The defeated leader of the Conservative Party, which overnight suffered its worst election result in more than a century, said he would step down from power and give up control of what remained of his political faction.
“I have heard your anger and disappointment and I take responsibility for this defeat,” Chancellor Rishi Sunak said from a podium outside Downing Street on Friday morning. The prime minister acknowledged that the country was sending clear signals for change and said he would go to King Charles III to announce his resignation.
The prime minister quickly climbed into an official car and drove the short distance to the king’s residence at Buckingham Palace, a short walk from the official residence, before the royal flag was hastily raised over the building to mark the monarch’s arrival. Prince Charles has been living in the countryside while he continues his cancer treatment.
The incident symbolizes the unusual speed and relative lack of fuss that has driven British government by global standards. As with most general elections today, the bulk of the seat count (done by hand using paper ballots, often relying on local bank tellers who volunteer their quick-counting skills), the prime minister’s resignation and the appointment of a new one all happen in the course of a morning.
Outgoing British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak delivers a statement following the general election defeat as his wife Akshata Murthy looks on outside 10 Downing Street in London on July 5, 2024, the day after the UK general election. Chancellor Rishi Sunak acknowledged the UK’s general election defeat to Keir Starmer’s main opposition Labour Party and said, “I take responsibility for the defeat.” (Henry Nicholls/AFP) (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
After Sunak leaves Buckingham Palace, the UK will technically be without a government for a while, until Sir Keir Starmer, who won last night’s vote, arrives in a separate car to meet the King. For those brief minutes the country will be under the direct rule of the monarch.
Sir Keir won an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, 412 seats to the Conservatives’ 121. But the election was one of the most unusual and lopsided in history. Sir Keir’s Labour party appears to have won. few They gained more votes than in the last election and doubled their number of seats, while Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party received a huge 14% of the vote but only won less than 1% of the seats.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats narrowly won 12 percent of the vote but only 11 percent of the seats, showing how hard Farage’s faction will have to work to learn to navigate the quirks of Britain’s electoral system before the next election.
Rishi Sunak said this morning that when he steps down as Chancellor he will of course also step down as leader of the party. He said that there were currently very few Conservative members left to lead the party, but that his departure would be delayed slightly to allow time for the selection of his successor to be made.
