UK's Labour Party wins overall majority in parliamentary polls

Labour leader Keir Starmer will officially become prime minister, leading his party back to government less than five years after it suffered its worst defeat in almost a century

Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer wins the general election. / Photo: Reuters
Reuters

Britain's Labour Party leader Keir Starmer wins the general election. / Photo: Reuters

The UK's Labour Party has swept to power after winning the general election, crossing the 326-seat threshold for a working majority in the House of Commons.

"A mandate like this comes with a great responsibility," Labour leader Keir Starmer told supporters at a triumphant dawn rally in London on Friday, moments after the results that sealed its landslide win were announced.

Former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-winger suspended by the party following a drawn-out "anti-Semitism", won re-election to parliament as an independent candidate.

Corbyn, 75, who has represented the London constituency of Islington North for over 40 years, won the seat but for the first time without Labour affiliation.

He led the main opposition Labour Party which is on course to return to power following Thursday's vote into the last election in 2019 but stepped down as leader after overseeing its worst results in decades.

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Farage and Galloway

Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, won a seat in the British parliament for the first time in the seaside English town of Clacton-on-Sea, as voters deserted Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative Party.

Farage, whose career of anti-immigration, pro-Brexit campaigning has made him one of Britain's most recognisable and divisive political figures, comfortably beat the Conservative candidate Giles Watling who had previously held the seat.

His surprise entry into the election a month ago, having initially ruled out standing, boosted support for Reform UK across the country.

Veteran politician George Galloway lost his parliamentary seat in Britain's election, defeated by the Labour candidate in the northern English town of Rochdale.

Galloway had served for just four months after winning a by-election triggered by the death of the town's previous lawmaker.

Back in March, Galloway's pro-Palestinian campaign helped him win votes from the town's Muslim community. He secured his seventh stint as a lawmaker, representing his left-wing Workers Party of Britain.

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Keir Starmer does not care about the Muslim vote and he's lost mine

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