Scottish Conservative Party leader Ruth Davison described the UK exit poll prediction of a historic defeat for her party as a “massacre”. As the votes are being counted, UK PM Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party is staring at a massive loss against Keir Starmer’s Labour Party which has won over 183 seats so far. The Conservatives or Tories have won 31.
“So actually 131 – while, there is no dressing it up, this is a massacre – they’ve actually, if this is right, pulled a few back from where they thought they were. But it was not as bad as it might have been,” she told Sky News.
The exit poll, published jointly by the BBC, ITV and Sky News, suggested that the Labour Party will win in 410 constituencies will the Conservative numbers will plunge to 131. It also predicts 61 seats for the Liberal Democrats, 13 for Reform UK, four for Plaid Cymru and two for the Green Party. Other parties are expected to win 19 seats.
To secure victory, a party needs to win 326 seats in the 650-member House of Commons.
The results of the sudden elections called by Rishi Sunak in May are hardly surprising as throughout the six-week campaign the UK PM trailed behind 61-year-old Starmer.
The Indian-origin PM’s term was marred by cost-of-living and migration crisis following years of instability under five different Conservative prime ministers since 2016.