JUST a few hours ago Keir Starmer was in the Tate Modern behind me addressing party faithful, talking about a new era of a changed Britain that he’s going to usher in.
His speech had some echoes of the famous Tony Blair 1997 speech.
PASir Keir’s gathering was less party, more Gap advert[/caption]
PAThe soon-to-be PM gave a brief speech to activists[/caption]
It comes as…
Labour has reached the required 326 seats in a Tory wipeout
Piers Morgan told our Never Mind The Ballots election show that Sir Keir MUST deliver after the Tory disaster
A battle for the soul of the Conservative party is already underway
Rishi Sunak has admitted defeat and said he has called Sir Keir
He is expected to meet with King Charles later today
Sir Keir told supporters “we did it!”
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt narrowly held onto his seat in Godalming and Ash
But ex-Defence Secretary Grant Shapps became the first Tory big beast to lose out
He was followed by Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt, one of eight Cabinet ministers have lost their seats
Former PM Liz Truss also loses her seat
Tory defector Lee Anderson claimed the first Reform seat. He was followed by Nigel Farage, who has become an MP for the first time at the eighth attempt
Mr Farage warned Labour “will be in trouble very, very quickly”
Sir Keir’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, now standing as an independent, also held onto Islington North
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey kept his seat in Kingston and Surbiton
You’ll remember that of course it had the famous line ‘a new dawn has broken has it not’.
But if you were expecting those same sort of party scenes we saw in 1997, champagne corks popping, shadow cabinet ministers dancing on the tables, you didn’t get any of that last night.
It was quite sedate, it was very orchestrated.
The party was actually pretty clear that the activists came in about 10 minutes because Keir Starmer gave his speech.
He addressed them, they waved their placards, then everybody went home.
People have talked about Keir being boring and it was a bit of a boring victory party. There was some frontbenchers there, though not many.
The other big story of the night is Nigel’s election and that big Reform insurgency and that’s gonna be trouble not just for the Tories, as it was last night, it’s going to be huge trouble for Labour and for Keir Starmer himself.
It was lots of smiling young staffers in their twenties, at times it looked more like a GAP advert than a big Labour celebration.
Keir was very methodical, very business-like. He did walk on stage holding hands with his wife Victoria, they shared a hug, they kissed. That was very sweet.
Speech delivered, no champagne out, he was back in the car on his way home to get some rest ahead of his big day today meeting the king and getting his new job.
Sir Keir Starmer and wife Lady Victoria Starmer hug after the Labour chief swooped to victory