Labour Party Majority Victory in UK General Election Exit Poll... "Power Shift After 14 Years"

In the early general election held on the 4th (local time) in the UK, exit polls showed that the main opposition party, the Labour Party, secured a majority of seats, indicating a change of government for the first time in 14 years.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

According to exit polls released immediately after the polls closed by the BBC and others, the Labour Party is estimated to have won 410 out of the total 650 seats in the House of Commons. This exceeds half of the seats in the parliament, although it falls slightly short of the Labour Party's overwhelming victory of 418 seats in 1997, when Tony Blair became Prime Minister after defeating the Conservative Party for the first time in 18 years.

The ruling Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to secure only 131 seats, marking its worst performance since its founding in 1834. This is a significant decrease compared to the 365 seats won in the 2019 general election. Some current cabinet ministers are also expected to lose their parliamentary seats.

Additionally, the Liberal Democrats are projected to win 61 seats, the Scottish National Party (SNP) 10 seats, and the far-right Reform UK party 13 seats.

As expected, with the change of government, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is anticipated to become the next Prime Minister. Immediately after the exit polls were released, Starmer posted on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "Thank you to everyone who believed in the changed Labour Party."

Meanwhile, local media including The Guardian reported on the exit poll results, noting that since the methodology changed in 2005, the accuracy of exit polls has improved, and the winner was correctly predicted in all five of the most recent UK general elections.