British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has left the prime minister’s residence and headed to Buckingham Palace to offer his resignation to King Charles III, hours after elections results showed his Conservative Party had lost to the left-of-center Labour Party, which will form a government for the first time in 14 years.
Sunak said earlier that he took responsibility for his party’s loss, and that he had called Labour leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.
UK Labour Party sweeps to power in historic election win. But impatient voters mean big challenges
Voters in the U.K. cast their ballots Thursday in a national election to choose the 650 lawmakers who will sit in Parliament for the next five years. With almost all results counted, Labour, led by Starmer, has gained at least 400 seats in Parliament.
After more than a decade in power under five different prime ministers, Sunak ’s Conservatives are set to have their seats in the 650-seat House of Commons cut down to around 130. That would be the Tories’ worst result in the party’s two-century history and one that would leave the party in disarray.