Labour have secured their first win of the night, with shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson holding on to Houghton and Sunderland.
It comes as Sir Keir Starmer’s party looks set for a landslide victory after the exit poll projected it would win 410 seats overnight – with an overall majority of 170 in the Commons.
That compares to a prediction of just 131 seats for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives – which would be the lowest seat tally in the party’s history – along with the expected loss of some big beasts, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Labour’s deputy leader – and possibly the next deputy prime minister – Angela Rayner told Sky News that Sir Keir had “done a tremendous job in transforming the Labour Party and putting forward a programme for government that the country can get behind”.
The Liberal Democrats are also looking likely to have a strong night, going from 11 seats to 61 in the poll, while the SNP could fall to as few as 10 seats – swapping with the Lib Dems as the third largest party.
Reform’s first real electoral test could see them win as many as 13 seats, according to the poll – with Nigel Farage almost sure to take Clacton.
And the Green Party could gain an extra seat, taking their total to two.
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Source Agencies
