles III on Friday and was formally appointed as U.K. prime minister after Rishi Sunak tendered his resignation.

King Charles asked Starmer to form a new government, Buckingham Palace said in a statement, according to NBC News reporting.

— April Roach

Jari Stehn, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs, discusses the economic and fiscal landscape in the U.K. as Labour wins the 2024 general election.

King Charles III accepted Rishi Sunak's resignation as prime minister, according to NBC News reporting.

After a final speech at Downing Street, Sunak arrived at Buckingham Palace for a private royal audience in the company of his wife Akshata Murty.

Sunak has also announced intentions to step down as leader of the Conservative Party, which on Friday mourns the end of 14 years at the country's helm. He did not specify when he will leave this post.

King Charles will later in the day receive incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer and officially request him to form a government.

— Ruxandra Iordache

In his last speech as prime minister, Rishi Sunak stressed Britain's economic improvements during his tenure at the country's helm, after the nation's financial outlook emerged as a critical theme of both the Conservative and Labour electoral campaigns.

"When I first stood here as your prime minister, I told you the most important task I had was to return stability to our economy. Inflation is back to target, mortgage rates have falling and growth has returned," Sunak said.

British headline inflation fell to the Bank of England's 2% target in May, raising expectations for when the central bank might begin trimming interest rates. Britain has weathered a number of economic hardships under the Conservative leadership, from the Covid-19 pandemic to inflationary pressures driven by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and ensuing spikes in global energy prices.

"I believe this country is safer, stronger and more secure than it was 20 months ago. And it is more prosperous, fairer and resilient than it was in 2010," Sunak said Friday.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced Friday he will be stepping down as Conservative Party leader as soon as the formal arrangements have been made for selecting his successor.

"This is a difficult day, at the end of a number of difficult days," Sunak said during an address outside Downing Street. "But I leave this job honored to have been your prime minister."

"To all the conservative candidates and campaigners who worked tirelessly but without success, I am sorry that we could not deliver what your efforts deserved," he added.

- April Roach

Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed he will shortly offer his resignation and assumed responsibility for his party's loss in the Thursday national elections.

"To the country, I would like to say first and foremost, I am sorry," he said in his final speech at Downing Street.

"You have sent a clear signal that the government of the U.K. must change, and yours is the only judgement that matters. I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss," he said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Yields on 10-year British government bonds, known as gilts, dipped modestly in the wake of the Labour Party's majority win in Thursday's national vote, joining a muted response from the British currency.

The yield on the 10-year gilt fell just under 4 basis points to 4.166% at 10:22 a.m.

Markets appear to have largely priced in a Labour victory following supportive poll projections in the weeks ahead of the election. Focus may also be shifting toward the release of U.S. jobs data due out later on Friday.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Goldman Sachs upgraded its growth forecast for the U.K. after the Labour Party's landslide victory in the country's general election.

The investment bank said in a note released early on Friday morning that it expected Labour's fiscal policy agenda to provide a "modest boost to demand growth in the near-term" and raised its gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts for the U.K. by 0.1 percentage points in both 2025 and 2026.

"Reforms to the planning system could boost housebuilding and productivity; higher public sector investment could lift potential output; and closer trade ties with the EU could mitigate some of the costs of Brexit," Goldman Sachs economists said in the note.

However, the economists said that they "see risks that possible further increases in taxation could affect incentives to invest and Labour's pledge to reduce net migration could weigh on labour supply."

At the same time, they added that it was "difficult to gauge the magnitude of the effects of these policies on growth without further policy details."

— Vicky McKeever

CNBC's Arabile Gumede sets the scene at Downing Street, as Labour's Keir Starmer is set to move in as the newly elected prime minister.

French President Emmanuel Macron extended his congratulations to Keir Starmer, saying he is "pleased" with the two leaders' first discussion.

"We will continue the work begun with the U.K. for our bilateral cooperation, for peace and security in Europe, for the climate and for AI," the French premier said.

Macron faces his own trial by fire on Sunday, by way of the second round of the French snap election he called after his party suffered a decisive defeat in the European Parliament vote. The far-right anti-immigration National Rally faction presided by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella recorded a surge in popular support during the first go at the polls on June 30.

Macron is expected to remain in office until 2027, irrespective of the vote outcome — making him the primary diplomatic point of contact for the incoming British prime minister.

— Ruxandra Iordache

— Sophie Kiderlin

No. 10 has laid out the schedule for Friday's breakneck transition between the Conservative and Labour administrations.

Departing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to make a final statement near 10:30 a.m. London time before tendering his resignation to King Charles III in Buckingham Palace.

Keir Starmer will then arrive at the palace for his own royal audience, during which the king will officially ask him to form a new government.

After this, Britain's new prime minister will arrive at Downing Street and is expected to make a statement near 12:20 p.m. local time.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated the Labour Party and incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer on a "convincing victory" in the Thursday polls, also thanking departing leader Rishi Sunak for his government's aid to the war-torn country to date.

"Ukraine and the United Kingdom have been and will continue to be reliable allies through thick and thin," he said in a social media post. "I wish the incoming government every success both in domestic affairs and in solidifying the UK's leadership on the world stage. I look forward to working closely together on strengthening the Ukraine-UK partnership and restoring international peace and security."

He also thanked Sunak for Britain's military and financial support for Ukraine under the Conservative administration, since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"Challenger tanks, Storm Shadow missiles, F-16 training for our pilots, and the first bilateral security cooperation agreement are just a few of our shared achievements that Ukraine will never forget. Thank you, Rishi," Zelenskyy said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Shares of British housebuilding stocks rose Friday as investors placed bets on a boom in home building under a Labour government.

The FTSE 350 household goods and home construction index rose about 1% Friday, as traders reacted to news of the Labour Party's win.

Looking at individual stocks within the sector, Persimmon shares rose 3.4%, while Bellway was up 2.8%, Barratt Developments up 2.7%, and Taylor Wimpey up 2.4%.

Analysts expect Labour's victory to boost U.K. markets over time, particularly when it comes to housebuilding.

In a research note Friday, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said that if Labour's election pledges turn into policy, it could mark the dawning of a "new age" for U.K. housebuilding.

In its election manifesto, the Labour Party committed to building 1.5 million new homes, including "the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation."

- Ryan Browne

Keiran Pedley, director of politics at Ipsos, weighs in on the outcome of the U.K. parliamentary election.

The arrival of a new Labour government hasn't moved markets all that much yet but analysts expect U.K. assets to become more attractive from here on out.

In a note Friday, analysts at Jefferies said, despite concerns raised by a strong showing for the right-wing Reform UK Party, the Labour Party's U.K. election win would help make the U.K. appear "relatively stable."

This, in combination with regulatory reform, "could raise the attractiveness of UK assets," Jefferies' analysts wrote in a research note.

Beata Manthey, European equity strategist at Citi, noted that history shows U.K. markets tend to trade flat on average six months after Labour wins, but "meaningfully higher one year later."

"On a relative basis, the UK market has tended to underperform 1-2 months after Labour wins, while tallying decent relative performance 12m post-election," Manthey said.

"The domestically oriented FTSE 250 has typically outperformed the FTSE 100 following Labour victories. Sterling and Gilts will be key to watch," she added.

"FTSE 250 over FTSE 100 is our preferred post-election trade."

- Ryan Browne

The U.K. housebuilding market is set to benefit from an incoming Labour government, several bank analysts wrote in research reports Friday.

In a note, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said that if Labour's election pledges turn into policy, this could mark the dawning of a "new age" for U.K. housebuilding.

"Over the last few years housebuilders' potential has been hamstrung, but over the next few this potential is likely to be unleashed," the bank's analysts wrote in their note.

"If the new Government's walk matches its talk we expect the sector to re-rate, and in the very short term we suspect that the talk alone will be enough to lift share prices," they added.

Expect to see the reinstatement of housing targets, refining of the greenbelt, a reform of planning, and the announcement of a "new generation of new towns," the RBC Capital Markets analysts wrote.

Meantime, Investec analysts said they expect housebuilders to "benefit from a more supportive planning backdrop as a significant part of the political hiatus around planning is removed."

"Even in the absence of any significant new policy support aimed at the first-time buyer and demand side, expected interest rate cuts should ease affordability constraints and boost sentiment."

"With negligible build cost inflation, a more favourable demand and supply backdrop should support a recovery in 2025," Investec's analysts added.

- Ryan Browne

Paul Jackson from Invesco says the Labour Party will nevertheless have a "very sizable majority" and will be "able to get on with their program."

Benjamin Nabarro, chief U.K. economist at Citi, says the results of the U.K. general election were expected and offer the country "an opportunity for genuine policy stability after a period of obvious volatility."

The house building sector stands to be a major beneficiary of the Labour Party's landslide victory in the Thursday general election, RBC's head of European capital goods research told CNBC's Silvia Amaro.

"It's front and center great for house builders, great for the wider building supply sector, bricks," Mark Fielding said Friday, pointing to two driving factors. "Two big factors: firstly a return to mandated targets for house building supporting 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, which would be a big positive, and secondly hopes on planning reforms, targeting to get that done."

That will in turn allow for faster planning processes and potentially for additional central government intervention to press ahead with more house approvals, according to Fielding, who noted that investor focus will otherwise now narrow on the Labour Party's ability to deliver on broader economic growth.

"U.K. bank stocks in the end are one of the biggest proxies for U.K. economic growth," he said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

With Labour now destined for power in the U.K., analysts are now discussing what this might mean for the Bank of England and interest rate expectations.

Sanjay Raja and Shreyas Gopal from Deutsche Bank sent the below comments in a flash research note:

"A Labour majority won't do much to shift rate expectations – at least not at this juncture. If anything, we expect Labour to a) set out a cautious fiscal path, with some modest increases to 2025/26 departmental spending alongside key policy objectives (such as its Green Prosperity Plan), which will largely be offset by tax hikes. There are risks to this view, however. Further net fiscal easing at the Autumn Budget, than we've pencilled in, could lead to a more cautious and gradual rate cut path relative to our basecase – particularly if growth continues to converge back to potential."

-Matt Clinch

In the formerly Brexiting, euroskeptic U.K., the pendulum has just swung back to the center-left Labour Party, which is set to come to power after a mammoth election win, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule.

A different picture is playing out in much of western Europe — and in countries that disdained Brexit and the U.K.'s populist trend in recent years over the last decade or so. These states are now seeing their own electorates shift to the right.

While the U.K. and mainland Europe are heading in different directions politically, analysts say that the driving force behind changing patterns at the polls is fundamentally the same: voters are desperate for change.

Read the full story here.

European stocks were expected to open mostly higher on Friday as the U.K.'s general election draws focus in the region.

Britain's FTSE 100 index was seen rising 25 points to 8,262, the German DAX bourse down 6 points at 18,444, France's CAC 40 up 14 points at 7,709, and the Italian FTSE MIB index up 38 points to 34,310.

- Ryan Browne

The U.K.'s Labour party is set to take over from the Conservatives after 14 years, at a time when economic uncertainty is still rife in the country.

The two main political parties ran on different economic and financial manifestos during the election campaign that would likely have different consequences for the investing environment.

Housebuilding, utilities and airspace stocks are some of the sectors that could be impacted by the new government, experts told CNBC. The wider property and housing market is also set to be affected, while the British pound and bond markets are unlikely to react to the change in government.

Read the full story here.

— Sophie Kiderlin

International leaders have begun extending congratulations to incoming British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Close to home, his Irish counterpart, Taoiseach Simon Harris praised Starmer's "comprehensive victory" and stressed in a social media post that "the relationship between Ireland and the UK is deep and consequential. I look forward to it going from strength to strength."

Harris himself only assumed his post at Ireland's helm back in April.

Across the ocean, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau noted "lots of work ahead to build a more progressive, fair future for people on both sides of the Atlantic." Australia's PM Anthony Albanese also congratulated Starmer on a "resounding election victory," adding, "I look forward to working constructively with the incoming @UKLabour Government."

— Ruxandra Iordache

Liz Truss, who briefly served as British prime minister for 44 days in 2022, has narrowly lost her seat in parliament in the election to Labour.

Truss won 25.3% of votes in her constituency Norfolk South West, a significant drop from the 69% of votes she won in the last election. The Labour party candidate Terry Jermy beat Truss after securing 26.7% of the vote.

Truss had been a member of parliament since 2010.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Markets appeared to shrug off the end of a 14-year Conservative rule in Britain, after polls widely suggested the victory of the opposition Labour Party — suggesting a previous pricing in of the result.

The British pound made only light gains early morning on Friday, following departing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's concession speech.

The currency was up just 0.06% and 0.03% against the U.S. dollar and euro at 06:28 a.m. London time, respectively.

"The headline results from the election – a large Labour majority and the Conservatives in second place – are completely in line with expectations," Deutsche Bank analysts said in a Friday note, stressing that a Labour takeover generated a "very positive UK market (FX, bonds, stocks) reaction within hours" of new Chancellor Gordon Brown taking office back in 1997 and giving the Bank of England independence from political control over the nation's monetary policy.

"We don't think the market had built in a material positive risk premium in the pound for this outcome ahead of the election. As such, we'd expect sterling to [be] broadly unchanged following tonight's results," Deutsche Bank said, stressing that investors' focus will now shift toward the second round of the French vote on Sunday and on the next set of U.K. data as an indicator for whether the Bank of England can proceed with cutting interest rates in August.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Conservative party lost several of its most high-profile members of parliament in the election, with Jacob Rees-Mogg, Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps among those failing to secure another term.

Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, narrowly lost in Portsmouth North, coming second to Labour candidate Amanda Martin by just 780 votes.

Labour won 34.8% of votes, while the Conservatives secured 33%, which was a sharp decline from the last general election when the party won over 61%.

High-profile backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg also lost his seat in parliament after winning 30.2% of votes in North East Somerset and Hanham, while Labour's Dan Norris secured 40.6%. Rees-Mogg had been an MP since 2010 and played a key role during Brexit.

Elsewhere, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps lost to Labour's Andrew Lewin in Welwyn Hatfield, with the two securing 33.2% and 41% respectively.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Labour leader Keir Starmer delivered a victory speech in London as the voting confirmed that he will be the next prime minister of the U.K.

"We did it," he said, addressing his Labour collegaues. "You campaigned for it, you fought for it - and now it has arrived."

"Change begins now ... The sunlight of hope, pale at first but getting stronger through the day. Shining once again on a country with an opportunity after 14 years to get its future back."

Labour has now crossed the 326 seat threshold, meaning it can govern alone in the U.K.'s lower house of parliament.

-Matt Clinch

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Friday conceded defeat in the country's parliamentary election and said that the opposition Labour party won.

"The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory," Sunak said. He was speaking after having won his seat in parliament in Richmond and Northallerton.

Sunak spoke of a "difficult night" for the Conservative Party, and said he took responsibility for the results.

"The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight. There is much to learn and reflect on," he said.

— Sophie Kiderlin

U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt held onto his seat in parliament in the election, securing 42.6% of the vote in his constituency Godalming and Ash.

This was more than 10% less of the vote than the Conservative Party had secured in the last general election in this area. Hunt was previously a member of parliament in another area of the U.K., serving as MP for South West Surrey.

Hunt's seat was initially seen as a possible high-profile loss for the ruling Conservative Party.

— Sophie Kiderlin

The Conservative's Rishi Sunak, who has been prime minister since October 2022, held onto his seat in Richmond and Northallerton in the U.K. parliamentary election.

Sunak won 47.5% of the votes, which was however an over 15% decline from the previous election. Labour's Tom Wilson garnered 22.4% of the vote, coming in second place.

— Sophie Kiderlin

— Katrina Bishop

U.K. Defence Secretary Grant Shapps lost his seat in Welwyn Hatfield in Thursday's parliamentary election.

He was defeated by Labour's Andrew Lewin who got 41% of the votes versus Shapps' 33.2% share.

The Conservative MP, who received 16,078 votes, has sat in parliament since 2005.

— Lee Ying Shan

Populist politician Nigel Farage has won his first-ever seat in British parliament, after seven prior failed attempts.

The infamous Brexiteer won 46.2% of the vote in the Clacton constituency, with the Conservative Party coming in second with 27.9%.

The result comes amid a surprisingly strong election performance by Reform UK, which has a hardline stance on immigration and was born out of the Brexit Party. Exit polls indicate that the party could secure 13 parliamentary seats, having failed to win any in the 2019 election.

Read more here.

— Katrina Bishop

Labour leader Keir Starmer — the likely next prime minister of Britain — has made his first comments after exit polls suggested a landslide victory for his party.

"Tonight people here and around the country have spoken. And they're ready for change," he said.

"To end the politics of performance. A return to politics as public service. You have voted, it is now time for us to deliver."

He spoke after winning his seat — Holborn and St. Pancras in London — with 48.9% of the vote.

— Katrina Bishop

After winning a chaotic by-election just months ago, George Galloway has lost the parliamentary seat of Rochdale.

Labour won with 32.9% of the vote, to Galloway's Workers Party of Britain's 29% share.

On Feb. 29, the controversial former Labour politician won a by-election, giving his party its first-ever Member of Parliament in Britain's House of Commons.

Galloway ran a campaign heavily focused on the plight of Palestinians, appealing to the Muslim voters that make up around 30% of the local electorate, many of whom voiced anger about the war in Gaza and the failure of the country's two main parties to push for an immediate ceasefire.

— Katrina Bishop and Elliot Smith

Reform UK won its first seat in Britain's 2024 general election, taking the East Midlands constituency of Ashfield from the Conservatives.

Reform's Lee Anderson secured 42.8% of the vote, followed by Labour's Rhea Keehn with 29%.

Exit polls indicate that the right-wing populist Reform party could gain 13 seats in this election — after winning none in the 2019 vote.

— Katrina Bishop

Labour's Rachel Reeves, shadow finance minister, has held her seat with 49.3% of the vote.

It means she's set to become Britain's first-ever female chancellor (the equivalent of a U.S. Treasury secretary).

In a post on X following the result, she said: "It is an honour and a privilege to be returned as the Member of Parliament for Leeds West and Pudsey. You have put your trust in me. And I will not let you down."

— Katrina Bishop

After 14 years in opposition, the Labour Party is near-guaranteed to win a sizeable majority in the next parliament, according to exit polls.

Many of its senior figures, including party leader Keir Starmer, deputy leader Angela Rayner and finance chief Rachel Reeves, have never served in government.

In a manifesto released in June, the party said it would focus on "wealth creation" and "economic growth." Reeves, who has long been on a charm offensive with the British business community, has repeatedly stated she will prioritize fiscal discipline in all policymaking.

The party's flagship pledges include the creation of a new publicly owned energy company, a ban on awarding new North Sea oil and gas licenses, reducing patient waiting times in the strained National Health Service, and renationalizing most passenger rail services.

It also plans to raise money for public services by cracking down on tax loopholes for so-called nondomiciled individuals, removing tax breaks for independent schools, closing what has been described as a "tax loophole" for private equity investors, and raising taxes on the purchases of residential properties by non-U.K. residents. It said it would make additional green investments through a "time-limited windfall tax" on oil and gas firms.

The party said it would recognize a Palestinian state, calling statehood "the inalienable right of the Palestinian people." 

— Jenni Reid

Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage said the gains his party has seen so far are "almost unbelievable."

Speaking after the earliest official results put Reform in second place, the populist Brexiteer noted this outcome was "way more" than anyone expected.

"What does it mean? It means we're going to win seats, many, many seats," he said in a video post on X.

"Mainstream media are in denial, just as much as our political parties. This is going to be 6 million votes plus. This vote is huge."

In terms of vote share, at the time of writing, Reform was in second place with 23.8% of the vote — a 14 percentage point increase on 2019. Exit polls put the party's seats at 13.

— Katrina Bishop

Labour's shadow finance minister Rachel Reeves is expected to become the U.K.'s first female chancellor, which she said would be a "huge privilege."

Speaking to Sky News, Reeves said she was under "no illusions about the scale of the challenge" she will face" if she does take up the role. Labour is forecast to win a landslide victory in the U.K.'s general election, and Reeves is also expected to hold her seat.

"The severity of the inheritance from the Conservatives is truly awful. But we will get to work, starting to rebuild our economy, returning stability to the economy, and improving our health service and our schools after 14 years of chaos, division and decline," she said.

Reeves has long been on a charm offensive with the British business community, repeatedly stating she will prioritize fiscal discipline in all policymaking.

— Katrina Bishop

Along with a huge vote for Labour and severe losses for the Conservatives, one of the major themes of the night so far has been the apparent gains by Reform UK.

It is forecast to win 13 seats and has significantly increased its vote share in early seats that have been declared.

The populist, right-wing party with a hardline stance on immigration was born out of the Brexit Party, which was founded by Nigel Farage and focused on calling for a "no-deal Brexit" between 2016 and 2021. After the completion of the Brexit process, it campaigned on issues such as opposition to Covid lockdowns.

The Brexit party did not win any seats in the 2019 general election.

Farage, who has served in the European Union parliament (on a pro-Brexit stance) but repeatedly failed to win a seat in the U.K. legislature, stepped down as party leader in March 2021. After previously stating he would not stand as an MP in 2024 in order to focus on supporting Donald Trump's U.S. presidential campaign, he reversed course in June and said he would both stand and resume his role as Reform UK leader.

Numerous analysts argued that the return of the well-known figure would boost the party at the expense of the Conservatives.

David Bull, co-deputy leader of Reform UK, told the BBC during overnight vote counting that pollsters had underestimated the party's support, as they had with the number of people who would back a Brexit vote.

"I think what you're seeing is actually the shy Reformers coming out in droves. We saw this with Brexit didn't we, the shy Brexiteers, so the pollsters were caught off-guard and once again they've been caught off guard," Bull said. "If that is true and we win 13 seats that is extraordinary."

A "shy" voter refers to someone who does not reveal in polls which way they will eventually vote.

— Jenni Reid

Exit polls have a strong track record of getting it right in Britain.

Investec notes they have correctly called the largest party (Conservatives) in the last four elections, with a mean absolute error of the overall majority of just 11.

"Exit polls ask the way that voters have actually voted in contrast with polls published during the campaign, which model voting intentions," Investec U.K. chief economist Philip Shaw wrote late Thursday.

"One can expect the actual outcome to be reasonably close to the [exit poll] figures ... With tactical voting perhaps more widespread than in previous elections however, perhaps one should not be too confident about this."

Rob Wood, chief U.K. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, issued a note of caution, however, highlighting that in 1974, exit polls overestimated Labour's seats by 61. In recent history — over the last 30 years — the largest exit poll mistake came in 2019, when the Conservative's seats were underestimated by 15, Wood added.

After the first few results are announced before midnight London time, Investec said it expects a "particularly busy period of declarations between 03.00 and 04.00 a.m."

"A full set of results is expected by 07.00 tomorrow morning, although this may be delayed by recounts in various constituencies," Shaw wrote. "One further complication could arise if postal votes having been sent out late in certain areas were to lead to challenges by candidates who lost by a narrow margin."

He added that currency markets have hardly reacted, given the forecasted result was widely expected. "What will matter more to markets, ultimately, is what a Labour government chooses to do if and when it takes office."

— Katrina Bishop

Keir Starmer is on course to be the U.K.'s new prime minister, with exit polls suggesting his left-of-center party could have a majority of around 170 seats.

He will take the post from Rishi Sunak, who was elected between general elections by members of his Conservative Party in 2022.

Starmer, 61, has had a rapid political ascent after entering U.K. parliament less than a decade ago. But many Brits still know little about the man who has positioned himself as the country's candidate for change.

Starmer was born in 1962 in London, England, to a father who worked as a toolmaker and a mother who worked as a nurse. A barrister (or trial lawyer), he served as a human rights adviser during former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair's landmark Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, and in 2008 became the head of the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service.

Starmer was knighted in 2014 for his services to criminal justice and was elected to Parliament the following year, serving as shadow immigration minister and Brexit minister for the opposition.

Read the full story here.

— Karen Gilchrist

— Katrina Bishop

The first seat of the 2024 general election has been called for Labour in the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour's education chief, was declared the first member of the U.K.'s new parliament. She said that if exit polls were correct, "then after 14 years, the British people have chosen change."

Labour held the Houghton and Sunderland South seat, but the candidate for the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK party made a significant gain on its 2019 result (when it was called the Brexit Party), leapfrogging the Conservatives into second place.

Several constituencies in northern England race to be the first to declare in a general election.

In the 2017 and 2019 votes, Newcastle took that honor with announcements in less than 90 minutes of polls closing. Between 1992 and 2015, Sunderland was the first to declare its seat.

— Jenni Reid

The scale of the projected Conservative loss stems from smaller parties' gains as well as Labour's challenge, polling expert John Curtice told the BBC.

The seat forecast shows how the national share of the vote has "moved decisively against the Conservatives," he said.

"Support for the Conservatives is falling much more heavily in places where they are trying to defend a seat than it is in places that Labour already hold," he said.

"It's not because Labour are doing spectacularly better in Conservative-held seats, it's because Reform are. Much of the damage done to the Conservative Party tonight is being done by Reform, even if it is the Labour Party that proves to be the beneficiary."

Reform UK is the populist right-wing party led by Nigel Farage.

He also noted that although there has not been a massive rise in overall Liberal Democrat support, the party is doing better in seats where it was challenging the Conservatives, he continued, cautioning that the patterns shown by the polls may not be exactly accurate.

"Although it looks like an election in which Labour win a landslide, it does not follow that this necessarily means Labour have got a landslide in terms of votes," he told the BBC.

— Jenni Reid

The Scottish National Party is set to secure only 10 seat in British parliament, exit polls suggest — down from 48 seats in 2019.

It comes after a period of turbulence for the pro-Scottish independence party.

Former leader Humza Yousaf Yousaf resigned in April after serving as Scotland's first minister for a little over a year, taking over from longstanding leader Nicola Sturgeon, who announced her surprise resignation in February 2023. Sturgeon was being investigated by police as part of a probe into party finances, and her husband Peter Murrell was charged with embezzlement earlier this year.

John Swinney took over the party leadership earlier this year.

— Katrina Bishop

The result of the 2024 U.K. general election is still in the realm of projection — but is being widely described as historic.

That's in part because of the likely electoral swing for the Labour Party. To win even a narrow majority, Labour needed a bigger gain in parliamentary seats than that achieved by Tony Blair in 1997. Its projected 170 majority means it is on course to have seen an unprecedented upswing.

Exit polls put it on 410 seats, up from 202 in the most recent general election in 2019.

However, due to the rise of smaller parties, Labour may have achieved a smaller share of the vote than in 2017 under leader Jeremy Corbyn, when the party failed to win but narrowly prevented a Conservative majority.

Exit polls give the ruling Conservative Party just 131 seats, a slump from 365 in the last election and its lowest number in post-war history.

— Jenni Reid

The former leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Ruth Davidson, told Sky News the result was a "massacre" for her party. But she said that exit polls suggested it wasn't as bad as some had been expecting in the days leading up to the vote.

"There's no dressing this up, this has been .. this is a massacre — it is a massacre," she said.

-Matt Clinch

The manual counting of millions of ballots has begun across the U.K.'s 650 constituencies, with the first results to be declared imminently and announcements continuing through the night until Friday morning.

— Jenni Reid

The U.K.'s incumbent Conservative Party had been expected to lose power in Thursday's election, but initial exit polls showed the staggering extent of the swing.

A poll conducted by Ipsos UK for Sky News, the BBC and ITV News indicates the 650 seats of the House of Commons will be split approximately as:

Labour: 410
Conservatives: 131
Liberal Democrats: 61
Reform: 13
Scottish National Party: 10
Plaid Cymru: 4
Green: 2
Other: 19

In the 2019 election, the Conservatives won 365 seats to Labour's 202. The Lib Dems took 11 while Scotland's SNP won 48.

— Jenni Reid

Exit polls released as voting closed in the election put Labour on course for a landslide victory, with the incumbent Conservatives facing a bruising defeat.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos UK for Sky News, the BBC and ITV News, points to Labour winning 410 seats out of 650, with the Conservatives on 131. Smaller parties look set for major gains, with the Liberal Democrats on 61 and Nigel Farage's Reform UK on 13.

— Jenni Reid

The first seat of the 2024 general election has been called for Labour in the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour's education chief, was declared the first member of the U.K.'s new parliament. She said that if exit polls were correct, "then after 14 years, the British people have chosen change."

Labour held the Houghton and Sunderland South seat, but the candidate for the Nigel Farage-led Reform UK party made a significant gain on its 2019 result (when it was called the Brexit Party), leapfrogging the Conservatives into second place.

Several constituencies in northern England race to be the first to declare in a general election.

In the 2017 and 2019 votes, Newcastle took that honor with announcements in less than 90 minutes of polls closing. Between 1992 and 2015, Sunderland was the first to declare its seat.

— Jenni Reid

While an overall Labour victory has been forecast by pollsters, many seats are considered too close to call — including those of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt.

There are around 120 of 650 seats where the margin of victory is expected to be lower than 5 percentage points, according to a projection model from the Financial Times.

Well-known politicians will be seeking to avoid what in British political lingo has become known as a "Portillo moment." That is a reference to former Conservative politician Michael Portillo, who lost his seat in the 1997 general election to Stephen Twigg, his relatively unknown Labour opponent. Portillo, meanwhile, was a big name who had served as defense minister and was considered a potential future party leader.

The shock result was seen as emblematic of the swing in Labour's favor, as the party won a landslide under Tony Blair against incumbent Prime Minister John Major.

— Jenni Reid

Under former Conservative leader Boris Johnson, the party won a majority of 365 seats in the last general election in 2019, to Labour's 202 seats.

Turnout was 67.3%.

By the time parliament was dissolved on May 30 this year in order for the July 4 election campaign to begin, a range of political developments had left that split at 344 Conservative lawmakers to 205 for Labour.

— Jenni Reid

Millions of British citizens across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday voted for their local representative in the House of Commons, the U.K.'s lower branch of parliament.

In typical British fashion, the weather was changeable and unseasonably cool during the nation's first July general election since 1945.

The U.K. elects 650 Members of Parliament, known as MPs. According to longstanding convention, the prime minister is an MP appointed by the monarch who can "command the confidence" of the Commons — in practice, that is the leader of the party with the most seats.

Prospective MPs stand for election in one of the U.K.'s 650 constituencies. In a system known as "first past the post," voters may only choose a single candidate from their local list, and the person with the most votes in each constituency becomes an MP.

Unlike in other voting systems, there are no second rounds or ranking of first- and second-choice candidates, meaning it can be difficult for smaller parties to translate an increased share of the popular vote into parliamentary seats.

Around 40,000 polling stations were open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, and one of the two main parties — Labour or the Conservatives — is expected to concede victory to the other sometime on Friday morning.

— Jenni Reid