Farage’s Reform UK overtakes PM Sunak’s Conservatives in poll for first time

[Musings]

The furlough scheme has to be the most stupid, uneconomic, costly and divisive scheme any government has ever put in place. Who would have thought paying people 80% of their salary to do nothing would (1) support the economy (2) save jobs in the long run or (3) not create a massive tax burden for those who are still working? I get as a knee jerk reaction it may have been the only option but maybe 3 months max -? I think the new government this weekneeds to force ALL public sector & companies back to work. Too many are taking the easy way out. I think this tanker has sailed ages ago. Every thing from the trains , buses, have not recovered since lockdowns and will never do I think liar Starmer and tories are the both useless.

I work in the pharmacy industry.
When COVID hit - each shop was given a payment of £40,000 overnight -
No warning - to put plastic screens up and protect staff. Imagine having 24 shops? - cost £3,000 per shop tops.
You do the maths bro……..

 

[KingQamaR]

Unfortunately politicians these days lacks spines. People have been used to free ride on taxpayers back.

We have the same problem in Norway but petrouleum dollars make it a lot more easier to keep the economy afloat.

In the end, a society cannot thrive from being used to recieving free handouts and cutting eachothers hair. Europe needs more industrial production.
We need bold left/center leaning politicians who think and act like they did in the first two decades after WW2.
We need massive concerted programs to build affordable housing, setting up industries and creating jobs for everyone.

In the U.K. we got, The malingering Charlie chaplains and the "single" buggy pushers with working boyfriends don't intend to get back to work, they just intend to carry on scrounging. Someone needs to take back control while there is still anything left of the economy. If not the UK is heading for the biggest crash in History. Europe is going same way. Look at the main drivers of the U.K. growth, the service sector, professional services, transport and storage, just imagine what the figure could be if we actually manufactured things. Uks first large infrastructure project HS2 What a shambles! A huge waste of money which could and should have been put to better use in repairing and maintaining roads and extending local branch lines...

 

[Yommie]

Farage slams FA for emasculating young men as poll puts him on course to win

NIGEL Farage sparked a fresh row with the Football Association as a new poll put him on course to win his Clacton seat. The Brexit champion accused the FA of emasculating young men by banning chant…

www.thesun.co.uk

NIGEL FACTOR

Farage slams FA for emasculating young men as poll puts him on course to win in Clacton​

He embarked on a last-ditch bid to finally win a seat in Parliament

• Martina Bet
• Published: 23:35, 3 Jul 2024
• Updated: 9:03, 4 Jul 2024

NIGEL Farage sparked a fresh row with the Football Association as a new poll put him on course to win his Clacton seat.
The Brexit champion accused the FA of emasculating young men by banning chants at footie matches.
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S
He insisted this suppression is why he and controversial influencer Andrew Tate have such massive followings among young men.
He first visited a boxing club in Clacton before speaking to hundreds of people - young and old - at a rally on the iconic pier of the Essex constituency.
His comments came as he embarked on a last-ditch bid to finally win a seat in Parliament with boxing star Derek Chisora by his side.
He arrived to loud cheers in a military vehicle before popping his head out to deliver his speech from its top.

It is Mr Farage's eighth bid to become an MP and a major poll has today predicted he is finally set to win.
The YouGov poll found Reform UK would win three seats, giving his campaign a huge boost.
As he spoke to reporters near a boxing ring, Mr Farage said about his appeal with young male voters: “I think a lot of young men feel emasculated.
"Look at the football. They’re told go to Germany, please don’t drink more than two pints of beer – you what? Don’t chant at the football matches – you what? Oh, don’t tell jokes that might offend the Germans, I mean, come on.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/28948571/british-man-jay-slater-airbnb-vanishing-says-left-alive/
Asked about who is trying to “stop young men being young men”, he said: “Everybody, everybody… Actually, the Football Association giving out these messages – ‘don’t chant at a football match’.

"If I couldn’t drink beer and chant at a football match when I was 21 I wouldn’t go.”
Mr Farage also insisted he would stay on as leader of the Reform if he loses.

On the party's electoral prospect, he added: "This time next week you will find that Labour have got 37 percent (of the national vote) and their biggest ever majority.
"Reform will have got a huge number of votes and seats not commensurate with that number.
"And the demand for electoral reform by this time next week will be in full cry. It’s coming."

 

[Khansaheeb]

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/uk-general-election-results-2024-intl/index.html

​

Labour set for UK election landslide, exit poll predicts​

By Rob Picheta, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Billy Stockwell, Peter Wilkinson and Sarah Tilotta, CNN
Updated 10:23 PM EDT, Thu July 4, 2024




By Anna Stewart, CNN
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Exit poll: 'Landslide' for Labour as Reform UK and Liberal Democrats make gains
01:31 - Source: CNN

What we're covering​

• Labour’s Keir Starmer looks set to become the UK’s next prime minister after an exit poll projected a landslide win for his party. He said the country is “ready for change” after winning his seat in north London.
• The poll predicts a disastrous night ahead for the Conservative Party, forecasting its lowest-ever total number of seats and bringing a brutal end to Rishi Sunak’s premiership.
• Votes are now being counted, with dozens of seats already declared and further constituencies being announced over the coming hours.
• We’ll have results, analysis and context throughout the night here and across CNN’s platforms.

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14 min ago

Two Cabinet ministers lose seconds apart​

From CNN's Lauren Said-Moorhouse and Rob Picheta in London
Two Conservative Cabinet ministers have lost their seats just seconds apart, as the scale of the Tories’ misery increases on a devastating election night.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps lost his seat to Labour in Welwyn Hatfield, the most high-profile defeat of the night so far.
Shapps has held a number of Cabinet positions under different prime ministers, including energy security and net zero secretary, business, energy and industrial strategy secretary and home secretary. He was elected to parliament in 2005.
He lost his seat to Labour’s Andrew Lewin, who won by 3,799 votes. It’s quite the fall from grace after he secured his seat back in 2019 with a majority of almost 11,000 votes.
“It’s not so much that Labour won this election, but rather that the Conservatives has lost it,” Shapps said in his speech. He said the party has “tried the patience” of its traditional voters, and become “increasingly indulgent.”
He had been one of a number of prominent Tory candidates expected to lose their seat after the exit poll released.
Almost at the same time, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk lost his seat to the Liberal Democrats.
The twin defeats painted the perfect picture of a miserable night for the Conservatives, who have been carved up by Labour and the Lib Dems across the country.
And it could get worse – more Cabinet ministers are at risk, including the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt – in what could be an unprecedented evening.

11 min ago

What the UK front pages are looking like​

From CNN's Lauren Said-Moorhouse in London
We’re starting to get a glimpse of the Friday morning front pages which are obviously being dominated by the results of the exit poll, which foreshadows a Labour landslide and an undeniably poor showing from the Conservatives.
The Sun has opted to emphasize Labour’s win with the electoral map and a front page emblazoned with “Britain sees red.”
Tabloid paper the Daily Mirror has a full page shot of the Labour leader and his wife as they cast their vote on Thursday, with the headline: “KEIR WE GO.”
Meanwhile, the Daily Express has gone with “CRUSHING BLOW TO TORY PARTY IN ELECTION WIPEOUT” with a photo of Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak and his wife.

22 min ago

Keir Starmer says "it is time for us to deliver" after winning seat​

From CNN's Rob Picheta and Billy Stockwell in London

Labour leader Keir Starmer reacts after winning the constituency of Holborn and St Pancras during the UK general election on July 5, in London, England.
Keir Starmer, who seems likely to be Britain’s next prime minister, said the country is “ready for change” after winning his seat in north London.
“Tonight, people here and around the country have spoken. They are ready for change,” Starmer said at the count.
“The change begins right here because this is your democracy, your community and your future. You have voted and now it is time for us to deliver.”
Starmer was beaming as he arrived at the count, posing for selfies and taking his time to work his way through supporters and activists.
On stage, he was joined by a number of novelty candidates – including one dressed as Elmo – a unique feature of British democracy.
“I promise this: Whether you voted for me or not, I will serve every person in this constituency,” Starmer said.

43 min ago

Left-wing populist George Galloway loses his seat to Labour​

By CNN's Rob Picheta in London

George Galloway speaks during a press conference on Parliament Square in London, on April 30.
Labour has narrowly defeated the left-wing populist George Galloway in a key race in Rochdale, easing concerns within the party that its stance on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza had damaged its reputation among Muslim voters.
Galloway won this seat months ago in a by-election, running on a heavily pro-Palestinian platform in the northwestern English town, which has a large Muslim population.
But Labour has returned to power in the constituency, beating Galloway by 33% to 29%.
Labour was initially strongly supportive of Israel’s war against Hamas, but it has become increasingly critical of its conduct in Gaza and now supports a ceasefire, along with the return of hostages held by Hamas.
Its early response nonetheless hit its support among Muslim voters during May’s local elections, a trend that has worried many in the party.

56 min ago

Populist Reform UK party wins its first seat of the night​

From CNN's Rob Picheta in London

Lee Anderson addresses delegates during a rally in Stafford, England, on June 23.
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has won election in Ashfield, giving the right-wing populist group its first victory of the night.
Anderson was formerly the deputy chair of the Conservative Party, but he defected to Reform in January, criticizing Rishi Sunak’s record on controlling migration.
He called Ashfield the “capital of common sense,” telling people at his count: “This wonderful place which I call my home is going to have a massive say in how this country is shaped in the future. I want my country back and Ashfield can play their part in that.”
Winning this seat was a key target for the right-wing party, and it will hope to add a second soon, when results are announced in Clacton, where the party’s leader Nigel Farage is standing.
Reform were projected to win 13 seats in the exit poll. But the party earlier failed to pick up two seats in which the exit poll had projected them winners, suggesting it may fall short of that eye-catching overall predicted figure.
“Reports of my demise had been greatly exaggerated,” Labour’s Dan Jarvis joked, after winning Barnsley North despite the exit poll projecting he would lose it to Reform.

1 hr 25 min ago

"I've watched colleagues say stupid things:" Furious backlash underway among Conservatives​

From CNN's Rob Picheta and Billy Stockwell in London

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a campaign visit to Stoke, England, on July 1.
An angry backlash among Conservatives has begun, with senior Tory figures hitting out at the direction of the party under Rishi Sunak.
Robert Buckland, the former justice minister who was ousted by Labour in Swindon earlier this evening, launched a blistering attack on his former colleagues after becoming the first Tory to lose their seat earlier tonight.
“I’m fed up with performance art politics,” Buckland told the BBC. “I’ve watched colleagues in the Conservative Party strike poses, write inflammatory op-eds and say stupid things they have no evidence for instead of concentrating on doing the job that they were elected to do.
“I think we’ve seen in this election astonishing ill-discipline within the party,” he added.
And the party was attacked from the right, too.
Andrea Leadsom, a former business secretary, told the BBC the party was no longer “Conservative enough,” and said voters are “sick of all this woke stuff.”
It epitomizes the problem Sunak has faced throughout his premiership: an inability to appease either the left or right flanks of his party.
Sunak has flirted with populist messaging — particularly on migration — and promoted right-wing colleagues to government posts. But those decisions often ended in rows, such as with Lee Anderson and Suella Braverman, both of whom quit their roles in protest at Sunak’s failure to bring down illegal migration.
Sunak has meanwhile failed to build bridges with the moderate wing of his party, with many center-right lawmakers alienated by his approach and imploring the party to compete with Labour for votes in the center ground of British politics.

1 hr 25 min ago

Starmer has "net unfavorability ratings" despite predicted landslide for Labour, expert tells CNN​

From CNN's Catherine Nicholls in London

Labour leader Keir Starmer appears at an event in Southampton, England, on June 17.
Despite a predicted landslide win for the UK’s Labour Party, its leader Keir Starmer may have some work to do on his favorability raings, according to one think tank director.
“We see net unfavorability ratings for Keir Starmer, even though he’s going to have this massive, massive majority,” Anand Menon, director of think tank UK in a Changing Europe told CNN. “Beneath this sort of happy story for Labour, there are some warning signs about levels of dissatisfaction with prevailing political trends in this country.”
Menon noted that Starmer intends to “reset relations with European states and the European Union” after a tumultuous few years between the UK and EU after Brexit.
People in the UK are “disillusioned,” said Menon, who is a professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London. “If you look at the polling, there’s a significant majority of people saying Brexit was the wrong decision, not the right decision.”
“If you do a focus group with voters, they might say Brexit has been bad, Brexit has been a failure. But if you say to them, how about we do another referendum then and go through it all again? You will get a collective eyeroll and a groan and say actually, please, let’s not go through that again,” he told CNN.

1 hr 15 min ago

How Labour's "ming vase" campaign steered it to victory​

Analysis from CNN's Rob Picheta in London

Campaign signage for Britain's Labour party is seen in Guildford, England, on June 14, ahead of the UK general election.
The Labour Party had a very good problem at the start when the election was called: How do you run a campaign that absolutely everyone expects you to win?
Keir Starmer’s party had enjoyed a double-digit lead in opinion polls for the entirety of Rishi Sunak’s premiership, which began in October 2022, and was guaranteed to win the election as long as it didn’t rock the boat during the six-week campaign.
Labour appealed to an electorate tired of the Tories’ chaotic period in government with a single-word slogan: “Change.” But Starmer simultaneously followed a path that some party strategists took to calling a “ming vase” approach, metaphorically looking after a precious and delicate lead in opinion polls. The party repeated its key themes, avoided the temptation to unveil any major policy announcements, and pledged time after time that the party would keep a tight lid on public finances.
The party’s manifesto was modest, pledging to revive Britain’s flagging public services without a large injection of cash. That has raised eyebrows by independent watchdogs, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), which said their public spending offer was “tiny, going on trivial.”
But that was a calculation Labour has stuck to, as they sought to gain a reputation as a sensible, moderate party that can appeal to former Tory voters.
Starmer avoided gaffes, and didn’t interrupt his opponent Rishi Sunak when he was making mistakes of his own.
And he became an increasingly difficult rival for the Conservatives to land successful attacks against. Sunak strived to convince voters that Starmer would increase taxes, make Britain less safe, and that he didn’t have the stamina for the job of prime minister — but none of these charges appear to have stuck.

1 hr 43 min ago

Labour’s projected victory is a personal triumph for Keir Starmer that once seemed impossible​

Analysis by CNN's Luke McGee in London

Labour leader Keir Starmer smiles on the final day of campaigning in Whitland, Wales, on July 3.
The Labour Party’s projected victory marks a historic moment in modern British political history and a huge personal triumph for Keir Starmer, the Labour leader who is set to become the country’s next prime minister.
The UK broadcasters’ exit poll suggests Labour will have a parliamentary majority of 170, returning the party to office for the first time since it lost the 2010 election to the Conservatives, who have been in power ever since.
Starmer’s victory is all the more remarkable considering the journey that Labour has been on since the last general election in 2019. Then, the party suffered its worst loss in a generation under former leader Jeremy Corbyn, who stood on a hard-left platform.
A path back to credibility and even being competitive in a general election looked potentially a decade off, as the Conservatives emerged triumphant from the carnage of Brexit under the charismatic – but chaotic – leadership of Boris Johnson.
Johnson not only defeated his political rivals, but completely upended the norms of British politics. Under his leadership, his party won seats in traditional working-class Labour areas once deemed out of reach to Conservatives. For a year at least, he seemed untouchable.
It was in this context that Starmer took control of a broken Labour Party on April 4, 2020. On that day, David Lammy, one of his Labour colleagues, took him to one side and warned Starmer: “Set yourself a 10-year cycle. You might just lose the next election, and then you can go again.”
According to Lammy, Starmer smiled and said “No, I can do this in five.”
Read more here

2 hr 5 min ago

Labour will work with Trump if he becomes US president, UK's shadow foreign secretary says​

From CNN's Catherine Nicholls in London

Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy attends a Welsh Labour general election campaign event in Abergavenny, Wales, on May 30.
A Labour government would work with Donald Trump if he is voted back in as US president, the UK’s shadow foreign secretary has said. Labour is projected to win 410 seats in the British election and take a massive parliamentary majority of 170 seats, according to the exit poll.
When asked if Labour would work with Trump, David Lammy told ITV his party would work “with whomever the American people decide should be incumbent at the White House.”
He noted that both the UK and US are “democratic countries,” highlighting that the two countries work successfully together in areas such as intelligence and armed forces.
“I look forward to working with Tony Blinken and Joe Biden over the coming months and then we’ll see,” Lammy said.

1 hr 35 min ago

"The British people have chosen change:" Labour politicians react with delight to exit poll​

From CNN's Billy Stockwell in London

Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks at an event on July 3, in East Kilbride, Scotland.
Senior Labour politicians have praised Keir Starmer for taking his party to the “cusp of power” following its projected success in the exit poll.
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said he was “delighted” by the exit poll, which he called “remarkable.”
“I’ve seen many exit polls over the years. They don’t tend to look like these ones, and if we have won this general election, that is historic for the Labour Party,” he told the BBC.
In the first victory speech of the night, Labour shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who won Houghton and Sunderland South, said the British people have “chosen the leadership of Keir Starmer.”
“Tonight the British people have spoken and if the exit poll this evening is again a guide to results across our country – as it so often is – then after 14 years the British people have chosen change,” she said.
Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said Starmer had demonstrated “a sense of conviction and confidence.”
“It’s been difficult, there have been some wobbly moments… In my wildest dreams, four and a half years ago, did I think we’d be here? No,” he told the BBC. He added that the Labour Party under the leadership of Starmer has been taken to “the cusp of power.”

2 hr 27 min ago

"This, folks, is huge." Farage celebrates exit poll and falsely criticizes media​

From CNN's Billy Stockwell in London

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage arrives to deliver a stump speech to supporters on July 3, in Clacton-on-Sea, England.
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage has described his party’s projected success in the UK election as “huge.”
In a video posted on X, Farage said: “It’s midnight. There are two results in from the northeast of England that put Reform on 30% of the vote. That is way more than any possible prediction or projection. It’s almost unbelievable.”
The UK broadcasters’ exit poll predicts that Reform – which did not exist in its current form at the last UK general election – will win 13 seats.
“What does it mean? It means we’re going to win seats. Many, many seats, I think, right now across the country,” Farage added.
“This is going to be six million votes plus. This, folks, is huge.”
Farage also attacked the media claiming that no Reform spokespeople were featured in election night coverage. “There’s not a single representative on there from Reform UK,” he said – a claim that was demonstrably false. Britain’s Channel 4 played the clip and then cut directly to a Reform representative in the studio, Ann Widdecombe.
The BBC and Sky News had featured David Bull, the deputy leader of Reform, prominently in their live coverage.

2 hr 47 min ago

As Europe turns right, why is a center-left party projected to win by a landslide in the UK?​

Analysis by CNN's Luke McGee in London

People celebrate exit poll results at a "Stop The Tories" election afterparty in London, on July 4.
The United Kingdom’s decision to hand the center-left Labour Party a parliamentary majority, according to the exit poll, comes at the same time Europe is broadly in the grip of what some call a right-wing populist surge.
Last month’s European elections saw a historic number of lawmakers from hard-right and far-right parties elected to the European Parliament. The results caused such chaos that French President Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election in his own country, the first round of which the far-right National Rally won last week.
A government comprised of far-right figures was formed in the Netherlands this week. Italy is led by the most right-wing leader since the rule of fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini. These electoral victories and the prospect of populist right-wingers in power is no longer a surprise in European countries.
There are many reasons for this rise in populism, often unique to individual countries. But broadly speaking, a number of European countries are suffering from sluggish economies, high immigration and higher energy prices, due in part to the drive for carbon net zero. The European Union is often blamed for national woes by populist politicians and breathes oxygen into an increasingly Euroskeptic national discourse.
So why is Britain, the only country where Euroskepticism led to a referendum on EU membership, projected to buck this trend?
Despite the expected seat count, the British right is far from dead. The Conservative Party, despite its undeniably disappointing night, is set to outperform the expectations of a number of opinion polls during the campaign, some of which had it down to double digits in parliament.
Another party that is set to exceed polling expectations is the populist right-wing Reform UK, led by long-term scourge of the Conservatives, Nigel Farage, who is perhaps best known these days for his friendship with former US President Donald Trump. Before this, he was credited with making Brexit possible after decades of campaigning against the UK’s membership of the EU.
Farage’s political success to date has all come without him holding a parliamentary seat. Now he is not only projected to have a seat himself, but also 12 colleagues to hurl grenades at Labour leader Keir Starmer. While this may seem small fry compared to Starmer’s anticipated three-figure majority, Farage will no doubt influence the debate on the future direction of the Conservative Party, possibly dragging it further to the right.
It is possible that Farage’s splitting of the right has actually helped Starmer increase his majority in parliament. An odd quirk of British politics is that the percentage of votes a party gets doesn’t necessarily translate to seats. And with Reform performing well in many of the seats that Labour will ultimately win, the hard-right will not only be impossible to ignore in this parliament, but it could easily see its influence grow further.
Britain suffers from many of the same problems as other European countries. If Starmer falters as prime minister, there is every chance that the popular right could continue to capture the public’s imagination, as it has elsewhere in Europe.

3 hr 10 min ago

Labour gains first new seat of the night, sweeping out a former Conservative minister in Swindon South​

From CNN's Rob Picheta in London
The first of many Labour gains has just been announced – the party has taken Swindon South from the Conservatives.
Robert Buckland, who served as a justice minister in Boris Johnson’s government, has been ousted by Heidi Alexander, a former Labour MP who returned to contest this seat.
The seat, in western England, was won by the Conservatives last time with an 11% lead, according to the notional results. But Labour earned a thumping majority this time – they won 21,676 votes to the Conservatives’ 12,070.

3 hr 2 min ago

A disastrous Conservative campaign puts the party on the brink of a worst-ever defeat​

From CNN's Christian Edwards in London

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers a speech calling for a general election outside 10 Downing Street in London, on May 22.
The sight was pitiful – and could easily have been avoided. When Rishi Sunak called the snap vote outside 10 Downing Street, he was drowned out – first by the pouring rain, then by the sound of the D:Ream song “Things Can Only Get Better,” the anthem of Labour’s 1997 election landslide, blaring from a nearby boombox.
Things did not get better for the Conservatives. The campaign went from bad to worse, ending in what is projected to be a heavy defeat. Trying to make smalltalk at a Welsh brewery at an early campaign event, Sunak asked punters if they were excited for the soccer, only to be reminded that Wales had not qualified for the ongoing European Championship. In another campaign stop at the Northern Ireland shipyard that built the Titanic, Sunak, seemingly unaware of the irony, was asked if he, too, was captaining a sinking ship.
But those gaffes look minor when compared to Sunak’s disastrous decision to leave the 80th anniversary commemorations of the D-Day landings early to give a routine TV interview that would not air until the following week. The Tories’ patriotic heartlands were outraged: The prime minister left veterans on the beaches. Nigel Farage, the leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, was delighted: Here was an opportunity to snatch more votes from dyspeptic Tories.
Meanwhile, one last sleaze scandal had been brewing. It was revealed that two Conservative candidates and its director of campaigning were under investigation by the gambling watchdog for allegedly placing bets on the date of the general election.
“Gamble-gate,” as it became known, summed up what for many voters may be their lasting impression of the outgoing Conservative government: A prime minister too weak to control many of his party, and a party more interested in its own fortunes than those of the country.

3 hr 12 min ago

In pictures: Labour Party leader Keir Starmer​

CNN Photos
The center-left Labour Party will win Britain’s general election by a landslide, according to a major exit poll, ending a 14-year era of Conservative rule in decisive fashion and putting its leader Keir Starmer on course to become prime minister.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer makes a campaign speech in Redditch, England, in July 2024, a day before the general election. Starmer has been Labour Party leader since April 2020.
Once a leading human-rights lawyer, Starmer became director of public prosecutions in 2008, running the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales — a high-profile job for which he was knighted, making him the first-ever Labour leader to enter the job with the prefix Sir to their name.

Keir Starmer arrives at London's High Court in 2012 to give evidence at the Leveson Inquiry, which looked into the culture, practices and ethics of the media.
Starmer, 61, has promised to be the agent of change that Britain needs. He has pledged to grow the country’s economy by reforming planning laws and investing in a new industrial strategy. He has said he will set up a national wealth fund with £7.3 billion ($9.2 billion) of public money that will help pay for the transition to net zero emissions.
Critics on the right say that Starmer will need to raise taxes to fund his plans, while skeptics on the left say his manifesto is not bold or ambitious enough to change Britain for the better.

Starmer speaks at the House of Commons in December 2022.
See more photos from Starmer’s career.

3 hr 51 min ago

Labour win a second seat, and the Conservatives slump again​

From CNN's Rob Picheta in London
Labour has won Blyth and Ashington, the second seat of the night to declare, with the populist Reform UK party again putting in a strong showing and coming second.
Labour won 50% of the vote to Reform’s 27%, and the Tories slipped to 15%.
This is a new constituency, created after the boundaries of the UK’s 650 seats were adjusted following the most recent election in 2019. The borders of most seats in the country have changed at least slightly since that vote, as they do every few decades.
But Labour would have won this seat with 48% of the vote had it existed in 2019, to the Conservatives’ 34%, according to notional calculations.

3 hr 58 min ago

The UK's exit poll is usually very accurate​

Ballot boxes are emptied at Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, on Thursday, July 4.
A reminder: the UK’s election exit poll is usually a very accurate barometer of how many seats each party has won.
But, as politicians are reminding broadcasters, it is just a poll.
The exit poll was conducted Thursday at polling stations across the country, collecting a huge sample from across the UK of how people voted. It is then modelled by a panel of experts, and closely guarded from the public and the media.
In 2019, the exit poll predicted the Conservatives would win 368 seats, just three more than they did when the final results were in. Two years earlier, it missed the Tories’ seat total by three, this time in the opposite direction.

3 hr 52 min ago

The first results from the night are in​

From CNN's Rob Picheta in London

Bridget Phillipson, Labour's shadow Education Secretary, speaks after winning the Houghton and Sunderland South constituency on July 4.
Sunderland South has won the race to declare the first results of the night – and they show a solid Labour result and a huge uptick for the populist party Reform UK.
Labour held the seat, as it was virtually certain to do, and Reform overtook the Conservatives to take second place.
Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow Education Secretary, becomes the first MP to be elected into the new parliament.
What the results indicate: Labour won 47% of the vote in the seat, while Reform picked up 29%. The Conservatives slipped to just 14%.
This is a traditional Labour stronghold, though the party won it by a narrower margin at the 2019 election – picking up 41% of the vote to 33% for the Conservatives.
More clues as to the results of the night will come soon, as a handful of seats are expected to declare in the next half hour.
But Conservatives will be concerned by their drop in Sunderland, while Reform will be hopeful that it can establish itself as a second-placed party in many more seats, while gaining a handful across the country.

3 hr 49 min ago

Exit poll projection of a Labour landslide has margins similar to Tony Blair's 1997 win​

From CNN's Catherine Nicholls in London

Tony Blair arrives in Downing Street in London, following his 1997 election victory.
Labour’s predicted landslide win is a similar margin to the one that swept the party’s then leader Tony Blair into Downing Street in 1997, according to Gideon Skinner, senior UK Director of Politics at market research company Ipsos.
Skinner told CNN the predicted Labour win could be due, in part, to tactical voting among typical Labour and Liberal Democrat voters.
In 1997, Blair’s Labour party won 418 seats, the largest majority of seats since 1945. The Conservative Party won 165 seats.
According to this year’s exit poll, Labour will win 410 seats. That will hand Keir Starmer a massive parliamentary majority of 170 seats, just shy of the party’s greatest-ever result.
The Conservatives drop to just 131 seats, a stunning collapse by a governing party, according to the poll.

4 hr 22 min ago

“A massacre:” Senior Tories react to exit poll results​

From CNN's Billy Stockwell in London

The general election exit poll is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House in London on July 4.
Senior Conservative politicians have responded with shock to the Labour Party’s projected landslide win in Britain’s general election.
Ruth Davidson, the former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, told Sky News: “There is no dressing it up, this is a massacre.”
Former Conservative Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, who is forecast to lose his seat, told Sky News that he is “used to what defeat looks like and I’m prepared for it.” But he said he hoped his political life would continue. “I’ll be leaving parliament to spend more time on politics,” he quipped.
Steve Baker, who was Rishi Sunak’s Minister of State for Northern Ireland, told the BBC that “it’s a pretty devastating night for the Conservative Party.” Baker is also projected to lose his seat.
Baker said that he’s got a “great deal of respect for Rishi Sunak.” He later added: “I think he will do what he believes is in the national interest.”
Shortly before polls closed at 10 p.m., Sunak thanked voters on X. He said: “To the hundreds of Conservative candidates, thousands of volunteers and millions of voters: Thank you for your hard work, thank you for your support, and thank you for your vote.”

4 hr 26 min ago

How each party has fared in the exit poll​

From CNN's Rob Picheta in London

Labour is projected to win 410 seats, and a massive majority of 170 seats. This would fall just short of the party’s best-ever result, in 1997, when Tony Blair’s Labour won 418 seats, a majority of 179. The result is in line with what pollsters had projected for Labour, which has enjoyed a huge lead in public opinion for years and had held onto that advantage throughout the campaign.
For the Conservatives, the result is calamitous. The party, which has earned a reputation over the decades as a ruthless election winner, is projected to win just suffer its worst result since its modern iteration was formed in the 1830s. It is an overwhelming rejection of a ruling party by the British electorate, which has dumped the party from government.
The centrist Liberal Democrats will be pleased with their result, which puts them on course to return as the UK’s third-largest party. The group has suffered since it joined the Tories in a coalition government between 2010 and 2015, but voters have seemingly forgiven them for that stint.
The Scottish National Party, a pro-independence group that has dominated politics in Scotland for a generation, will be devastated with the forecast. It signals that the Labour Party has regained its historic strength in Scotland and represents a setback for the Scottish independence movement.
And Reform UK, the right-wing populist group led by Nigel Farage, has been forecast to win more seats that most pollsters expected. Farage has hammered the Conservatives on their failure to bring down legal and illegal migration, and had been expected to win the seat where he was standing in Clacton, east of London.

4 hr 59 min ago

Keir Starmer thanks voters and campaigners, as exit poll puts him on the cusp of power​

Labour leader Keir Starmer has thanked campaigners and voters, but he hasn’t commented yet on the results of the exit poll that forecast him a huge majority.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the exit poll numbers were “encouraging.”
“Keir Starmer has done a tremendous job of transforming the Labour Party and putting forward a program for government that I’m hopeful that people have got behind,” she told BBC immediately after the poll numbers dropped.
Rayner said it would “be an absolute honor and a privilege to be reelected,” but added, “I’m not counting my chickens until we’ve got those results coming in.”

4 hr 58 min ago

See the full exit poll results​

An exit poll is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House in London, on July 4.