Live Updates: Rishi Sunak Concedes U.K. Election to Labour Party

The departing prime minister, Mr. Sunak, apologized for the performance of his party and said he had phoned Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer, to offer congrats.

Friday morning’s projection of Britain’s Labour Party’s overwhelming election victory meant that the Conservative Party was ousted from office after 14 years in an anti-incumbent revolution marking a new chapter in British politics.

Early in the morning, exhausted and solemn Rishi Sunak, the departing prime minister, admitted his party’s national loss after a long night when the Labour Party’s triumph became more evident.

“The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight,” Mr. Sunak remarked from his district.

He claimed he had congratulated Keir Starmer, the Labour leader and incoming prime minister, over the phone. Having won his local seat, Mr. Sunak expressed regret for the performance of his party and stated he would visit London to formally resign to King Charles III.

Labour was on track to win roughly 405 of the 650 seats in the British House of Commons, compared to 154 for the Conservatives, according partial data and an exit poll done for the BBC and two other networks.

Should the forecasts come true, the loss would be the worst for the Conservatives in over 200 years, casting doubt on their future and very sustainability. Projected to gain four seats, Reform U.K., an upstart, anti-immigration party, had a strong vote share—a result that came at the cost of the Conservatives.

Following a turbulent period spanning austerity, Brexit, the Covid epidemic, the serial scandals of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the unfortunate tax-cutting proposals of his successor, Liz Truss, the exit poll—which precisely predicted the winner of the last five British general elections—confirmed the electorate was utterly fed up with the Conservatives.

Although a Labour triumph had long been expected—it maintained a double-digit polling lead over the Conservatives for more than 18 months—the extent of the Tory loss will have months, if not years of impact on Britain.

Although Labour was not expected to equal its record for the highest number of seats ever attained—that was 418 seats in Tony Blair’s overwhelming triumph—it was on target to gain a strong majority in Parliament. With predicted 56 seats—up from 11 in 2019—the Liberal Democrats also raised their profile.

The Labour victory would set Britain in conflict with the hard-right, populist wave sweeping throughout France and other European nations as ballots were being tallied and definitive results anticipated Friday morning. The Labour leader destined to be prime minister, Keir Starmer, has vowed a financially sensible, centre-left administration “in the service of working people.”

Here are other things to know:

For Mr. Starmer, a low-key human rights attorney who only joined Parliament in 2015, it was a remarkable vindication of his four-year project to pull the Labour Party away from the left-wing policies of Jeremy Corbyn, and rebrand it as a plausible alternative to the progressively erratic rule of the Conservatives.

Right-wing fermentation: Reform For Nigel Farage, the head of the party and a seasoned political disruptor who gained a seat despite failing in seven prior attempts to enter Parliament, U.K.’s outstanding performance was a triumph. From his new seat, Mr. Farage may attempt to poach the surviving weakened Conservatives.

Less than five years ago, the Conservatives gained 365 seats, the highest since Margaret Thatcher led them in 1987. Disenchanted Labour supporters in the Midlands and northern England turned to the Tories, drawn by Mr. Johnson’s vow to “get Brexit done.” According to the exit poll, some of these voters cast protest ballots for Reform U.K. while many of them returned to Labour. The Conservatives also bleed support among young people and in their traditional stronghold, the rich towns and villages of England’s south and southwest, where the centrist Liberal Democrats were gathering seats.

Voters voiced dissatisfaction with the torpid economy, a significant rise in immigration after Britain’s exit from the European Union and an overwhelmed National Health Service, which led to extremely lengthy waiting times.