Labor nabs historic win in British election as Conservatives are ousted after nearly 15 years

The newly center-left Labor party stormed to a massive victory in Britain’s parliamentary polls, as exit polls confirmed widely held expectations that the ruling Conservatives would be out of power for the first time in nearly 15 years.

Early projections that Labor would win about 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons meant that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ill-fated and gaffe-prone campaign had left the Conservatives with around 130 seats, their worst showing at the polls in its 200-year history.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer, in line to be the next prime minister, was rewarded with a low-key campaign in which Labor offered a moderate agenda and a promise of competence.

Meanwhile, Mr. Sunak was still waiting to hear late into the night whether he had retained his own seat in Parliament in his Richmond district in North Yorkshire, a personal rebuke that just doesn’t happen to party leaders in parliamentary systems like Britain.

In the days leading up to Thursday’s vote, Mr. Sunak reportedly confided to friends that he was worried about losing his seat: “He’s genuinely fearful of a defeat,” a source close to Mr. Sunak told The Guardian newspaper.

The last time a sitting prime minister failed to be elected to parliament was in 1906 when Arthur Balfour lost.

Some Labor strategists were taking a more cautious approach as they awaited actual vote totals to back up the exit polls, noting that a number of races were very close and the projected majority may shrink.

“The numbers are encouraging,” Deputy Leader Angela Rayner told the BBC, but “we haven’t had any results yet.”

The Conservatives, who won a massive victory in the last Parliamentary vote under then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019, could not overcome a combination of economic malaise, frustration with a decline in public services, and simple voter fatigue after such a long run in power.

“Nothing has gone well in the last 14 years,” London voter James Erskine told The Associated Press before the polls had even closed. “I just see this as the potential for a seismic shift, and that’s what I’m hoping for.”

Mr. Starmer, a former attorney with working-class roots, is credited with guiding turning the Labor Party away from its socialist roots and transforming it into a centrist party, developing a reputation for being reliable and well-run along the way.

Labor is expected to win back many of the working-class districts Mr. Johnson had carried in 2019 and even received support from some of the institutional pillars of past Tory support.

Many business groups backed Labor, as did traditionally conservative newspapers, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun tabloid, which said Mr. Starmer deserved praise for “dragging his party back to the center ground of British politics.”

The handwriting was on the wall for a massive Labor win, with Mr. Sunak’s Conservatives dogged by a challenge from the populist right led by anti-immigration activist Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

Early projections suggested Mr. Farage’s party may hold a dozen or more seats in the next Parliament.

Mr. Farage himself was leading in his bid for a seat in the Essex seat of Clacton.

Mr. Sunak in his final message for voters Wednesday issued a desperate plea to voters to limit the pain his party was facing. “If the polls are to be believed, the country could wake up tomorrow to a Labor supermajority ready to wield their unchecked power,” he warned.

Yet his campaign was plagued by missteps and gaffes suggestive of a party whose will to govern had been spent after so long in power.

Just this week, Mr. Sunak was in a television studio waiting to go on the air following an interview with a bikini-clad woman covered in tattoos.

During his appearance on London’s “This Morning” talk show, Mr. Sunak attempted to burnish his “common man” credentials by claiming his favorite food was sandwiches and volunteering that he’d have a meat pie for supper while watching Thursday’s election results come in.

But the buzz after the show was Mr. Sunak’s warm-up act, 36-year-old OnlyFans model Becky Holt, who claims to be “the most tattooed mum in Britain.”

The booking decision was just the latest in a long line of puzzling and insensitive decisions his campaign team made since Mr. Sunak announced the elections on May 30 — in the midst of pouring rain.