“Rishi Sunak apologised to defeated Tory candidates as infighting broke out in the wake of the party’s worst general election result in modern history. Speaking after winning his Richmond and Northallerton seat, he conceded defeat to Labour and said he had called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory. He said: “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight. There is much to learn and reflect on and I take responsibility for the loss. “To the many good hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight, despite their tireless efforts, their local records of delivery, and their dedication to their communities, I am sorry.” Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary, Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, one of the architects of Brexit, all lost their seats.” – Daily Telegraph
“Liz Truss has lost her seat, capping off an awful night for the Conservative Party as Labour won a landslide general election victory. Ms Truss finished second in South West Norfolk, a seat she had represented since 2010, as she was narrowly beaten by Labour. The former prime minister secured 11,217 votes, just behind Labour’s 11,847 while Reform finished in third place with 9,958. Ms Truss being ousted from the House of Commons placed an exclamation mark on a dreadful set of results for the Conservatives as one Tory big beast after another lost their seats.” – Daily Telegraph
“Sir Keir Starmer will become prime minister with a landslide victory as Rishi Sunak conceded: “The Labour Party has won this election.” Labour has surpassed the number of seats it needed to win to be able to form a majority, as Starmer told supporters: “We did it.” Speaking in central London, Starmer said Britain can now “walk into the morning, into the sunlight of hope” and that “a weight has finally lifted”. But the Labour leader said “a mandate like this comes with great responsibility” as he pledged to bring about “national renewal”. He said: “Our task is nothing less than renewing the ideals that hold this country together.” – The Times
“The Liberal Democrats have bounded out of electoral irrelevance after quadrupling the number of MPs in the best performance in the party’s history. Riding a wave of discontent with the Conservatives and buoyed by widespread tactical voting, Sir Ed Davey’s party returned 71 MPs — a record number that may rise further as final results come in on Friday. The figure is the highest since the party’s foundation in 1988, beating the 62 seats it won in 2005 under former leader Charles Kennedy. During a night of gains across England and Scotland, the party caused the defeats of Conservative justice secretary Alex Chalk in Cheltenham and education secretary Gillian Keegan in Chichester — though failed to unseat chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Godalming and Ash. The party took swaths of the affluent south that had been considered Tory heartlands, including seats in Surrey and Hampshire.” – FT
“The Conservatives have suffered a humiliating wipeout in Wales with both Labour and Plaid Cymru claiming historic sets of results. Labour won 27 of the 32 Welsh seats while Plaid ended with four MPs and the Liberal Democrats one but the Tories, who won 14 at the 2019 election, were left with none. Among those who lost out was David TC Davies, who was Wales secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government. Three other former Wales secretaries, Alun Cairns, Simon Hart and Stephen Crabb, were also defeated. Craig Williams, Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide, who was embroiled in a betting scandal, lost in Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr, considered the Tories’ safest seat in Wales. Williams said he wanted to “put on record my apology to my team and family”. – The Guardian
“Nigel Farage has become an MP on his eighth attempt. The Reform leader declared that “the revolt against the establishment is under way” after he secured the Clacton-on-Sea seat in Essex. It will give his Right-wing party the “bridgehead” in Parliament that he was seeking as he tries to establish it as a force to rival the Tories. Reform is expected to return 13 MPs based on the exit poll, making it the most significant new political party in recent times. However, they missed out on Barnsley North with Labour’s Dan Jarvis comfortably holding the seat by 8,000 votes. It was the first major miss of the exit poll for the night, which predicted that Reform candidate Robert Lomas would scoop the seat.” – Daily Telegraph
“Amid a stomping win for Labour emerging this morning have been signs the party’s row over its stance on Gaza has proven divisive and disastrous. A shock defeat in Leicester South for Jonathan Ashworth by a pro-Gaza independent candidate became the symbol of discontent with the Labour leadership among many Muslim and younger voters. Meanwhile Conservative chairman Sir Iain Duncan Smith was re-elected in Chingford and Woodford Green after the last minute replacement of Labour’s Faiza Shaheen over her support on social media for controversial posts on anti-Semitism and Palestine.” – Daily Mail
“Independence will be put on the back burner by the SNP, senior party figures have indicated, after Labour routed the nationalists at the general election in Scotland. John Swinney, the first minister, and Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, both admitted that the electorate had rejected a push for separation after the party recorded its worst result in 14 years. The BBC projected that the SNP would collapse to just six seats, back to the number it won in 2010 and a fall from 48 MPs at the 2019 general election. Labour was on course to double its vote share in Scotland, which stood still across the UK as a whole.” – The Times
“Jeremy Corbyn has won Islington North, the constituency he has represented since 1983 – but for the first time has been elected as an independent MP. The former leader of the opposition beat Praful Nargund, a local Labour councillor selected by the party’s executive committee as its candidate in May. Corbyn won 24,120 votes, with Nargund securing 16,873 votes. Turnout for the election was 67.5%, down from 71.6% in 2019. In his victory speech, Corbyn said he had fought a “positive campaign”. The political system must produce answers for social problems, he said, adding that demonising asylum seekers was not the answer.” – The Guardian