A grim-faced Rishi Sunak acknowledged the electorate’s “sobering verdict” after a calamitous night for the Conservatives saw Liz Truss and a dozen Cabinet members among more than 200 Tory MPs swept out of Parliament.
Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps, two would-be contenders to succeed Mr Sunak, were among high-profile ministerial casualties of the bloodbath along with veterans of the Boris Johnson era such as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
With nearly every constituency declaring, the Tories had lost 250 seats to stand on just 121 MPs, their worst result in history.
Before flying back to a wet and overcast London to submit his resignation to the King this morning, the outgoing Prime Minister said: “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight, there is much to learn and reflect on, and I take responsibility for the loss.”
Speaking outside No 10 before heading to Buckingham Palace, Mr Sunak said, “I have heard your anger” and confirmed that he would step down as Conservative leader — “not immediately, but once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place”.
He added: “I would like to say, first and foremost, I am sorry. I have given this job my all. But you have sent a clear signal, a signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change. And yours is the only judgment that matters.
“I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss.”
Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour blitzed the Tories across inner London and rebuilt its “Red Wall” in northern England, while the Liberal Democrats swept targets in south-west London and the Home Counties — although they just missed out on unseating Jeremy Hunt in Godalming and Ash by 891 votes.
The wealthy Chancellor, after ploughing hundreds of thousands of pounds to shore up his ultimately successful campaign, offered a philosophical perspective on the party’s drubbing.
Mr Hunt, likely to be a centrist force in the new party of opposition, said: “We are incredibly lucky to live in a country where decisions like this are made not by bombs or bullets, but by thousands of ordinary citizens peacefully placing crosses in boxes and bits of paper.” He added: “Brave Ukrainians are dying every day to defend their right to do what we did yesterday and we must never take that for granted.”
Two figures likely to fight it out for the leadership from the Right both clung on — Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and former home secretary Suella Braverman. But outgoing Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross lost his contest and said: “It is a historically bad night, there is no shying away from that at all.”
Across the map, Reform UK squeezed the Tory vote from the Right and looked set to end on four seats including Clacton for Nigel Farage, who declared that after nearly two centuries “I think this is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party”. The Conservatives at least averted the direst projections in pre-election polls, after they belatedly took on Mr Farage and the extreme views of some of his candidates.
Mr Sunak said he had called Sir Keir to congratulate him on Labour’s victory, and stressed: “Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner, with goodwill on all sides. That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.”
After his decision six weeks ago to call an early election backfired spectacularly, Mr Sunak apologised to the many Conservative candidates who lost their seats as he held onto his own one of Richmond and Northallerton in North Yorkshire, albeit on a vastly reduced majority.
“To the many good, hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight, despite their tireless efforts, their local records of delivery, and their dedication to their communities: I am sorry,” he said.
The departing PM added that he had “given my all” after taking over in No10 following Ms Truss’s brief and economically disastrous tenure, and vowed to serve his constituents “in the weeks, months and years ahead”, appearing to rule out a dash to California by the former hedge fund manager.
Fourteen years after Ms Truss was parachuted in by David Cameron to contest South West Norfolk, constituents there gave her a humiliating rebuff, overturning her 26,195 majority of 2019 to hand victory to Labour’s Terry Jermy by 630 votes. PM for just 49 days, Ms Truss was late to her declaration in King’s Lynn and the crowd began to slow-clap as she kept the other candidates and returning officer waiting.
Asked whether she accepted a share of blame for the Tories’ massive losses, after her catastrophic “mini-budget”, Ms Truss told the BBC: “I think the issue we faced as Conservatives is we haven’t delivered sufficiently on the policies people want, and that means keeping taxes low, but also particularly on reducing immigration.”
As well as Ms Truss, the Tories lost constituencies once held by Lord Cameron (Witney, to the Liberal Democrats) and Boris Johnson (Uxbridge and South Ruislip, to Labour). The Lib Dems also took Henley and Thame — a new constituency which replaced Henley, Mr Johnson’s first seat in the Commons — and the Maidenhead seat of the newly ennobled Theresa May, after she stood down as an MP.
Tory heavy-hitter Michael Gove stood down in this election and his Surrey Heath seat was seized by the Lib Dems.
After 14 years, the rebuff delivered by voters to the Conservatives was stinging across Britain. Commons Leader Mordaunt, Defence Secretary Shapps, Welsh Secretary David TC Davies, Transport Secretary Mark Harper, Attorney General Victoria Prentis and veterans minister Johnny Mercer all lost to Labour.
The defeat of Mr Davies, and that of chief whip Simon Hart to Plaid Cymru, left the Tories without a single MP in Wales. Craig Williams, Mr Sunak’s former parliamentary aide who was revealed to have bet on the election timing, slumped to third place in Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr. In London’s commuter belt, Northern Ireland minister and Brexit “Spartan” Steve Baker lost to Labour in Wycombe, thwarting his ambition to stand as Tory leader after the election.
Business and trade minister Greg Hands lost Chelsea and Fulham to Labour, while outspoken Tory deputy chairman Jonathan Gullis was also unseated by Labour in Stoke-on-Trent North.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Science Secretary Michelle Donelan, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer and Illegal Immigration Minister Michael Tomlinson all lost their seats to the Lib Dems.
Sir Jacob, Dame Therese Coffey and Sir Liam Fox were among former ministers to lose but Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden squeaked home by just 20 votes in Basildon and Billericay, after his North West Durham seat was abolished.
“We’ve got Mogg-xit done,” Labour’s Dan Norris cheered after defeating Arch-Brexiteer Sir Jacob in the new constituency of North East Somerset and Hanham.
But the arch-Brexiteer, one of the most recognisable faces of the past 14 years in Westminster, quoted Dick Van Dyke’s character from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to argue that all was not lost for the party.
Sir Jacob said: “One final thought, from Caractacus Pott, and that is from the ashes of disaster grow the roses of success.”
