SNP down to just ten seats with Labour set for sweeping majority, exit poll says

While the votes were still to be counted overnight, Sir Keir Starmer, who thanked those who voted for him and “put their trust in a changed Labour Party”, is set to be Britain’s next Prime Minister.

Labour would win 410 seats, with the Tories on just 131, in a humbling night for Rishi Sunak, with Labour needing the biggest swing since 1997 to win a majority of one. Instead, Sir Keir could have a majority of 170.

The Liberal Democrats are forecast to win 61 seats. But the exit poll is damning for John Swinney’s SNP, suggesting the party would fall from 48 to just ten MPs, becoming the fifth biggest party behind Reform, who are predicted to win 13.

The result would mean SNP Westminster party leader Stephen Flynn will no longer get a weekly question at PMQs, and the SNP will have less representation on committees.

Reacting to the exit poll, Scotland’s former first minister Nicola Sturgeon told ITV: “This is not a good night for the SNP on those numbers.”

She added: “This is at the grimmer end of the expectations for the SNP if the exit poll is right.”

Ruth Davidson called the projected election result a “massacre” for the Conservative Party after exit polls were released.

But the former Scottish Conservatives leader said the word coming out of central office earlier was the Tories could be below three figures in terms of seats.

She said on Sky News: “So actually 131 – while, there is no dressing it up, this is a massacre – they’ve actually, if this is right, pulled a few back from where they thought they were.”

Labour’s national campaign chief Pat McFadden said: “Keir Starmer’s transformation of the Labour Party has been remarkable. He has put country before party and has transformed Labour from a party focused on itself to one back in the service of the British public. We have campaigned as a changed Labour Party, ready to change Britain.”

Sir Keir praised Labour’s supporters, posting on X: “To everyone who has campaigned for Labour in this election, to everyone who voted for us and put their trust in our changed Labour Party – thank you.”

It will mean a Labour prime minister in No 10 for the first time in 2010 and the Conservatives facing a possible civil war as the fight for the future direction of the party and the battle to potentially replace Mr Sunak gets under way.

After 14 years in power it was always going to be a difficult election for the Conservatives, but the sometimes shambolic campaign – triggered at a time of Mr Sunak’s choosing – has contributed to their party’s likely defeat.

From the rain-drenched speech announcing the surprise July 4 poll, through the D-Day debacle as he left Normandy early to record a TV interview to confused campaign messaging about a Labour “supermajority”, Mr Sunak struggled to convince the electorate he was the right man to lead the country.

Going for a summer election rather than waiting until the autumn was always a gamble, and the Prime Minister was not helped by the scandal of Tory candidates and officials allegedly heading to the bookies armed with inside knowledge of the date.

Mr Sunak is expected to resign after leading his party to defeat, but many of the contenders jostling to replace him are nervously awaiting their own constituency results to see if their leadership dreams survive the night.

The likes of Penny Mordaunt, Grant Shapps, Suella Braverman, Steve Baker and Robert Jenrick all face battles to return to Parliament.

Former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Dame Priti Patel, security minister Tom Tugendhat and Health Secretary Victoria Atkins could survive to fight for the leadership.

The exit poll was published as Mr Rishi Sunak handed peerages to former prime minister Theresa May, former chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady and his chief of staff Liam Booth-Smith in the dissolution honours li

Former Scottish secretary Alister Jack – the outgoing MP who last year triggered a section 35 order to ultimately overturn the Scottish Government’s gender recognition legislation – has been made a knight of the Order of the British Empire. Deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden has been knighted, while former deputy prime minister Therese Coffey has been made a dame.

Following the downturn in the SNP’s fortunes, Labour was hoping to win a majority of seats north of the border.

Speaking this week, Sir Keir had insisted the route to a Labour government was through Scotland.

Speaking at a campaign event in Glasgow on the final day of campaigning, the Labour leader said: “I want a Labour government to have Scotland at its heart. The route to a Labour government runs through Scotland, has always run through Scotland.

“And I want voters in Scotland – not to send a message, the SNP say, the most important election for I don’t know how long, and they say what? Send a message.

“Send someone, an SNP MP, to sit on the opposition benches for this important period of history, and say a few things across the aisle. I don’t want Scotland to send a message, I want Scotland to send a government.”

Calling the election has proved a risky gamble for Mr Sunak, who faces immediate questions about his own future, with his tenure almost certainly set to end.

Mr Sunak ‘s tenure could end not just in the form of a leadership contest, but also in his own Yorkshire constituency, with the former Chancellor telling allies the seat is too close to call.

A loss in Richmond and Northallerton would see the Prime Minister be the first sitting leader of the country to lose his seat.

Sir Keir’s party – led in Scotland by Anas Sarwar – had entered the election enjoying a resurgence in recent years against a backdrop of turmoil for the Conservatives. The circumstances, added to by the resignations of former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as the ‘Partygate’ scandal, had helped put Labour firmly in pole position after being out of power for 14 years.

Mr Sarwar cast his vote at Pollokshields Burgh Hall in Glasgow on Thursday morning, accompanied by his wife Furheen and son Aliyan.

After voting, he hugged and shook hands with Labour candidate for Glasgow South West Zubir Ahmed, and shook hands with Labour activists as well as an SNP activist. A woman with a sign that read “Starmer is a snake” approached and followed Mr Sarwar on to the street, before posing for pictures.

Mr Swinney voted at Burrelton Village Hall, Perthshire. Accompanied by his 13-year-old son Matthew, the First Minister walked from his home to the polling station, greeting members of the media on the way in. He also met his candidate Dave Doogan who is running in the Angus and Perthshire Glens constituency.

Scotland had been tipped to boast a series of the more intriguing local battles in this election, including the Aberdeenshire North and Moray East seat.

Embattled outgoing Tory leader Douglas Ross put himself forward only last month to contest the seat in the stead of former MP David Duguid, who was barred by Conservative bosses due to ill health.

Labour had meanwhile been eyeing a resurgence in Glasgow, after Scotland’s largest city dropped from seven seats in the previous Parliament to six due to boundary changes.

The city had been a Labour stronghold for decades before the party lost all of its seats there in 2015 as it struggled to hold on to the unionist vote in Scotland.