Britain went to the polls on Thursday, and Sir Keir Starmer is projected to come to power as a result of a historic landslide victory for the Labor Party, leaving Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party to face one of the worst defeats in its history, the Financial Times reports, UNN writes.
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A series of opinion polls showed that Starmer was on track to win a majority in the British House of Commons of more than 200 votes, beating Sir Tony Blair with a 179-vote majority in 1997 and giving Labor its first general election victory since 2005.
Polls opened at 7 a.m. and close at 10 p.m. local time (although anyone still in line will be able to vote), and by then the extent of Sunak's expected defeat will be clear, the newspaper notes. Polls show that the Tories may get fewer than the 156 seats they won in 1906, which is their worst result.
"Today the UK can begin a new chapter," Starmer said as the country prepared to vote. - "A new era of hope and opportunity after 14 years of chaos and decline.
Even before the votes were counted, Sunak's close ally Mel Stride said that the election was "likely to see the biggest Labor majority this country has ever seen.
Starmer said earlier that he had told his team not to be complacent about the victory, but added that Labor had done "a lot of preparation for government.
"So, although we haven't gotten ahead of ourselves, we've actually been preparing diligently, based on the premise that we need to start right away from day one, which we're going to do," he said.
Prime Minister Sunak warned of the dangers of giving the Labor Party a "supermajority" in a last-ditch effort to persuade voters to stick with the Tories and ensure that his party can at least provide an effective opposition.
"The mood of despair that has hovered over the Conservative election campaign - a six-week catalog of mistakes and self-inflicted damage - intensified in the run-up to the election when Rupert Murdoch's Sun endorsed Starmer," the paper writes. "The Tories are tired," the tabloid said.
The situation, as indicated, was exacerbated by a series of MRP mega-polls that suggested that the Labor Party would win with an unprecedented margin.
The YouGov poll on Wednesday was typical: according to forecasts, Labor will win 431 seats, compared to the Conservatives, who get only 102 seats, and the Liberal Democrats will win a record 72 seats, surpassing the 62 seats the party won in 2005.
The survey gave Nigel Farage's Reform UK party only three seats, but the populist party is taking away support from the Conservatives across the country, contributing to Labor's victory, the publication points out. According to forecasts, the Scottish National Party is second in Scotland with 18 seats after Labor.
According to the YouGov scenario, major figures among the Conservatives, including Chancellor Jeremy Gant, Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, and House of Commons leader Penny Mordaunt, will be "toppled.
Liz Truss, the former Conservative Prime Minister, is in a tight race with Labor for the Norfolk seat, although polls show that Sunak himself has yet to hold his constituency of Richmond in Yorkshire.
According to the Conservatives' latest internal forecasts, the party will confidently retain about 80 seats, with another 60 constituencies considered "in play," according to a senior Tory insider.
This suggests that even in an optimistic scenario, the Conservatives can only return about 140 MPs, compared to 365 in the previous election.
"Some Conservatives are already discussing a fight for control of the party in the wake of the defeat, with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman calling for a 'Farageist' approach," the newspaper writes.
However, Boris Johnson, a former Conservative Party prime minister who has belatedly entered the race, has reportedly warned against any rapprochement with Farage, whom he called "Putin's favorite parrot.
At the same time, the publication points out that "many constituencies are on a knife's edge, the outcome is far from clear, and the Conservatives may yet achieve more than the polls suggest." The Labor Party, as indicated, consistently shows a 20% lead.
The final MRP poll, conducted by Focaldata, gave the Labor Party a 238-seat majority, while the More in Common poll gave Starmer's party a 210-seat advantage. The JLP poll gave the Labor Party a majority of 234 seats.
If the polls prove to be true, Starmer's victory will be confirmed early on Friday morning, and the transfer of power from the Conservatives to Labor will take place later, the newspaper points out.