British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak conceded defeat on Friday as his Conservative Party was on course for one of its worst election defeats and the Keir Starmer-led Labour Party hurtled towards a landslide victory in the historic UK election.
Official results showed the Labour Party has won enough seats to have a majority in the UK Parliament and will form the next government.
The Labour Party is estimated to have a majority of around 160 seats in the House of Commons.
The party had won 326 of the 650 seats by 5 am Friday as counting continued.
The country's first British Indian-origin prime minister comfortably held on to his own Richmond and Northallerton seat in northern England with 23,059 votes but failed to turn things around for his party at a national level after 14 years in government.
A sombre-looking Sunak was joined by his wife Akshata Murty as his future as a member of Parliament was decided and he chose to use his acceptance speech to also admit his party's defeat in winning another term in government.
"The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory," said Sunak, acknowledging the "sobering verdict" handed to his party.
"Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner with goodwill on all sides and it is something that should give us all confidence in our country's stability and future," he said.
There is much to learn and reflect, he said.
Taking responsibility for the defeat he told voters: "I am sorry".
With some of the most prominent ministers and MPs such as Grant Shapps and Penny Mordaunt losing the election, the results are being dubbed a "bloodbath" for the Conservatives.
In contrast, Labour's Starmer stands poised to take charge at 10 Downing Street as Britain's new Prime Minister after he also comfortably won his own seat of Holborn and St. Pancras in London.
"The change begins right here. Because this is your democracy, your community and your future. You have voted. It is now time for us to deliver," said Starmer in his own acceptance speech as he was mobbed by his celebrating supporters.
While the customary election night exit poll forecast 410 seats for the Opposition party, the outlook as the trends and results tally takes shape is pegging it around 405 seats with the Tories down to 154. The Liberal Democrats are also among the big winners of this election, set to bag around 56 members of Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party (SNP) which fought on an independence to Scotland ticket are losing seats to Labour.
However, a major trend that will dominate the discourse will be in Nigel Farage finally being elected as an MP at his eighth attempt and leading his anti-immigration Reform UK to three seats in the Commons.
Earlier on Thursday as voting began, Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty walked hand-in-hand to their local polling booth on a sunny day in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire, northern England. A little later, Starmer and wife Victoria were at their polling station in Camden, north London, sporting Labour red colours.
Sunak, 44, was facing the impossible challenge of overcoming voter anger against the incumbent Tories after 14 years in power. The 61-year-old Keir Starmer-led Labour Party, meanwhile, maintained a strong lead over the Tories throughout the six-week campaign.
Both leaders wrapped up their poll pitches with contrasting messages -- Sunak urging voters not to hand "tax-raising" Labour a "supermajority" and Starmer playing down the prospect of a landslide win for fear of a low turnout impacting the final outcome. Sunak continued to drive home the message on his X account, asking voters: "Can you trust Labour with a supermajority?"
Candidates were fielded for 650 constituencies across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, with 326 required for a majority in the first past the post system.
Besides the two main parties, voters were choosing from a list of candidates representing the Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Scottish National Party (SNP), SDLP, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Sinn Fien, Plaid Cymru, Workers' Party, the anti-immigration Reform Party and several contesting as Independent.
Around 40,000 polling booths were operating across the country from 7 am local time for an estimated 46 million registered voters to mark a cross next to their chosen candidate on a paper ballot.
Polling experts have forecast a low turnout, which stood at 67 per cent in the last general election in December 2019 when Johnson won 365 seats, giving him an 80-seat majority. Labour won 202 seats, the SNP 48, the Lib Dems 11, DUP eight, Sinn Fein seven, Plaid Cymru four, SDLP two, Alliance party one, and Greens one.
The UK has a five-year general election cycle and Sunak had until January 2025 to go to the polls but chose a surprise summer election when he named July 4 as the voting date in May. It is the first time he sought the voters' mandate, having been chosen Tory leader and Britain's first Indian heritage Prime Minister by the Conservative Party membership following political turmoil in October 2022.
The general election was also the first test at the ballot box for Keir Starmer, who took over from Jeremy Corbyn after Labour's defeat in 2019.