Britain's Conservative Party ousted after 14 years, marking big victory for Labour

LONDON -- After 14 years in power with five consecutive prime ministers, the U.K.'s Conservative Party was voted out of power on Thursday, ceding control to Labour, a center-left party that had run on a platform calling for "change."The results were widely expected, as public support for the Conservatives, or Tories, had eroded amid Brexit, COVID and rising inflation.Voters in 650 constituencies cast ballots for members of the House of Commons.With almost all the votes counted, Labour candidates were expected to win 412 seats, while Conservatives would take 120 seats, according to the Press Association.

Liberal Democrats were expected to have 71 seats.The election was the country's first national vote since 2019.Prior to Thursday's voting, opinion polls in Britain had for more than two years predicted the Conservatives are heading for a "heavy defeat," Pippa Catterall, a professor of history and politics at the University of Westminster, told ABC News.Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, center, arrives with First Minister of Wales Vaughan Gething, right, and and local parliamentary candidate for Carmarthenshire, Martha O'Neil, left, for a visit to the West Regwm Farm Events Venue in Whitland, Carmarthenshire, while on the General Election campaign trail, in Wales, Wednesday July 3, 2024.Stefan Rousseau/AP"The Conservatives nonetheless went into the election with the hope that, as usual, the polls would narrow in their favor," Catterall said.

"Instead, it got worse."The Labour Party's leader, Keir Starmer, who is now expected to become prime minister, said he hoped to put an end to the Conservative "chaos."His campaign released a "manifesto" laying out some of his government's plans, including cutting hospital wait times, ushering in a greener economy and improving the U.K.'s post-Brexit trade deals with the European Union.Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader, Rishi Sunak, delivers a speech at a Conservative Party campaign event at the National Army...