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UK election 2024 LIVE updates: Labour set to form majority government as polls close
The polls have closed in the UK and Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is poised to take power, sweeping away Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives after 14 years.
- by Rob Harris, Jessica McSweeney, Nick Ralston and Angus Thomson
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Analysis
UK politics
Celebrations will be short-lived for Starmer, staring down Britain’s monumental challenges
Britain’s new prime minister faces perhaps the most monumental challenges of any incoming UK leader since Clement Attlee’s Labour Party won in a landslide in 1945.
- by Rob Harris
Security guard convicted over depraved plot to rape and kill British TV star
Gavin Plumb had been attempting to live his “ultimate fantasy” and was described by the prosecution as someone who had an “obsession” with TV host Holly Willoughby.
- by Connor Stringer and Will Bolton
Opinion
UK election
When I met Starmer, he’d have won my ‘least likely PM’ vote. Look at him now
He’s cautious, a bit bland and with no big vision, but he’s ousted the crooked Conservatives in this chaos-weary country.
- by Kathy Lette
Labour set for crushing UK election win, polls predict
An exit poll coinciding with the end of voting at 10pm local time forecasts Labour will win 410 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
- by Rob Harris
British teenager’s disappearance spurs speculation and sleuthing
Even as Spanish authorities called off their search for Jay Slater, online sleuths continued with conspiracies and other theories spreading across the internet.
- by Isabella Kwai and Claire Moses
Analysis
UK election
So long UK Conservatives, and thanks for all the memes
The tumultuous Thatcher years were memorialised in song and literature, but this current generation of Tories are probably best forgotten.
- by Rob Harris
Keir Starmer was moments from quitting. Now he’s hours from being Britain’s next PM
Barring an almighty upset, Starmer will become prime minister on Friday, his Labour Party ousting the Conservatives after 14 years. It is no mean feat.
- by Rob Harris
‘Tell us now’: Zelensky demands Trump say now what his peace plan is for Ukraine
“We want to understand whether in November we will have the powerful support of the US, or will be all alone,” Zelensky said.
- by Annmarie Hordern and Daryna Krasnolutska
Updated
UK politics
‘A new chapter’: Labour forecast for record-breaking win as polls open in UK election
Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun newspaper has endorsed the opposition Labour Party rather than Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.
- by Rob Harris
French ‘Excalibur’ mysteriously disappears after 1300 years stuck in a rock
Durandal was claimed to be the sword of Roland, a legendary knight and officer of Charlemagne. It was lodged in stone 10 metres above the ground.
- by Henry Samuel