LONDON — The Conservative Party, the world’s most victorious political party, was dramatically ousted from power on Thursday after 14 chaotic and divisive years in power.
Exit polls released at 10 p.m. local time (5 p.m. EDT) showed that Labour had won a landslide victory, ending an era of Conservative rule in the UK that stretches back to 2010, when the iPad and Instagram were released and Lady Gaga wore that meat dress to the MTV Music Awards.
During that time, the Conservative party has had five leaders, each of whom caused the party’s popularity to fall further and further, until Rishi Sunak, who ran the worst election campaign in living memory, was ultimately defeated by a landslide.
Keir Starmer arrived on the morning of the election to cast his vote.
Jakub Polzycki/Getty
The campaign got off to a rocky start when the Prime Minister first shocked the nation by announcing a sudden general election, and then announced it while standing outside Number 10 in torrential rain, soaking his expensively tailored suit. His words were also drowned out by ambitious protesters blaring an old Labour election song in Downing Street.
Incredibly, the campaign went downhill from there. Sunak made the blunder of leaving early from an event marking the Normandy landings in France, where Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron stood side by side to mark the last major anniversary that World War II survivors would likely attend. Voters were appalled, despite Sunak’s apology, and Nigel Farage, with his MAGA-inspired insurrectionary Reform Party, was able to appeal to traditionalist and right-wing voters, helping hollow out Conservative support. Exit polls suggested a major surge that could see Farage’s party secure 13 seats in Parliament.
Opinion polls predicted Labour would win a staggering 410 seats (just eight fewer than Tony Blair won in 1997) and the Conservatives would win just 131 seats, the lowest number in the Conservative party’s nearly 200-year history. Since its founding in 1836, the Conservative Party has been the most successful political party in any competitive multi-party system in the world.
As the blame game began within the Conservative party, veteran MP Michael Fabricant said: “Never in the history of general elections have so many people been let down by so few MPs.”
Rishi Sunak voted on Thursday morning in the hope of avoiding losing his own seat.
Oli Scarf
Britain’s new prime minister will be Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, who has adopted a measured approach known as the “Ming Vase” strategy to steer a carefully assembled coalition of voters across the finish line.
Starmer became only the fourth Labour leader in the party’s 100 years to come to power from opposition, after the party performed worse than expected in the 2017, 2010 and 1992 elections when everyone expected them to return to power.