Peter Anderson: UK Correspondent on Labour's landslide victory in the UK election

The UK Labour Party has won county's election in a commanding fashion. 

The tally of Sir Keir Starmer's party's seats has now topped 360 seats —it needed 326 for a majority— and he will become Prime Minister. 

Starmer says they're here to return Britain to the service of working people. 

UK Correspondent Peter Anderson told Heather du Plessis-Allan that they’re expecting, based on figures so far, for Labour to end up with about 410 seats in the 650 seat Parliament, giving them a majority of 170 seats. 

In comparison, he said, the Conservatives are looking to have shed more than 200 seats, and will likely have a rather lowly 140/150 MPs at most. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Nine nine two. You can let me know what you think.
Standard text fees apply now. The Labor Party, no surprise
at all, as predicted, have won the UK general election.
Tory leader Rishi Sunek has conceded defeat.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The Labor Party has won this general election and I
have called to Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.
The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight. There
is much to learn and reflect on and I take
responsibility for the loss.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I am sorry now. Nigel Farage also this is a
standout of the evening. Nigel Farag has also won his
seat and collecton for the Reform Party. He's going to
be in parliament now. And our UK correspondent Peter Anderson
is with us.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hey Peter, happo, good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
How big is the landslide?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Then?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
It is looking as though it is going to be considerable.
We had comfirmation just ten minutes ago that Labor had
reached the threshold of three hundred and twenty six seats,
which meant that they would have a majority in our parliament.
As we speak. Stamer, the Labor leader until today, the
opposition leader is actually addressing his supporters in central London.

(01:07):
He's talking about change beginning now. He's talking about providing
service to the working people. Looking forward and as the
sunrises just after five am here in the UK, he's
talking about the sunlight of hope. What we are expecting,
based on figures so far, is that Labor will end
up with about four hundred and ten seats in the
six hundred and fifty seat parliament, which will give it

(01:30):
a whopping majority of one hundred and seventy seats in Parliament.
By comparison, the Conservatives are looking to have shed more
than two hundred seats and will be a rather lowly
one hundred and forty one hundred and fifty MPs at most.
This has been Labour's day and we are looking at
an historic day with Sakir Starmer currently addressing a very

(01:53):
celebratory crowd at his party headquarters.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Right, we have got some big names who've lost their seats,
Jacob Breeze, Bog Morden. Can we call it a blood bath.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yet? Interestingly, Penny Mordant has been seen as a potential
leader of the Conservative Party, as a potential future prime minister,
but she has lost her seat as you say, other
big hitters to go include the Defense Secretary Grant Shapps,
who has been beaten by Labor in his constituency. And
what was very telling Heather in his comments when he,

(02:26):
i suppose, responded to his defeat, he talked about the
soap opera of internal divisions within the Conservative Party. He
talked about indulgent squabbling within the Conservatives and very much
pointing the finger at leadership saying things have to change.
There have been other comments also made about the Conservatives
and how they've been out of touch and how they

(02:47):
have let down the general public. And you mentioned before
Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage has been the thorn in the
side of the Conservative Party. The former Brexit party is
now Reform UK here is the leader and as a
right of center party, he has been taking support away
from the Conservatives, splitting that area of the electorate and

(03:08):
that very much has let Labor into power. Many people
have said Labour didn't so much as win this election,
it was the Conservatives who lost it, and Nigel faraje
in his Reform UK, were there making sure that the
Conservatives lost it. Really quite convincingly.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
What do you make of Jeremy Corbyn beating Labor.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
It's an interesting one. Jeremy Corbyn was the former Labor
leader who was thrown out of the party over recent
months he decided to stand in his Islington seat in
North London as an independent. He has been the MP
there for forty years and he has won. He has
beaten Labor now standing as an independent. I think it's
the fact that he is seen as a very solid

(03:50):
constituency MP meant that he won convincingly in that constituency.
But I think when we come to Parliament he is
going to be a problem for the Labor Party. He
will be sniding from the sidelines. He will be giving
them a tough time and he will put pressure on
the party to move to the left. They won't do that,
but he will be a voice very much critical of

(04:12):
any centrist policies as he sees them having Peter, it.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Is very good to talk to you. Thank you very
much for wrapping that up for us. As Peter Anderson
our UK correspondent. Now Nigel Farage right, happy day for
him because as you just heard, he's finally won his seat.
And when I say finally, that's because this is literally
hits eighth time trying to get into Parliament and things
have gone his way this time pretty big majority. Last
time I had a look, he at twenty one thousand

(04:37):
votes to about thirteen thousand votes.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
The guy that he.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Knocked out soon after claiming victory, he trained his guns
on Labor.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
There's no enthusiasm for Starma whatsoever. In fact, about half
of the vote is simply an anti conservative vote. This
Labor government will be in trouble very very quickly. We
will now be targeting votes. We're coming for Labor, being
no doubt about that.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
And the fact that he's managed to win this convincingly
is actually remarkable given Ione decided to run about a
month ago.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
I will say this, it's four weeks and three days
since I decided to come out of retirement and throw
my hat in the ring. Given that we had no money,
no branch structure, virtually nothing across the country. We are
going to come second in hundreds of constituencies. How many
scenes we're going to win, I don't know. But we

(05:29):
have done this in such a short space of time,
says something very fundamental is happening. For more from hither
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