Labour bounceback, Tory collapse: five key takeaways from the general election

Ed Davey’s stunts kept the Lib Dem campaign in the news; John Swinney says the SNP need to do some ‘soul searching’; and Keir Starmer’s Labour lost a number of strongholds. Composite: Guardian Desing/Getty Images/AP

Keir Starmer is the UK’s new prime minister after the Labour party’s landslide general election victory. He has taken over from Rishi Sunak, whose Conservative party suffered a collapse in support.

As of Friday, left-of-centre Labour had won 412 seats, returning to power with a huge parliamentary majority of 174, just short of the 179 majority won by Tony Blair in 1997. The Conservatives’ vote share fell by 20 points and their number of MPs fell by 251 to 121, the party’s worst electoral performance in modern times.