The UK's centre-left Labour Party has swept to power for the first time in 14 years after securing a landslide victory in the country's 4 July general election and consigning the ruling Conservative Party to the worst defeat in its history.
Keir Starmer will replace Rishi Sunak to become the UK's fourth prime minister in the space of two years and Labour's first since Gordon Brown in 2007-10. With just two of the 650 parliamentary seats still undeclared, Labour has won 412, over 200 more seats than it did in the last election in 2019, giving it the biggest majority in parliament since Tony Blair's Labour government in 1997.
There were also huge gains for fellow centre-left party the Liberal Democrats, which secured 71 seats, up from just 11 in 2019, cementing a clear shift to the left in the make-up of the UK's House of Commons. It bucks the trend in other parts of Europe where far-right parties are on the rise, notably in France, Germany and Italy. But the seat count masks growing support for the right-wing Reform UK party, led by renowned eurosceptic Nigel Farage, which only picked up four seats but secured around 14pc of the overall vote and was partially responsible for the centre-right Conservatives' crushing defeat.
Sunak's Conservatives won just 121 seats, a loss of 244 since 2019, suffering some high-profile casualties in the process including former prime minister Lizz Truss, defence secretary Grant Shapps and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt. Support for the Conservatives has plummeted since former prime minister Boris Johnson breached his own mandated Covid-19 restrictions and his successor Truss presided over a disastrous tax-cutting mini-budget. But Sunak has taken responsibility for the loss, describing the result as "a sobering verdict" from which "there is much to learn".
The Conservatives were not the only big losers. In Scotland, the SNP won just nine seats, compared with 48 in 2019. Other highlights include a strong performance from the Green Party, which quadrupled its seat count to four.
What to expect from Labour ?
"Change begins now", Starmer said after his party's emphatic victory was confirmed. But while there will be some clear shifts in policy, Labour's manifesto does not suggest radical change in the near term.
The new government will maintain the UK's staunch support for Ukraine in its war with Russia and has pledged to stay outside the EU. It wants to reset the relationship with the EU by "tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade", but that may be ambitious given Starmer has promised "no return to the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement".
Labour is more focused on climate change than Sunak's outgoing Conservative government, although some of its energy policies bear a striking resemblance to those under Boris Johnson's premiership in 2019-22. It has pledged a zero-carbon power grid by 2030 and has set ambitious targets to "double onshore wind, triple solar power and quadruple offshore wind by 2030".
Starmer plans to keep the windfall tax on oil and gas producers introduced by the Conservatives in 2022 but has pledged to raise it to an effective rate of 78pc from 75pc. Labour will not revoke existing North Sea oil and gas licences but has pledged not to issue any new ones and plans to permanently ban fracking for shale gas. It also plans to restore 2030 as the phase-out date for the sale of new gasoline and diesel-fuelled cars after Sunak's government pushed it back to 2035.
Labour plans to set up a national wealth fund to support the country's energy transition, using public funding to pull in private investment. The fund will provide £1.5bn ($1.9bn) for gigafactories, £500mn for green hydrogen and £1bn for carbon capture. The party also plans to create Great British Energy, a publicly-owned power generator, funded with £8.3bn over the next parliament.
