U.K.’s Labour Party wins landslide victory in British election

Open this photo in gallery:

The Labour Party has won a landslide victory in the British general election, ending 14 years of Conservative rule and sending Keir Starmer to Downing Street as the country’s new Prime Minister.

With results in from all but two ridings, Labour has won 412 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, more than double the 202 seats the party took the last election in 2019. It’s one of the largest Labour victories ever and Mr. Starmer is only the fourth Labour leader in the last 80 years to win an election.

“You have given us a clear mandate and we will use it to deliver change, to restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives and unite our country,” Mr. Starmer said in a speech outside Downing Street on Friday, hours after meeting King Charles III to formally take over as prime minister.

“So with respect and humility, I invite you all to join this government of service in the mission of national renewal.”

Mr. Starmer got to work by announcing several senior cabinet posts, including appointing Rachel Reeves as Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first woman to hold that position, and David Lammy as Foreign Secretary.

Flailing Conservatives failed to muster popular support

The Conservatives suffered a catastrophic defeat, losing more than 240 seats and falling to 121. That’s the worst showing in the party’s history.

Rishi Sunak, the outgoing prime minister, took responsibility for the loss and announced that he will step down as Tory leader. “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict, there is much to learn,” he said Friday morning.

Mr. Sunak paid a steep price for gambling on an early election. He hoped to catch his opponents off guard and take advantage of a drop in inflation and signs that the British economy was beginning to turn around.

Opinion: What next for Britain and its ailing economy?

Former PM Liz Truss lost her seat

A total of eight cabinet ministers lost their seats on Thursday along with high-profile Tory MPs such as Jacob Rees-Mogg. Former prime minister Liz Truss, who preceded Mr. Sunak as party leader, was also defeated.

Ms. Truss lasted just 49 days in office in the fall of 2022 before she was ousted by Tory MPs when her mini budget caused havoc in financial markets and sent mortgage rates soaring. Mr. Sunak was installed to replace her but he could not overcome the public anger at her budget – which included sweeping, unfunded tax cuts.

The other big winners on Thursday were the centrist Liberal Democrats who won 71 seats, up from 11 in 2019, and the upstart Reform UK, which was formed three years ago. Reform claimed four seats and took Conservative votes across the country with a decidedly right-wing agenda that includes cracking down on immigration.

“This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” Reform leader Nigel Farage said Friday after winning the riding of Clacton on England’s southeast coast.

Regional parties like the Scottish National Party and Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland saw heavy losses

Another big loser was the Scottish National Party, which has been in power in Scotland for 17 years and dominated elections to Westminster in 2019. The SNP dropped to nine seats from 48, losing nearly all of them to Labour.

The SNP has been mired in a scandal over party finances and its last leader, Humza Yousaf, was forced to resign in April. The result could raise questions about the future of Scottish independence, which the SNP has championed for decades.

Questions raised about politician conduct amid growing probe into Britain’s election betting scandal

And in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party lost three seats – two to other unionist parties and one to the centrist Alliance Party – and fell to five.

Sinn Fein hung on to its seven ridings, marking the first time the nationalist party has topped its main unionist rival in a U.K.-wide election.

Early major challenges for PM Starmer: Medical wait times, trade deal with the EU, and the war in Gaza

For Labour and Mr. Starmer, the victory is a stunning comeback and a vindication of his ruthless drive to shed the party of its hard-left ideology.

He took over as leader in 2020 only months after Labour lost the 2019 election and fell to its lowest seat total in 80 years. He began reshaping Labour into a more acceptable alternative to the Conservatives and during the campaign he presented the party as “pro-worker and pro-business.”

But the new government will not have much of a honeymoon. While Mr. Starmer can claim a huge victory, much of Thursday’s vote was considered a protest against the Conservatives and not a ringing endorsement of Labour’s policies.

Opinion: For Keir Starmer, Labour’s near-certain win in the British election will be a blessing and a curse

Mr. Starmer’s room to deliver has also been crimped by Britain’s sluggish economy and the government’s budgetary constraints.

Some of the immediate concerns will be National Health Service waiting times, public sector pay disputes, overcrowded prisons and funding for local authorities. Earlier this year Mr. Starmer scrapped a commitment to spend £28-billion a year, or $48-billion, on environmental projects, arguing it was no longer affordable.

Mr. Starmer offered few details during the campaign on his priorities, and he had difficulty responding to attacks from Mr. Sunak and others that Labour would have to raise taxes eventually.

In the end, though, Mr. Starmer’s key message that it was time for a change resonated with voters. And after brief meeting with King Charles III Friday morning, he began a new Labour era in government as Prime Minister.