Now 14 years of Conservative rule in Great Britain could be coming to an end. The election looks set to be the worst for the Conservative Party since its founding in 1834.
Millions of Britons lined up on Thursday to cast their votes in the first general election since 2019.
Early forecasts show that Labour, with Keir Starmer as prime ministerial candidate, is likely to secure its biggest majority in many years.
It's very bad news for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Party: an election day poll shows they have won just 131 votes out of a total of 650. StatesOpposite Labor Party 410.
This is what the election day poll showed.
- Work: 410
- Conservatives: 131
- Liberal Democrats: 61
- UK Reform: 13
- Snap: 10
- Cymru Manqousheh:4
- Vegetables: 2
- Other: 19
The poll was conducted on Election Day by Ipsos. Sky News And BBC.
The Conservative Party had 346 MPs when Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dissolved the House of Commons in May and called a new election.
– The election collapse is like nothing we've seen before, says Sky News business editor Ed Conway of the poll.
“If this poll is correct, this is a historic defeat for the Conservatives,” Kieran Pedley, research director at Ipsos, which is behind the poll, told Reuters.
– Possible “scan”
Pre-election polls also suggested that 14 years of Conservative rule may be over.
– We are likely not just facing a change of power, but an “annihilation” of conservatives. This could be the worst of all, Erik Mustad, a senior lecturer at the University of Agder and a UK expert, told VG earlier on Thursday.
Read also: The Conservatives could be wiped out in the British election.
However, official election results are not expected until later tonight.
“It will be a long night and it will be several hours before we get all the results,” Labour campaign coordinator Pat McFadden told Sky News.
British electoral system
- There are 650 constituencies, all of which elect one representative to the House of Commons.
- The candidate who gets the most votes wins the constituency, a principle the British call “first past the post.”
- The system favours the two main parties: the Conservatives and Labour. Parties with millions of votes can still end up with few or no seats. Conversely, parties with relatively few votes but are geographically concentrated can win many seats in the House of Representatives.
Source: Ritzau, NTB, ONS, The Independent
Expert: As a result of suspicion.
Oyvind Bratberg, a senior lecturer in the Department of Political Science at the University of Oslo, was not surprised by the Conservatives' disastrous election.
– Rishi Sunak faced a particularly difficult starting point for writing the election. His government still carries the burdens of its predecessors: Boris Johnson’s excesses during the pandemic and Liz Truss’s game of chance with the economy, he told NTB.
Sunak’s own project was to deliver services in a few specific areas – finance, health queues, unwanted immigration. And when that didn’t work either, the result was a resounding distrust among British voters, notes Bratberg, who has long followed British politics closely.
Keir Starmer believes Labour's success is a result of a lack of trust.
– A large percentage of voters want change – an improved economy, more housing, and better public services, Bratberg points out.
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Faraj can get a seat
The Liberal Democrats also appear to have made a good choice. According to the poll, they are likely to get 61 representatives.
“It looks like we’ve won more seats than in any other parliamentary election in the last 100 years,” says leader Ed Davey in a press release.
For the eighth time, Brexit general Nigel Farage is also trying to secure an elected seat in the House of Commons.
According to an election day poll, things could go his way, with the far-right Reform Party forecast to win 13 seats.
Read also: Politician who bet on losing election: 'Won' scandal, ban and £100k
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