Tories hit by Portillo moment after Portillo moment as leading Tories fall

Just moments after the exit polls predicted a 170-strong majority for Labour, Tory party sources were already conceding the election to Sir Keir Starmer.

Private briefings from the party suggested they expected no more than 180 seats and as few as 65. Within hours of the polling stations closing, two of the first results had confirmed the worst fears of the Conservatives and heralded a night of celebration for Labour.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour’s shadow education secretary, was victorious in the first declaration just after 11pm, holding Houghton and Sunderland South with 18,837 votes. Nigel Farage’s Reform UK pushed the Tories into third place.

“Tonight the British people have spoken and if the exit poll this evening is again a guide to results across our country – as it so often is – then after 14 years the British people have chosen change,” said Ms Phillipson.

Within an hour Sir Robert Buckland, former justice secretary, became the first of many high-profile Tory casualties, losing the Tory bellwether constituency of Swindon South to Labour’s Heidi Alexander.

The One Nation Tory said he was “frustrated” with the trajectory of the Tory Party and warned against a lurch to the Right after the election but said the outcome was “a result of our own failure”.

“I am fed up with personal agendas and jockeying for position.

“The truth is now, with the Conservatives facing this electoral Armageddon, it is going to be like a group of old men arguing over a cone,” Sir Robert told the BBC.

He added: “I think I deserve a drink” after being “sacked on live television.”

Just over an hour later the Liberal Democrats began unpicking the “Blue Wall” of Tory seats with victory in Harrogate & Knaresborough by more than 8,000 votes.

“The first brick in the blue wall has come crashing down in Harrogate & Knaresborough tonight,” victor Tom Gordon posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“A huge thank you to the entire team who have worked endlessly for this result... we are back in Harrogate & Knaresborough, back in Yorkshire, back in the North, and back across the country.”

His leader Sir Ed Davey then held his Kingston and Surbiton seat as the LibDems headed for their best-ever result with an expected 70 seats.

“Now I don’t know if you could tell, but I’ve rather enjoyed this campaign,” he told cheering supporters after the result was declared.

“But what I’ve loved most hasn’t been paddleboarding or bungee jumping, it’s been speaking to people here in Kingston and Surbiton and across the United Kingdom, about the challenges they face and their hopes for the future.

“Many of them have turned to the Liberal Democrats, in some cases for the first time at this election and we want to be your champions.”

It saw the LibDems claim the first Cabinet minister’s scalp of the night with Alex Chalk, Justice Secretary, losing his seat in Cheltenham just after 3am followed by Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, in Chichester 40 minutes later. Grant Shapps fell in Welwyn Hatfield, the third of nine members of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet set to lose their seats.

In an angry critique of the party’s failings, the Defence Secretary said: “On door after door voters have been dismayed by our inability to iron out our differences in private.

“Instead we have tried the patience of traditional Conservative voters with a propensity to create an endless political soap opera out of internal rivalries and differences which have become increasingly indulgent and entrenched.”

It was a night in which Reform UK secured its electoral breakthrough, starting with Lee Anderson, former Tory MP, who won back Ashfield, declaring: “Delighted, but not surprised if I’m honest.

“This is the capital of common sense, by the way – people speak their mind in this area, and they’ve had enough of the two mainstream parties.”

Just over an hour later at 3.30am Mr Farage declared “we are coming for Labour” after winning his Clacton-on-Sea seat. He said Reform’s performance in the election so far has been “truly extraordinary”.

“My plan is to build a mass national movement over the course of the next few years and hopefully be big enough to challenge the general election properly in 2029.”

Labour’s march towards victory was not without setbacks with the party’s ambivalence over the Gaza war sparking a backlash particularly in strongly Muslim seats.

Jonathan Ashworth, shadow paymaster general and face of Labour’s attack during the election campaign, lost his seat in Leicester South to a pro-Palestinian independent candidate Shockat Adam.

Labour also lost Blackburn – where it had a majority of more than 18,000 – to Adnan Hussain, another pro-Palestinian candidate.

Jeremy Corbyn also capitalised on a hard-Left backlash and his own personal popularity on the Left by retaining his long-held seat of Islington North. He claimed his campaign had shown “what kinder, gentler and more sensible, more inclusive politics can bring about,” signalling that he would campaign to end the two-child cap on benefits.

Like a drumbeat through the night, the Tories continued to lose big beasts. Penny Mordaunt, would-be leadership contender, admitted the Tories were taking a “battering” as she lost her seat in Portsmouth North.

”[The Conservative party] failed to honour the trust that people had placed in it.

“You can speak all you like of security and freedom, but you can’t have either if you are afraid,” she said.

“Afraid about the cost of living or accessing healthcare, or whether the responsibility you shoulder will be recognised and rewarded.

“That fear steals the future, and it only makes the present matter and that is why we lost.”

Suella Braverman, the former home secretary and expected leadership challenger, held her Fareham seat.

She admitted: ”I’m sorry that my party didn’t listen to you. [The] Conservative Party has let you down.

“You – the Great British people voted for us over 14 years and we did not keep our promises.

“We’ve acted as if we’re entitled to your vote regardless of what we did, regardless of what we didn’t do, despite promising time after time that we would do those things and we need to learn our lesson because if we don’t, bad as tonight has been for my party, we’ll have many worse nights to come.”

Just before 5am Rishi Sunak accepted defeat as he retained his Richmond seat in North Yorkshire.

“The Labour party has won this general election and I have called Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.

“Today, power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner with goodwill on all sides.

“That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.

“The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight.

“There is much to learn and reflect on, and I take responsibility for the loss.

“To the many good, hard-working Conservative candidates who lost tonight, despite their tireless efforts, their local records and delivery, and their dedication to their communities. I am sorry.”

As Labour’s toll passed 325 seats – confirming that it will have a majority in the Commons – Sir Keir spoke at a victory rally in central London, entering the room alongside his wife and attended by former party leader Lord Kinnock and Sadiq Khan.

The Labour leader spoke from a lectern with the new slogan: “Change begins”.

Grinning broadly, he declared: “We did it. You campaigned for it, you fought for it, you voted for it and now it has arrived: Change begins now.

“And it feels good, I have to be honest.”

In an echo of Sir Tony Blair’s words of a “new dawn” when he won in 1997, Sir Keir said: “We can walk into the morning, the sunlight of hope”.

Half an hour later the Conservatives lost all their MPs in Wales after David TC Davies, Welsh Secretary, lost his seat in Monmouthshire to Labour.

By contrast Sian Berry, Green Party candidate and former co-leader, won Brighton Pavilion, in the party’s fourth victory of the night.

One of the biggest shocks came just before 7am as Liz Truss lost her south west Norfolk seat to Labour. She is the first former prime minister to have been defeated in the election after serving in the post since Sir Alec Douglas-Home. She arrived late on stage without a blue rosette.

She could be seen hugging allies but left shell-shocked without making a speech.

The results nationally put Labour on 410 seats and Tories on 118, close to the exit poll predictions.