General Election LIVE: Labour makes first gain from Tories as results start pouring in

Reform get big boost

By Martina Bet

Reform have had an early boost as they polled second in several seats ahead of the Tories, including Houghton and Sunderland South, Sunderland Central, Washington and Gateshead South and Blyth and Ashington.

As he waited for his own result, Farage said on X: “This is going to be six million votes-plus. This, folks, is huge.”

The party was only formed in 2018 and only had one MP in the last Parliament, Lee Anderson, who defected from the Tories.

Nigel Farage reacts to the Exit Poll

RESULT: Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West

Labour HOLD Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, as expected

Chi Onwurah (LAB): 18,875
Ashton Muncaster (REF): 7,815
Frances Lasok (CON): 4,228

Majority 11,060

Reform come second… AGAIN

Corbyn could be on for a win

A Labour source tells The Times there could be as few as 1,500 votes in it, with Corbyn though to be narrowly in front.

The exit poll says the result is too close to call.

The Greek Gods wot won it?

Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock said the exit poll’s prediction was “the greatest comeback since Lazarus”.

Lord Kinnock led his party to a shock fourth consecutive defeat at the 1992 general election, despite Labour being ahead of John Major’s Tories in most opinion polls.

He told ITV News: “It’s the biggest comeback since Lazarus.

“I must say I’m just ecstatic about the fact that an entirely dependable, fully grown-up guy, Keir Starmer, and his wife, are going to go through that door tomorrow. I have unalloyed and unreserved delight.”

RESULT: Washington and Gateshead South

Labour hold as expected.

Sharon Hodgson (LAB): 17,682
Paul Donaghy (REF): 10,769
Shaun Parsons (CON): 4,654

Buckland: ‘My party must make the right choice’

In his concession speech, Robert Buckland says it was the “honour of my life” to represent Swindon South.

He says he is proud of the work he has done to campaign for autism and disability awareness.

And he took a thinly veiled dig at the right-wing of his party – asking whether his own colleagues had “entered politics for service” or for their own self-gain.

He rounds out by saying: “My party must make the right choice.”

ROBERT BUCKLAND DEFEATED – FIRST LABOUR GAIN

The former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has been defeated in Swindon South, in one of the first big Tory defeats of the morning.

Former MP Heidi Alexander is back in the House of Commons.

Heidi Alexander (LAB): 21,676
Robert Buckland (CON): 12,070
C. Kosidowski (REF): 6,194

LAB GAIN – Majority 9,606

16 per cent to Labour.

No wobble in the pound

The pound held firm after exit polls showed the Labour Party was on track for a landslide victory.

It remained steady with sterling trading unchanged from earlier in the day at about $1.27.

With a large Labour majority long predicted, markets were braced for political change.

Voters are ‘sick of woke’, blasts Leadsom

Dame Andrea Leadsom said voters have told her they do not feel the Tories are “Conservative enough” and are “sick of all this woke stuff”.

In dealing with the aftermath of the result, she added: “The Conservative Party is the natural party of government and has been in this country for many long years and so we will be very ruthless about it, we will certainly be very forensic about it.”

BoJo bro: ‘Tories drummed out in London’

Lord Johnson of Marylebone, the brother of Boris Johnson, says: “The Conservatives are in danger of being drummed out of the capital of this country.

“That’s a terrible indictment of their appeal to metropolitan open-minded liberal voters. They have got to appeal to the people who live in our big cities.

“It’s important the Tories stay open-minded and try to appeal to the centre of British politics as they did in 2010 and 2015.”

David Lammy blasts Tory ‘razzamatazz’

Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy could be Britain’s chief diplomat by the morning.

He described the Labour landslide predicted in the exit poll as “encouraging” but called for “a little bit of measure”.

Lammy told ITV: “No doubt about it, the exit poll will cheer lots of people across the country. There’s a lot to play out across the next few hours.

“We’ve seen the Reform vote, I still can’t quite believe that the Conservatives are down to the sorts of numbers that are being predicted, that’s just my sense. But let us see.

“What I can say is that I do think that this is a positive vote for Labour, it’s a positive vote for Keir Starmer and the way that he changed our party in order to have the promise of changing the country.”

He said that the country has “had enough of the razzamatazz which gets you nowhere.”

Meanwhile in Scotland

Cops at the election count in Glasgow asked that three ballot papers be removed over concerns of impersonation.

Election officials said that four papers had been reported, with one of those in the Glasgow West constituency of particular concern.

The paper was identified and removed by officials wearing blue gloves and placed in a bag.

At around 11:20pm, officials informed the Press that Police Scotland had requested that an additional two of the initial four ballot papers flagged were also to be identified and removed.

It is understood that these two papers were returned in the Glasgow South-West constituency.

Electoral fraud is a serious offence and those found guilty of it can be sent to jail.

RESULT: Sunderland Central

Another Labour hold

Lewis Atkinson (LAB): 16,852
Chris Eynon (REF): 10,779
Greg Peacock (CON): 5,105
Niall Hodson (LIB) 3,602

Three in three second places for Reform

Sturgeon: ‘Lots of questions for SNP’

Oh dear… the SNP’s iron grip on Scotland is dead.

And ex-FM Nicola Sturgeon says: “There are clearly big issues with a result of this scale for the SNP.

“The SNP’s been in government for 17 years, we’re in government now at a time when austerity is biting, the impact of Brexit is biting… This was a ‘kick the Tories, get the Tories out’ election.

“This is not a good night for the SNP on these numbers and there’ll be a lot of questions that need to be asked as we come out of it.

“I think there will be a question about whether there was enough in the campaign to effectively give a USP to the SNP in an election that was effectively about getting the Tories out and replacing them with Labour.”

Leave seats pile misery on the Tories

In parts of the country that voted leave, Reform appears to have surged by 18%, while the Tories have declined by 28%.

Some of that collapse will be general unpopularity, but Reform’s presence seems to have stacked hay bales of misery on top of their woes…

Jubilant Wes lays into the Tories

Jubilant Wes Streeting tore into the Conservative Party tonight calling them a “clown show”.

The man who will likely be Labour’s Health Secretary in just days said his party had turned itself around.

“I’m afraid the reason why the Conservative Party has been swept out is because it’s been a clown show and people are paying a heavy price for it,” he told BBC News.

“The reason the Labour Party has been in the position it’s in is because we’ve changed.”

Mr Streeting – who was a staunch Jeremy Corbyn critic – added: “We’ve got to clear up the mess of the Conservative Party, just like the Downing Street cleaners had to clean the vomit up after Boris Johnson.”

Calling Clacton…

Nigel Farage couldn’t hide his glee after the exit poll suggested a breakthrough night for Reform UK.

Enjoying a cigarette at an election night party, he was photographed by The Sun grinning from ear to ear after the poll suggesting Reform had won 13 seats.

But Mr Farage, 60, remained uncharacteristically silent.

He declined to comment on the poll at a Greek restaurant in Clacton-on-Sea, in the Essex seat where he hops to become MP.

Aides said Mr Farage didn’t want to tempt providence by commenting before the results began coming in.

A spokesman said the Reform will remain tight-lipped until the result of this constituency is announced later at Clacton Leisure centre.

Reform reaction…

Dr David Bull, Reform’s deputy leader, calls it “an historic moment” for Reform.

He goes on: “We are only four years old. What you’re seeing is the shy Reformers coming out… you saw this with Brexit.

“Nigel has made this very clear. This is the beginning of a much bigger movement.

“What’s interesting is if you look at vote share, we believe our vote share is twice that of the Liberal Democrats.”

Something’s happening out there…

Something curious is happening.

The first two seats to be declared have both been held by Labour.

However, Reform UK came in second place – in Sunderland South and Blyth.

In Sunderland there was a 3.4 per cent swing towards Nigel Farage’s party.

It’s too soon to tell the full picture but exit polls put Reform on 13 seats and swings are already apparent in some seats.

It seems like Tory fears of a Farage surge eating into their vote have come true.

Tory ‘devastation’

Former Tory Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom said it was a “devastating” night for her party.

She told BBC News: “It’s never easy when you are the prime minister to decide when to call a general election…it is a very, very difficult and very personal decision for any prime minister.”

Ms Leadsom, who ran against Theresa May in the 2016 leadership race, added: “Maybe it was wrong not to go after Reform straight away but again, all of these are very carefully thought through as to what is the right approach and what we wanted to do was focus on what Labour would be doing with people’s taxes.”

But she startlingly admits: “Perhaps we have not been Conservative enough.”

Ms Leadsom’s own seat (not that she is standing) is a toss-up as it stands.

Here comes Jacob Rees-Mogg… and off he goes?

From Alex West

ARCH Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg faces losing his seat in what is being described as the “Portillo moment” of this election bloodbath.

Plum-voiced right winger Rees-Mogg has held the traditional Conservative seat of North East Somerset since 2010.

But a boundary change and a massive Labour swing across Britain has left him with just a 47 per cent chance of regaining his seat when the count finishes around 4am.

Michael Portillo famously lost his Enfield Southgate seat at 3am in 1997 – and was symbolic of the Tories being wiped out by Labour under Tony Blair.

As strong winds blew across the South Cotswolds this evening, candidates gathered at Bath University’s Sports Hall for the tense count.

Rees-Mogg, a highly recognisable former leader of the House of Commons, faces being booted out by Labour West of England mayor, Dan Norris.

The Eton and Oxford educated toff, who has six children, will not miss the income from being an MP as he is worth over £100million through his investment and business interests.

He was seen earlier at his local polling station in West Harptree with his son Sixtus, who was celebrating his seventh birthday, and being followed around by a TV documentary crew.

The Brexiteer previously hit headlines when he was seen lying down in the House of Commons during a debate.

He was pilloried for taking his nanny on his first campaign trail in Fife in 1997.

ANALYSIS: This is a political earthquake

If the exit poll is right, Labour have stormed to victory with their biggest majority in their 100 year history.

It is a jaw-dropping turnaround from the dark days of the Jeremy Corbyn era of 209, when the party suffered their worst result in history.

The Tories look set to be decimated. The most successful political party in Europe has been reduced to just a rump of 131 MPs.

Be in no doubt – this is a nightmare for the Conservative Party. They now face the painful task of having to rebuild and choose a new leader.

But the big story of the night is Nigel Farage’s Reform party, who are expected to win a staggering 13 seats.

This political maverick has lobbed a grenade into Westminster – and he is only just getting started.

Reform is expected to win the key seat of Hartlepool – the Red Wall seat in Labour’s old heartlands which turned Tory under Boris Johnson.

Nigel, 60, the godfather of Brexit, is a charismatic leader well-trained in waging war on ‘political elites’ from his days in the European Parliament.

He had run and failed to become an MP seven times before.
He has finally won on the eighth attempt – and looks set to have a dozen Reform MPs with him.

He has the potential to change the face of politics forever,
Sir Keir Starmer and the next leader of the Tories – whoever that may be – should brace themselves.

RESULT: BLYTH

Labour hold Blyth – Ian Lavery stays put

Ian Lavery (LAB): 20,030
Mark Peart (REF): 10,857
Maureen Levy (CON): 6,121

Reform second again…

Farage arrives in Clacton

He’s been waiting for this moment for six weeks.

But Nigel Farage has arrived in Clacton. His result is expected at about 4am…