In a triumphant victory speech, Keir Starmer said the UK was waking to 'sunlight' and declared: 'Today we start the next chapter.'
Labour has officially won the General Election in a major landslide, leaving the Conservatives with their worst defeat ever.
Keir Starmer will now be forming a new government after winning a majority of 326 seats, with more still to come.
In his victory speech, Sir Keir Starmer said: ‘Our task is nothing less than
renewing the ideals that hold this country together.’
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He added the UK was waking up this morning to ‘the sunlight of
hope’, which was ‘shining once again on a country with the opportunity after
14 years to get its future back’.
It is the first Labour government since Gordon Brown was elected as prime minister in 2007.
Rishi Sunak is set to officially resign as Conservative party leader within hours, with his party on course to suffer one of their biggest losses in their 190-year history.
Sir Keir has served as leader of the opposition for four years, and will become his party’s seventh prime minister.
Labour supporters were moved to tears during his speech to party faithful at the Tate Modern.
His wife Victoria stood in the crowd and watched calmly as he addressed them from a podium with the sign “change begins”.
He hugged her after the speech and she walked with him as he shook supporters’ hands.
Sir Keir was re-elected in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency with 19,000 votes, which was 17.3% down from the 2019 election.
The leader looked victorious as the result was announced in the early hours of Friday morning -18,884 votes for him.
He said: ‘I may have mentioned my parents a few times on this campaign – once or twice – but the sense of security we had, the comfort we had from believing that Britain would always be better for their children.
‘The hope – not high minded, not idealistic – but a hope that working class families like mine could build their lives around.
‘It is a hope that might not burn brightly in Britain at the moment but we have earned the mandate to relight the fire. That is the purpose of this party and this government.
‘We said we would end the chaos and we will. We said we would turn the page and we have. Today we start the next chapter, begin the work of change, the mission of national renewal and start to rebuild our country. Thank you.’
He said: ‘you have voted, it is now time for us to deliver’ in his speech after being re-elected to Parliament.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner was re-elected in her constituency Ashton-under-Lyne, while shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was elected in her Leeds West and Pudsey.
She is expected to become the country’s first female chancellor of the exchequer.
We can expect his government to prioritise a £1.3 billion injection into NHS services, and the creation of a new Border Security Command to tackle small boat criminal gangs – as promise in the party’s manifesto.
At the launch event in Manchester in May, Mr Starmer said: ‘The choice at this election is another five years of chaos under the Conservatives, with people paying £4,800 more on their mortgages, or change with Labour.
‘It’s time to stop the chaos, turn the page and start rebuilding Britain.’
The exit poll predicted Labour would win 410 seats, with the Tories winning 131.
The Conservatives lost some major players, including Grant Shapps, education secretary Gillian Keegan and justice secretary Alex Chalk.
But it did not all go Labour’s way.
Former leader Jeremy Corbyn, now standing as an independent, clung on in Islington North, while the backlash to Labour’s stance on Gaza saw it lose Blackburn, Leicester South and Dewsbury and Batley to independents – and whittled away the party’s majorities in formerly safe seats.
But former journalist Paul Waugh managed to win back Rochdale from George Galloway, who won the seat in a shock by-election result in February.
Another shadow cabinet loss was Thangam Debbonaire, who was defeated in Bristol Central by Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer.
In other major events of the night, George Galloway lost his Rochdale seat, just four months after gaining it in a chaotic by-election.
Reform UK won their first General Election seats, with Lee Anderson becoming the first MP from the party to be elected.
Nigel Farage was elected into parliament for the first time, having failed a previous seven times.
Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as an independent MP after being expelled from the Labour party.
He won with a massive 24,000 votes – compared with Labour candidate Praful Nargund’s 16,673.
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