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Andrew London

Agencies

This live blog has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. Get faster notifications on the latest updates by downloading our app.
Welcome to the Post’s live coverage of the 2024 UK general election. Keir Starmer has been appointed Britain’s next prime minister after leading the Labour Party to a landslide victory.
Starmer pledged “change begins now” in his victory speech early Friday as outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat, ending 14 years of Conservatives in power.
Labour won at least 412 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, a massive majority. The Conservatives were reduced to 121 seats, losing more than 200 - their worst ever electoral performance. The Liberal Democrats won 71 - their best ever performance.
Follow the Post’s live blog for election race results and reactions as they come in.




Coverage so far:
- At 10 Downing Street, UK’s Keir Starmer has a large in-tray of problems
- Nigel Farage promises trouble after election to UK parliament
– Hongkongers in UK flex political muscles as the country goes to the polls


UK writer Samantha Harvey’s Orbital wins Booker Prize for fiction

Chinese foreign ministry’s arm in Hong Kong hits out after UK official meets Jimmy Lai son

Church of England head Justin Welby resigns over handling of ‘horrific’ sex abuse scandal

Meet Kate Middleton’s university roommate, Laura Warshauer: also known as Gigi Rowe, the singer used to party with the princess at St Andrews, and Jay-Z called her ‘fantastically talented’

Britain

As it happened: Keir Starmer appointed UK prime minister as Labour takes power

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer celebrates victory early Friday. Photo: AP

News

World

Europe

The UK Labour Party clinches a historic election victory, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule


Keir Starmer pledged ‘change begins now’ after leading Britain’s Labour Party to a historic election victory.


Rishi Sunak

European Union

UK economy

Live

An exit poll commissioned by the main UK broadcasters predicts the Labour Party will win 410 seats, beating the Conservatives with 131 seats. That’s a majority of 170 seats.
How close to the mark that is will be known in a few hours when official results are confirmed in the early hours Friday, UK time. For example, the exit poll in the 2019 election predicted 368 seats for the Conservatives and 191 for Labour. The final result was 365 to 203.


The exit poll is in ...

The UK uses a first-past-the-post system. In this system, the candidate who receives the most votes in each constituency wins that seat in parliament. To form a government with an overall majority, a party needs to secure at least 326 out of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
However, the practical threshold for a majority is slightly lower than 326. This is because the Speaker of the House and their three deputies, who are all sitting MPs, do not typically vote in parliament. By convention, the Speaker runs for re-election in their constituency as an independent and is usually unopposed by major parties.
In the last general election, held on December 12, 2019, Boris Johnson led the Conservative Party to a decisive victory. The Conservatives won 365 seats, well above the majority threshold, while the Labour Party, as the main opposition, secured 203 seats.
The Scottish National Party won 48, followed by the Liberal Democrats on 11.
Northern Ireland’s pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party secured eight seats, with Sinn Fein on seven, and Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru on four.


Seats and votes: how the UK election works

Some more predictions from the exit poll: the centrist Liberal Democrats will capture 61 seats while Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK is forecast to win 13.
In the last six national elections, only one exit poll has got the outcome wrong - in 2015 when the poll predicted a hung parliament when in fact the Conservatives won a majority. Official results will follow over the next few hours.


Lib Dems to capture 61 seats: exit poll


Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, is poised to become prime minister, according to an exit poll. At 61, Starmer brings a diverse background to the role, having worked as both a human rights lawyer and a state prosecutor before entering politics.
Named after Keir Hardie, one of Labour’s founders, Starmer represents a shift for the party. He’s the most working-class leader Labour has had in decades.
Opinions on Starmer vary widely. Critics describe him as uninspiring, even dull, while supporters praise his pragmatic, managerial approach. Former Labour candidate Douglas Beattie, author of the book How Labour Wins (and Why it Loses), says Starmer’s “quiet stability probably chimes with the mood of the country right now”.
Starmer’s journey to political leadership began in 2015 when he was elected as a member of parliament for a constituency in north London. Though knighted by Queen Elizabeth, he rarely uses the title “Sir”.
In 2020, he succeeded Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader, following the party’s worst electoral defeat since 1935 in the 2019 general election.


Who is Keir Starmer?

The Labour Party is on course to win 410 seats with the Conservatives reduced to 131, according to the exit poll. That’s a majority of 170 seats.
If that prediction is correct, it does not match the record level in 1997 when Labour swept into power under Tony Blair, after 18 years in opposition. Back then, the Labour Party captured 418 seats with a majority of 179.
“To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party - thank you,” Labour leader Keir Starmer wrote on social media.

To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party - thank you. https://t.co/q6yDNPnAbo
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) July 4, 2024



How Labour’s predicted win compares to Blair’s 1997 landslide

The Scottish National Party is set for its worst showing at a British parliamentary election since 2010. An exit poll projects it will win just 10 seats amid a predicted resurgence for the Labour Party in its traditional heartlands.
The SNP, which held 43 seats before the election was called, has suffered from a period of turmoil that has seen two leaders quit in little over a year, a police investigation into the party’s finances and splits on a range of policies including its attempts to secure a second referendum on independence.
Former leader Nicola Sturgeon said the exit poll was at the “grimmer end of expectations” for her party, but said she expected it would be proved broadly correct.
The SNP has dominated the British parliament’s Scottish seats since 2015, garnering the support of pro-independence voters in the wake of a 2014 referendum where Scots voted to remain part of the United Kingdom by 55 per cent to 45 per cent.
While the 2014 referendum failed to deliver independence, it did unite many supporters of the cause behind the SNP, which won so dominantly in 2015, 2017 and 2019 that it was the third largest party in the Westminster parliament despite contesting fewer than 10 per cent of possible seats.


Scottish National Party set for worst election showing since 2010

Rishi Sunak’s term as prime minister looks set to end in electoral disaster, with the Conservatives forecast to endure heavy losses.
Sunak’s Conservatives are set to have their seats in the 650-seat House of Commons cut down to 131, according to an exit poll. That would be the Tories’ worst result in the party’s two-century history and one that would leave the party in disarray.
Sunak is expected to resign after leading his party to defeat, but many of the contenders jostling to replace him are nervously awaiting their own constituency results to see if their leadership dreams survive the night.
The likes of Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, Suella Braverman, Steve Baker and Robert Jenrick all face battles to return to parliament.
Former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, security minister Tom Tugendhat and Health Secretary Victoria Atkins could survive to fight for the leadership.


Sunak’s term as PM looks set to end in electoral disaster


In the UK, voting is conducted using paper ballots marked with pencils. Once polls close, ballot boxes are opened at counting centres across the country, where in-person and postal votes are mixed together and counted manually.
Results are trickling in, with several dozen seats, including Labour leader Keir Starmer’s London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, likely to be declared in coming hours.
The busiest period is anticipated from 3am BST (10am Hong Kong time) onwards, during which more than 200 seats are expected to be declared. By approximately 4am BST, enough results should be known to indicate which party is on course to secure victory in the election.


Ballots get counted by hand

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage claims to have sparked an “establishment revolt” in the UK election.
The party, a re-brand of the Brexit Party that Farage founded in 2018, is projected to win 13 seats - a significant gain for a far-right group.
“This, folks, is huge,” Farage says in a video posted on X.
“The revolt against the establishment is under way.”
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson retained a seat he had won in 2019 when he was a member of the Conservative Party. Anderson defected to Reform earlier this year and ran again as the party’s candidate.
Farage himself is expected to win a seat in Clacton, eastern England, after seven previous failed attempts at becoming an MP.

The revolt against the establishment is underway. pic.twitter.com/xB7DQuvXWT
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 4, 2024



Nigel Farage claims establishment ‘revolt’

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer is re-elected as MP in his seat of Holborn and St Pancras in London, according to official results.
“Tonight, people here and around the country have spoken and they’re ready for change, to end the politics of performance, a return to politics as public service,” Starmer says.
“The change begins right here. Because this is your democracy, your community and your future. You have voted. It is now time for us to deliver.”



Starmer wins his parliamentary seat

British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps loses his parliamentary seat. He is the highest-ranking Conservative casualty as Labour heads for a clear victory.
Shapps, an MP since 2005 who held various cabinet positions, was defeated by Labour’s Andrew Lewin in Welwyn Hatfield in southern England.


UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps loses seat

Nigel Farage finally wins this election after seven unsuccessful attempts to get a seat in the UK parliament. Farage, the 60-year-old leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, wins in the seaside English town of Clacton-on-Sea.
Farage, a vocal supporter of former US president Donald Trump, says: “My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years and hopefully be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029”.
Farage entered the 2024 general election mid-way through the six-week campaign after initially ruling himself out.


Nigel Farage wins seat on his eighth attempt

Jeremy Corbyn, who led the Labour Party into the general elections of 2017 and 2019, holds onto his seat in north London – but this time as an independent.
Corbyn, who had been suspended from the party following a row over antisemitism, decided to stand as an independent candidate in the Islington North constituency he has represented since 1983.
Corbyn won the seat by nearly 7,000 votes over his Labour opponent. Corbyn had won the seat by more than 26,000 votes at the last election.


Former Labour leader Corbyn wins – as an independent

Rishi Sunak concedes the Labour Party has won, and says he has congratulated Keir Starmer.
“The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory,” Sunak says after winning his parliamentary seat in northern England.
“Today, power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner, with goodwill on all sides. That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.”



Rishi Sunak concedes defeat

“Change begins now,” British Labour leader Keir Starmer says in a speech after his party won the national election and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat.
Starmer, who will be Britain’s next prime minister in coming hours, tells supporters “a mandate like this comes with a great responsibility”.
With many results still to be announced from Thursday’s vote, Labour has already won more than 326 of the 650 seats in parliament, with an exit poll suggesting it will capture about 410.
On Friday, Sunak is expected to tender his resignation to King Charles at Buckingham Palace. After that, the king will invite Starmer to form a new government.


Keir Starmer to be Britain’s next prime minister

Former Hong Kong opposition lawmaker Kenneth Leung Kai-cheong says he welcomes the election of a Labour government, which he hopes will bring a new political mindset.
Leung, a UK citizen, was speaking at an event organised by the British consulate in Hong Kong early on Friday.
He says he did not cast a vote and he expects little change in UK policy towards Beijing and Hong Kong. But he is hopeful the new administration can help boost trade ties with mainland China and pursue investment opportunities with Hong Kong.
“Their priorities, I think, will be the domestic economy and immigration issues,” he says, referring to the incoming Labour government.
“For Hong Kong, I think they will continue their usual policy.
“I think they should fix their internal economy first, as Hong Kong will only be able to benefit with their internal economy improving.”
Former Hong Kong lawmaker Emily Lau Wai-hing, also at the event, says she would like to see the UK government maintain the British National (Overseas) visa scheme, its bespoke immigration pathway for Hongkongers.
“One of the things that I am most concerned about is the BN(O) scheme, as there are still Hong Kong people who want to go to the United Kingdom,” she says. “I hope the new government will not change it. It will be even better if they improve the policy.”


Migrant scheme, trade ties top of mind at consulate event in Hong Kong

The leaders of Australia and New Zealand sent their congratulations to Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on his election victory.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says in a social media post on X that he looked forward “to working constructively” with the new British government.

Congratulations to my friend and new UK Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer on his resounding election victory - I look forward to working constructively with the incoming @UKLabour Government
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 5, 2024

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also took to X to congratulate Starmer, writing: “New Zealand and the UK are great friends and can do so much more together”.
Luxon added his thanks to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “for your service to your nation and friendship to New Zealand”.

Congratulations @Keir_Starmer on your election victory. New Zealand and the UK are great friends and can do so much more together. I look forward to working on every opportunity together as prime ministers.
Thank you @RishiSunak for your service to your nation and friendship to…
— Christopher Luxon (@chrisluxonmp) July 5, 2024



Australia, New Zealand leaders congratulate Starmer

Liz Truss loses her seat in South West Norfolk in a humiliating blow to the former prime minister. She lost to Labour’s Terry Jermy by around 600 votes.
Truss, 48, was the UK’s shortest serving prime minister. She was forced to announce her resignation after just 44 days when her unfunded tax cuts sparked financial market turmoil, raising the cost of mortgages for homeowners already in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
Her disastrous premiership followed Boris Johnson being forced out as prime minister at the end of 2022.


Ex-prime minister Liz Truss loses seat

A record number of Conservative Party Cabinet ministers are losing their seats. Eleven members of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top team failed to be re-elected, beating the previous high of seven who lost out in 1997.
Key figures like Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt are out. The losses leave few clear contenders for party leadership if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak resigns.
Other Tory casualties include Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, Transport and Science Secretary Michelle Donelan.
Veteran minister Johnny Mercer and Brexit champion Jacob Rees-Mogg were also defeated.


Record number of Cabinet ministers defeated

Britain’s outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will make a statement in Downing Street about 10.30am BST (5.30pm Hong Kong time) before meeting with King Charles to formally resign, his office said on Friday.
The newly elected Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer will then meet with King Charles at Buckingham Palace before making a speech in Downing Street at around 12.20pm BST, the statement added.

WATCH LIVE: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak delivers his resignation speech https://t.co/nqrEDYRz7V
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) July 5, 2024



Sunak to formally resign after making statement

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Keir Starmer for his “remarkable victory” in Britain’s general election, while praising his outgoing counterpart Rishi Sunak for deepening bilateral ties.
“Heartiest congratulations and best wishes to @Keir_Starmer on the remarkable victory,” Modi wrote on the social media platform X.
“Thank you @RishiSunak for your admirable leadership of the UK, and your active contribution to deepen the ties between India and the UK during your term in office,” he added. “Best wishes to you and your family for the future.”
Sunak became the first British prime minister of South Asian descent in 2022 – a milestone year for India’s relationship with its former colonial ruler.
That August marked the 75th anniversary of India’s independence from Britain, weeks before the South Asian country overtook Britain to become the world’s fifth-largest economy.
Modi said he looked forward to “positive and constructive collaboration” with Starmer to foster “mutual growth and prosperity”.


India’s Modi congratulates Starmer, praises Sunak

Rishi Sunak says he will step down as Conservative Party leader after the election defeat – but not immediately. He wants to make sure formal arrangements for choosing a party successor are in place.
Outside 10 Downing Street, where he announced the election six weeks ago, Sunak says “sorry” to the public while praising election winner Keir Starmer.
“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility,” he says.
On Starmer, he says: “Whatever our differences in this campaign, he is a decent, public-spirited man who I respect”.
Sunak then has an audience with King Charles at Buckingham Palace as part of the transfer of power.



Sunak says ‘sorry’ in final speech as prime minister

Keir Starmer arrives at Buckingham Palace where he will meet King Charles, who will formally appoint the Labour leader as prime minister, and ask him to form a new government.


Starmer arrives at Buckingham Palace to be appointed PM

King Charles appoints Keir Starmer as UK prime minister in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace known as the “kissing of hands”. Following that, Starmer heads to his official residence at 10 Downing Street.



Starmer appointed PM by King Charles

Prime Minister Keir Starmer invites people to join him in his mission of national renewal in his first official remarks.
“My government will make you believe again,” he says.
“The work for change begins immediately.
“We will rebuild Britain. …. Brick by brick we will rebuild the infrastructure of opportunity.”
Starmer spoke after he and his wife, Victoria, walked up to the residence at 10 Downing Street to roars of applause and shook hands with supporters.



Keir Starmer gives first speech as prime minister

Thanks for joining us for our UK election coverage. We are now closing the live blog, but look out for more reports on the day’s events on our website.
