Britain's Labour Party on track for landslide victory, exit poll suggests

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Labour Party is headed for a landslide victory in a parliamentary election on Thursday, an exit poll suggested, as voters punished the governing Conservatives after 14 years of economic and political upheaval.

The poll released moments after voting closed indicated that center-left Labour's leader Keir Starmer will be the country's next prime minister. He will face a jaded electorate impatient for change against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric.

The historic defeat for the Conservatives leaves the party depleted and in disarray and will likely spark a contest to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader.

"Nothing has gone well in the last 14 years," said London voter James Erskine, who was optimistic for change in the hours before polls closed. "I just see this as the potential for a seismic shift, and that's what I'm hoping for."

While the suggested result appears to buck recent rightward electoral shifts in Europe, including in France and Italy, many of those same populist undercurrents flow in Britain. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has roiled the race with his party's anti-immigrant "take our country back" sentiment and undercut support for the Conservatives, who already faced dismal prospects.

Labour is on course to win about 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons and the Conservatives 131, according to the exit poll. That would be the fewest number of seats for the Tories in their nearly two-century history and would leave the party in disarray.

Former Conservative leader William Hague said the poll indicated "a catastrophic result in historic terms for the Conservative Party."

Still, Labour politicians, inured to years of disappointment, were cautious, with full results still hours off.

In a sign of the volatile public mood and anger at the system, some smaller parties appeared to have done well, including the centrist Liberal Democrats and Farage's Reform UK.

The poll is conducted by pollster Ipsos and asks people at scores of polling stations to fill out a replica ballot showing how they have voted. It usually provides a reliable though not exact projection of the final result.

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