The Guardian – Huge Labour majority predicted by exit poll
The Guardian says the exit poll predictions “appeared to confirm that Labour’s ‘time for change’ message struck a chord with voters after years of chaos and division”. It adds the exit poll forecast appears to suggest Reform UK has “squeezed the Conservative vote”.
Pound holds steady after exit poll predicts Labour landslide victory
The pound held steady after exit polls showed Keir Starmer’s Labour on track for a landslide election victory, as investors bet that a decisive win would bring stability to Britain after years of political and economic uncertainty.
Since Rishi Sunak called the snap general election in the pouring rain outside Downing Street six weeks ago, financial markets have widely expected Labour to win a crushing victory. Opinion polls have shown the party heading for one of the largest majorities in modern political history.
Former Tory prime minister Liz Truss loses her seat to Labour
Liz Truss has lost her seat of South West Norfolk, one of the biggest Conservative losses on a disastrous night for the party.
The former prime minister, whose turbulent 45-day period in power has been blamed by many Conservatives for Thursday’s historic defeat, lost her seat to the Labour candidate, Terry Jermy.
Truss won a 26,000 majority at the 2019 election, and had not been expected to come under serious pressure at this election. However activists on the ground said they had seen relatively little of her during the campaign, despite the fact she has been the area’s MP for 14 years.
Green party quadruples its number of Commons seats to four
The Greens have quadrupled their representation in the Commons after the party took three new seats, one from Labour and two from the Conservatives, and held their existing Brighton Pavilion constituency.
In one of the bigger surprises of election night, the Greens expanded their representation beyond their usual urban, Labour-facing heartlands, also taking two mainly rural seats from Conservative competition.
The party’s co-leader Carla Denyer unseated the shadow culture secretary, Thangam Debbonaire, to win Bristol Central by more than 10,000 votes. While the Greens had become increasingly bullish about their prospects, the margin of victory was notably greater than anticipated and will be a major boost to them.
Today’s news summary – Paper Talk
If you are someone who reads every perspective of a story, here is a news summary of all of today’s front pages from today’s newspapers; summarised in a 2-minute read
Editorial 05 July 2024.
It’s Friday morning and the UK has a new government! Keir Starmer’s Labour Party has been handed a colossal mandate from the public, waving goodbye to 14 years of Conservative rule.
All the UK newspapers lead on the news but feature the exit poll results – which were issued around 10 pm on Thursday – due to the papers being sent to print.