Live updates: Follow the latest news on the UK general election
Exit polls predicted that Keir Starmer will lead the British Labour Party to victory in Thursday's general election after a disastrous Conservative campaign sent the party out of power after 14 years.
The survey for TV broadcasters released seconds after the polls close showed the party on 410 seats and the Conservatives on 131.
Labour returned to the political heights last scaled by Tony Blair in 1997 when the party sought to transform Britain into a progressive society at home and a global force for reformist principles.
The motto of the Starmer campaign emulated the Blair spirit, calling on the electorate to "vote for change".
Cheers rang out at election watch gatherings around the country.
The Conservatives are now looking at a period of consolidation after winning fewer seats than their previous low of 156 in 1906.
With the leaders' speeches interspersing the live cutaways to failing and winning candidates, the night saw more than 300 new MPs declared.
With the exit poll prediction clear cut, Rishi Sunak was steeled to head to Buckingham Palace on Friday morning.
King Charles III, who has been ailing with cancer, has the duty of naming the new leader, while a stand for a speech at the front door of No 10 Downing Street is installed and removal vans are glimpsed at the back of the street.
With his constituency in north London, Mr Starmer is expected to be joined at home by close aides before cars arrive to take him to the palace to formally “kiss hands” with the king in the ritualised appointment ceremony.
A triumphant arrival at Downing Street and a first speech outside No 10’s famous black door then gives way to security briefings, including letters to the commanders of the nuclear submarines, followed by an intense process of appointing a new cabinet.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
World Test Championship table
1 India 71 per cent
2 New Zealand 70 per cent
3 Australia 69.2 per cent
4 England 64.1 per cent
5 Pakistan 43.3 per cent
6 West Indies 33.3 per cent
7 South Africa 30 per cent
8 Sri Lanka 16.7 per cent
9 Bangladesh 0
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Dubai World Cup Carnival card:
6.30pm: Handicap (Turf) | US$175,000 | 2,410 metres
7.05pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial Conditions (Dirt) | $100,000 | 1,400m
7.40pm: Handicap (T) | $145,000 | 1,000m
8.15pm: Dubawi Stakes Group 3 (D) | $200,000 | 1,200m
8.50pm: Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (T) | $200,000 | 1,800m
9.25pm: Handicap (T) | $175,000 | 1,400m
THE BIO
Occupation: Specialised chief medical laboratory technologist
Age: 78
Favourite destination: Always Al Ain “Dar Al Zain”
Hobbies: his work - “ the thing which I am most passionate for and which occupied all my time in the morning and evening from 1963 to 2019”
Other hobbies: football
Favorite football club: Al Ain Sports Club
