British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was ousted from office yesterday after the center-left Labour Party won a parliamentary majority in the United Kingdom's first national elections in nearly five years. Sir Keir Starmer, Labour's leader, is expected to become the country's next prime minister.
Sunak, who heads the center-right Conservative Party, called for the early elections in May in a last-ditch effort to sway public support despite significantly trailing in opinion polls. Voters expressed dissatisfaction with a range of issues, including stagnant household income, the highest tax rates since the 1940s, and record immigration levels.
With 326 seats needed for a parliamentary majority, early results point to Labour winning 410 seats, Conservatives with 131, Liberal Democrats with 61, and the remainder split among a variety of parties (see tracker).
It would mark the lowest share of seats for the Conservatives—colloquially known as Tories—in the party's 200-year history and ends a 14-year run by the party.
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