UK Election Results 2024: Keir Starmer becomes UK Prime Minister after 'kissing of hands' ceremony

Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party, is now formally the prime minister of the United Kingdom. In a ceremony called the "kissing of hands," Starmer gained King Charles III's approval to establish a government.

The formal announcement of Starmer's new title was made with an official photo from the event.

Rishi Sunak has left the prime minister's house and made his way to Buckingham Palace to submit his resignation to King Charles III.

"This is a difficult day, but I leave this job honored to have been prime minister of the best country in the world," Sunak said in his last remarks outside 10 Downing Street.

The Labour leader Keir Starmer is set to become the UK prime minister after 14 years of Conservative rule that set off generational shifts with UK's exit from European Union and a further decline of British geopolitical heft. The Labour party chief is unseating Rishi Sunak as prime minister.

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The outgoing PM have flown back down south after learning his own Yorkshire seat was safe.

He's expected to formally tender his resignation to King Charles in the coming hours.

Truss lost her Norfolk South West constituency in eastern England to Labour by a margin of 630 votes, even as the Conservatives faced a resounding defeat.

Read complete story here: Liz Truss loses her Norfolk seat to Labour

Read complete story here: Following his win, Nigel Farage's warning to Labour

Read here: Nuke orders, moving into Downing Street and more: What follows UK polls?

Conservative Party has lost all 14 of its members of parliament in Wales. 

The party has lost at least 38 seats in total, including Edinburgh North and Leith, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, and Edinburgh South West—all of which were claimed by the Labour Party.

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has narrowly been defeated in his North and Moray East constituency by the SNP's Seamus Logan, who secured 13,455 votes, surpassing Ross's total of 12,513.

• Frome and East Somerset from the Conservatives
• Esher and Walton from the Conservatives
• North East Fife from the SNP
• Aberdeenshire North and Moray East from the Conservatives

• Spen Valley from the Conservatives
• Macclesfield from the Conservatives
• Monmouthshire from the Conservatives
• Dunfermline and Dollar from the SNP
• Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket from the Conservatives
• Chipping Barnet from the Conservatives
• Hitchin from the Conservatives
• St Austell and Newquay from the Conservatives

Green Party has snatched Waveney Valley from Conservatives. The winner is Green co-leader Adrian Ramsay.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson has won the Belfast East seat

The Tories have managed to hold on to Tatton. The winner is Esther McVey.

As per the UK's public broadcaster, the BBC, the Labour Party has registered gains in the following:

• Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock, taken from the SNP
• Na h-Eileanan an Iar, from the SNP
• Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, from the SNP
• Birmingham Northfield, taken from the Conservatives
• Dartford, from the Conservatives
• Earley and Woodley, from the Conservatives
• East Worthing and Shoreham, from the Conservatives
• North Northumberland, from the Conservatives
• Peterborough, from the Conservatives
• Chatham and Aylesford, from the Conservatives
• South Norfolk, from the Conservatives
• Sherwood Forest, from the Conservatives
• Bournemouth West, from the Conservatives
• North East Somerset and Hanham, from the Conservatives
• Ashford, from the Conservatives
• Labour take Mid Derbyshire from the Conservatives
• Loughborough from the Conservatives
• Wakefield and Rothwell from the Conservatives
• Halesowen from the Conservatives
• Morecambe and Lunesdale from the Conservatives
• Rochester and Strood from the Conservatives
• Stoke-on-Trent Central from the Conservatives
• Basingstoke from the Conservatives
• Scarborough and Whitby from the Conservatives
• Hull West and Haltemprice from the Conservatives
• Cities of London and Westminster from the Conservatives
• Truro and Falmouth from the Conservatives
• Calder Valley from the Conservatives
• North East Hertfordshire from the Conservatives
• Leeds North West from the Conservatives
• Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy from the SNP
• Glasgow North from the SNP

• Surrey Heath, taken from the Conservatives
• North Shropshire, from the Conservatives
• Chippenham, from the Conservatives
• Taunton and Wellington, from the Conservatives
• Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe from the Conservatives
   

The labour party has won 326 seats needed to win the General elections.

Addressing supporters in central London, Keir Starmer told them "thank you truly - you have changed our country".

He added that "a mandate like this comes with a great responsibility" and that the task of a Labour government is "nothing less than renewing the ideas hat hold our country together".

"We have to return politics to public service," he goes on, adding his government will "show it can be a force for good".

Liberal Democrats have snatched Lewes from Conservatives. The winner is James MacClearly.

Labour gains Edinburgh Glasgow South West from the SNP. The winner is Zubir Ahmed.

Labour has snatched Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme from the Conservatives. The winner is Lee Pitcher.

Labour has snatched Ossett and Denby Dale from the Conservatives. The winner is Jade Botterill.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Melksham and Devizes from Conservatives. The winner is Brian Mathew.

Liberal Democrats have snatched South Devon from the Conservatives. The winner is Caroline Voaden.

Labour has snatched Bournemouth East from the Conservatives. The winner is Tom Hayes.

Labour has snatched Camborne and Redruth from the Conservatives. The winner is Perran Moon.

Labour has snatched North East Derbyshire from the Conservatives. The winner is Louise Jones.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Winchester from Conservatives. The winner is Danny Chambers.

Labour has snatched Gillingham and Rainham from the Conservatives. The winner is Naushabah Khan.

Labour has snatched Ribble Valley from the Conservatives. The winner is Maya Ellis.

Labour has snatched Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr from the Conservatives. The winner is Steve Witherden.

Labour gains Edinburgh North and Leith from the SNP. The winner is Tracy Gilbert.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Harpenden and Berkhamsted from Conservatives. The winner is Victoria Collins.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Lancaster and Wyre from Conservatives. The winner is Cat Smith.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Tiverton and Minehead from Conservatives. The winner is Rachel Gilmour.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who won his first bid as an MP on his eight attempt celebrating his win, said, "This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you". He has won in Clacton.

Shortly after it was announced that Rishi Sunak has managed to hold on to his seat in Richmond, Yorkshire, the incumbent prime minister told the press "Labour has won this election" and that he's called Keir Starmer to congratulate him.

Plaid Cymru party holds Dwyfor Meirionnydd. The winner is Liz Saville Roberts.

Labour has snatched York Outer from the Conservatives. The winner is Luke Charters.

Labour has snatched Hastings and Rye from the Conservatives. The winner is Helena Dollimore.

Labour gains Central Ayrshire from the SNP. The winner is Alan Gemmell.

Labour has snatched Bexleyheath and Crayford from the Conservatives. The winner is Daniel Francis.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Glastonbury and Somerton from Conservatives. The winner is Sarah Dyke.

Labour's Wes Streeting has managed to hold on to the Ilford North seat with just 500 votes.

Labour has snatched Bathgate and Linlithgow from SNP. The winner is Kirsteen Sullivan.

Labour has snatched Bury South from the Conservatives. The winner is Christian Wakeford.
 

Labour has snatched Wolverhampton West from the Conservatives. The winner is Warinder Juss.

The Tories have managed to hold on to Sutton Coldfield. The winner is Andrew Mitchell.

Liberal Democrats have snatched Wimbledon from Conservatives. The winner is Paul Kohler.
 

Liberal Democrats have gained the Yeovil seat from Conservatives. The winner is Adam Dance.
 

As per the BBC, the final tally from Basildon and Billericay shows Tory Party Chairman Richard Holden winning the seat by the slimmest of majorities - merely 20 votes.

He received 12,905 votes, Labour came a close second with 12,885, and Reform came third with 11,354 votes.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is fighting this election as an independent candidate, has held onto his Islington North constituency. 

Corbyn got 24,120 votes and Labour’s Praful Nargund got 16,874 votes.

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has lost her seat in Chichester. The Liberal Democrats won Chichester by a majority of 12,172 votes.

Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage won the contest in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea. Farage has been elected to Parliament, becoming a lawmaker on his eighth try after seven failed election attempts.

Justice Secretary Alex Chalk has lost in Cheltenham to the Liberal Democrats Candidate Max Wilkinson. 

As per PA Media, Wilkinson won 25,076 votes while Chalk could secure 17,866 votes. 

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was defeated in the Welwyn Hatfield seat. Shapps was beaten by Labour’s Andrew Lewiwn, who got 19,877 votes. Shapps got 16,078 votes. 

"People here and around the country have spoken and they’re ready for change, to the politics of performance, a return to politics as public service. 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," Labour's Starmer said on Friday. 

Reform Party has won its first seat in the election. Lee Anderson, the former Conservative deputy chairman who defected to Reform a few months ago, held onto his seat in Ashfield with 43 per cent of the vote, the Associated Press reported. 

Rachel Reeves, Labour's economic spokesperson who would become the first female Treasury chief if her party wins, said that she is “under no illusions” about the scale of the challenge she will face.

Speaking to Sky News, Reeves said, "The severity of the inheritance from the Conservatives is truly awful."

She noted that the UK's debt burden is running at 100% of the country’s national income and the tax burden at a seven-decade high.

Labour has won the Welsh seats Vale of Glamorgan and Bridgend from the Conservatives. There was a fierce fight between the Tories and Labour in the Vale seat. 

The Labour Party has defied the exit polls for the Barnsley seat. Party leader Dan Jarvis retained the seat, as he won with a majority of almost 8,000 votes.

The Conservative Party has lost the first seat it was defending in the election, a report by the news agency Associated Press said.

Robert Buckland, a former justice minister, lost his Swindon South seat in central England after his vote slumped by 25 per cent compared with the last election in 2019.

Labour’s Heidi Alexander won the seat. 

An exit poll has suggested that the Labour Party is headed for a landslide win in the election. The poll suggests that Labour is on course to win about 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons, and the Conservatives 131. 

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer on Thursday (Jul 4) told the voters that it is the day to start a new chapter in the United Kingdom's political history as voting began across the nation for a parliamentary election. 

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While Labour is expected to form the next government, the right-wing Reform Party led by Nigel Farage is gaining popularity and could impact the Conservative voter base with its anti-immigrant stance. Farage's influence is likely to grow, even if the party doesn't immediately take power.