Starmer says country ‘ready for change’ as he appears set for No 10

Sir Keir Starmer said the country was “ready for change” as Labour appeared on course for a landslide win in the General Election.

The Labour leader, who will become the UK’s next Prime Minister, said “you have voted, it is now time for us to deliver”.

An exit poll indicated Labour is forecast to have a 170-seat majority in the Commons, with the Conservatives reduced to their lowest number of MPs on record.

In his acceptance speech after being re-elected in Holborn and St Pancras, Sir Keir said: “Tonight, people here and around the country have spoken and they are saying they’re ready for change.

“To end the politics of performance and return to politics as public service.”

He added: “You have voted, it is now time for us to deliver.”

On a dramatic night:

– Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt lost to Labour.

– Defence Secretary Grant Shapps was ousted by Labour.

– Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was defeated by the the Liberal Democrats.

– Chief whip Simon Hart lost to Plaid Cymru.

– Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer was defeated by the Lib Dems.

– Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis was been beaten by Labour.

– But party chairman Richard Holden won by just 20 votes in Basildon and Billericay.

– The Liberal Democrats claimed to have beaten Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and said it was “too close to call” in the fight against Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

– Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn held on to his seat as an independent.

– Reform UK leader Nigel Farage won a Commons seat at his eighth attempt and promised his party would “stun all of you”.

– Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer defeated shadow culture secretary Thangam Debbonaire in Bristol Central.

– Labour’s shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth, who played a prominent role in the party’s media campaign, lost his seat to an independent.

The broadcasters’ exit poll suggests Labour is on course for 410 seats, with the Tories reduced to 131.

The Liberal Democrats are forecast to win 61 seats, Reform UK on 13 and the Green Party two.

In Scotland, the SNP are expected to secure 10 seats with Plaid Cymru in Wales on four.

The poll for broadcasters involved more than 20,000 voters at 133 polling stations.

If the results follow the forecast, it will mean a Labour prime minister in No 10 for the first time since 2010 and the Conservatives facing a fight over the future direction of the party.

Mr Shapps was the first confirmed Cabinet casualty and he hit out at the Tory “soap opera” which had turned off voters.

“It’s not so much that Labour won this election but rather that the Conservatives have lost it,” he said.

“On door after door, voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private and do that and then be united in public.

“Instead we have tried the patience of traditional Conservative voters with a propensity to create an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and divisions which have become increasingly indulgent and entrenched.”

He said there was a danger the Tory party could “go off on some tangent, condemning ourselves to years of lacklustre opposition”.

Ms Mordaunt said her party had taken a “battering because it failed to honour the trust that people had placed in it”.

Former home secretary Suella Braverman, a potential leadership contender if Mr Sunak quits, said the party had let the British people down.

“You, the great British people, voted for us over 14 years and we did not keep our promises,” she said.

“I will do everything in my power to rebuild trust.

“We need to listen to you, you have spoken to us very clearly.”

Reform’s Mr Farage, former Tory Lee Anderson, party chairman Richard Tice and former Southampton FC chairman Rupert Lowe were all elected to Parliament.

After winning in Clacton, Mr Farage said there was now a “massive gap on the centre-right of British politics and my job is to fill it”.

But he added it is not just the Tories he is taking on, and “we’re coming for Labour, be in no doubt about that”.

“This is just the first step of something that is going to stun all of you,” he said.