General election results – live: Labour gain historic swing from Tories as Reform win first seat
Labour predicted to win majority of 170 seats – but fall short of 1997 result
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Labour is on course for one of the biggest Commons majorities in history with the official exit poll pointing to a crushing defeat for the Tories.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is expected to win 410 seats while Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are set to fall to 131 seats, down from 365 five years ago when Boris Johnson secured a 80-seat majority.
The Liberal Democrats are forecast to win 61, with Reform UK on 13, the Green Party on 2, the SNP on 10 and Plaid Cymru on 4.
It will give Sir Keir a 170-seat majority in parliament, just shy of Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 record of 179.
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, and Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, are the first two senior Labour figures to be returned to parliament, winning in Leeds West and Pudsey and Sunderland South respectively.
Lee Anderson, meanwhile, has become Reform UK’s first elected MP, retaining his Ashfield seat.
Robert Buckland has become the first senior Tory to lose his seat in a major scalp for Labour. A series of high-profile Conservatives are expected to be ousted as results come in over the next few hours.
When will we know who’s won? An hour-by-hour guide to general election results and key seat announcements
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Nigel Farage could seek a ‘realignment of the right’
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said it would be “interesting” to see whether Nigel Farage can achieve “a realignment of the right in British politics”.
Asked whether he thought the Tories should have sought to join forces with Mr Farage, the former Conservative minister said: “We are where we are and the disaster doesn’t seem to have been averted.
“You’ll have to ask Nigel what his plans are. I think he looks for and seeks a realignment of the right in British politics, and it will be interesting to see whether he can achieve that.”
In pictures: Triumphant Bridget Phillipson kicks off Labour victory
Former Tory Cabinet minister says it is ‘devastating’ night for the party
Andrea Leadsom has said the exit poll may indicate it was “wrong to go after Reform straight away”.
The former Tory Cabinet minister said it was a “devastating” night for her party.
She told BBC News: “It’s never easy when you are the prime minister to decide when to call a general election… it is a very, very difficult and very personal decision for any prime minister.”
She added: “Maybe it was wrong not to go after Reform straight away but again, all of these are very carefully thought through as to what is the right approach and what we wanted to do was focus on what Labour would be doing with people’s taxes.”
Labour win Blyth and Ashington
The second set of election results have been announced in Blyth and Ashington, with Labour’s Ian Lavery winning the Northumberland seat with 20,030 votes.
Mirroring the earlier results in Sunderland South, Reform UK came in second place with the Conservatives trailing in third.
Wes Streeting: Exit poll testament to changes made to Labour by Keir Starmer
Wes Streeting has said Labour was “on the brink of extinction” in 2019 and the exit poll a “remarkable” achievement.
The shadow health secretary told the BBC: “This is a remarkable exit poll. They are not results, it is an exit poll. But in 2019 we were on the brink of extinction and told that in order to get a majority of one we would need a 1997-style swing. This exit poll shows a 1997-style majority.
“I’ll believe it when I see it but this is a remarkable exit poll and a testament to the change that Keir Starmer has led in the Labour Party.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg: ‘It is clearly a terrible night for the Conservatives’
Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is on course to lose his own seat according to the exit poll, has said it is “clearly a terrible night for the Conservatives”.
The former business secretary said it went wrong for the Tories with repeated leadership changes and a move toward a more presidential system “where people vote for a prime minister not an individual member of parliament”.
He told the BBC: “And I’m afraid, I think the Conservative Party took its core vote for granted, which is why you see so many people who may have voted conservative previously going off to Reform UK.
“We have no divine right to win votes, we need to win voters at every single election and if you take your base for granted, if you don’t manage to stop the votes going over and if you don’t manage to control migration when that is what your voters are concerned about, your voters will look to other parties.
“So I think failing to deliver on Conservative core principles did us a lot of harm.”
Sir Jacob added: “The mandate is increasingly personal and this looks like a very strong mandate for Keir Starmer, and actually, if that is the case I wish him well in that.”
George Galloway expected to lost Rochdale seat
George Galloway is expected to lose his Rochdale seat to Labour, according to the exit poll.
Mr Galloway, leader of the Workers Party of Britain, won the seat in a February by-election, overturning a Labour majority of 9,668.
The former Labour and Respect party MP, has held four different seats in parliament since 1987. Labour’s Paul Waugh is expected to win with a 99 per cent likelihood.
Analysis: First result suggests a very good night for Reform UK ahead
Read all our latest analysis from Political Editor David Maddox here:
Bridget Phillipson, who is expected to be education secretary, has become the first MP elected in the 2024 general election with a majority of just over 7,000.
But the real story of this first seat is the massive Reform UK vote of 11,668 in Sunderland South - the seat which first heralded the Brexit result in the 2016 EU referendum.
The Reform candidate got twice the support of the Tories and if this is repeated around the country it is going to be a very good night for Nigel Farage and bad for Mr Sunak.
Nigel Farage praises ‘amazing’ exit poll results
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has reacted to the exit poll results on Thursday evening. The results show that the upstart right-wing party could win 13 seats.
This would include Mr Farage potentially winning the Clacton seat and the party’s chair Richard Tice, in a strong position to win the Boston and Skegness seat.
Mr Farage said: “It’s been amazing ‘We’ll see what happens but if that’s the result that would be a massive first step for this - I’m going to call it a movement - a political party is only part of what we’re all about.
“This is a movement to represent ordinary folk, the silent majority. So look, that looks to me to be very good news”.
Lib Dem deputy leader praises ‘phenomenal leadership’ of Sir Ed Davey
Daisy Cooper said her party is on for a “once-in-a-century” result.
The Liberal Democrat deputy leader told the BBC: “Well, it does look like we’re on course for a once-in-a-century result for the Liberal Democrats and I think that is testament to the phenomenal leadership of Ed Davey who has lit up this campaign and our positive vision and our plans for how we want to save the NHS and fix social care.”
Quizzed about the “antics” of her party’s leader Sir Ed Davey, Ms Cooper replied: “It worked and the fact of the matter is, we’ve said time and again that whilst we don’t take ourselves that seriously, we do take our politics very seriously.
“And with every single one of those stunts there was a very serious message about our plans to end the scandal of raw sewage dumping, to fix the NHS, to put mental health practitioners into every single school, we have talked about the NHS and social care week after week after week and many of those stunts have helped us to do that.”
The party deputy leader said the Lib Dems had wanted to “unseat as many Conservative MPs as possible”, and admitted some people had voted “tactically” while others would have supported her party “positively for our vision on the NHS and social care”.
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