General election 2024 live: Farage wins with Starmer set to be next Prime Minister - results in full

Reform UK have won a fifth seat in the General Election. After a recount, they took the Basildon South and East Thurrock constituency with a majority of just 98 votes from Labour candidate Jack Ferguson.

“Our candidate James McMurdock was a paper candidate, drafted in at the last minute, former city boy, and he was absolutely neck and neck with Labour,” Mr Farage said in a video posted on X, formerly Twitter.

“So I rang him up and said ‘Look, give me the name of your agent, so I can find out what’s happening because they were on the third recount’ – he said ‘I haven’t got an agent. I’m my own agent.’

“I said, ‘well, who’s in the hall watching the vote count? And he said ‘my mum and dad’ – and he’s won. He’s an MP – go on my son!”

In the first surprise of Sir Keir Starmer’s Cabinet assembly, Lisa Nandy was promoted to Culture Secretary.

It comes after the holder of the brief in his shadow cabinet, Thangam Debbonaire, lost her Bristol Central seat to the Green Party.

Ms Nandy was previously shadow cabinet minister for international development, having been demoted from shadow levelling up secretary in the Labour leader’s last reshuffle in 2023.

Other expected appointments announced by Downing Street saw Steve Reed named Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, Hilary Benn Northern Ireland Secretary, Ian Murray Scotland Secretary and Jo Stevens Secretary of State for Wales.

Sir Keir Starmer has named Liz Kendall Work and Pensions Secretary, Downing Street said as it announced the latest Cabinet appointments.

Jonathan Reynolds is Business and Trade Secretary and the president of the Board of Trade.

The new Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is Peter Kyle.

Louise Haigh was made Transport Secretary, with all retaining the roles they held in the shadow cabinet.

The next batch of Cabinet appointments announced by No 10 saw Shabana Mahmood named Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

The former barrister, a key ally of the new Prime Minister, held on to her Birmingham Ladywood seat despite a challenge from an pro-Gaza Independent candidate.

Wes Streeting is the new Health Secretary after clinging on to his Ilford North seat by just a few hundred votes.

Bridget Phillipson has been appointed Education Secretary.

She became the first MP elected overnight as her constituency, Houghton and Sunderland South, was the first to declare results.

Sir Keir Starmer also appointed Ed Miliband Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

The MP for Doncaster North led the Labour party from 2010 to 2015.

As Sir Keir Starmer’s first Cabinet announcements trickle in, David Lammy has been appointed as Foreign Secretary.

There had been some questions over whether he would keep the role he held in the shadow cabinet after he kept a relatively low profile during the election campaign.

Yvette Cooper has been named Home Secretary and John Healey is the Defence Secretary, No 10 said.

Pat McFadden has been appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

As national campaign coordinator, he has played a central role in shaping Labour’s direction in the run-up to the election.

Rachel Reeves has been appointed Sir Keir Starmer’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, becoming the first woman to take charge of the Treasury.

The former Bank of England economist retains the brief she held in the shadow cabinet, as expected.

Sir Keir Starmer has appointed Angela Rayner as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the first pick for his new Cabinet.

The Ashton-under-Lyne MP has also been named his Deputy Prime Minister, Downing Street has said.

Ms Rayner has served as Sir Keir’s deputy leader since 2020.

Here’s what he said as he stepped down as Tory leader

https://www.nationalworld.com/news/politics/uk-general-election-2024-rishi-sunak-steps-down-as-conservatives-party-leader-after-defeat-4692204

There will be no final result in the UK General Election on Friday because of a count in the Highlands restarting on Saturday morning.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to appoint his whole Cabinet on Friday, Labour’s national campaign chief has said.

Pat McFadden told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Keir Starmer will get on with appointing his Cabinet, which we expect to be done by the end of today.

“Certainly the whole Cabinet. That Cabinet will meet tomorrow. And he will have to quickly allocate those responsibilities, give his new Cabinet their marching orders and then there’s big international events coming.

“We have a Nato summit next week. That will be his first moment on the international stage. And while he’s doing that, he will want his new Cabinet to get on with it pretty quickly.”

Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is set to make a statement at about 10.30am, Downing Street has said.

He will then travel to Buckingham Palace for an audience with the King, where he is expected to formally tender his resignation.

Then it is Sir Keir Starmer’s turn to see the King at the palace. He will be appointed as the country’s next prime minister and asked to form an administration.

Sir Keir will then be driven to Downing Street to address the nation for the first time as prime minister at around 12.20pm.

Timings are subject to change, No 10 said.

After 641 constituency results had been declared, Labour had won 410 seats with a 33.9% share of the vote.

The Conservatives had 119 seats and a 23.7% vote share.

The Liberal Democrats had won in 71 constituencies with 12.3% of the overall vote, while Reform UK had 14.3% of the vote, translating to success in four seats.

The SNP has eight seats, Plaid Cymru is on four, Sinn Fein has seven and the DUP has four.

The Green Party had 6.8% of the votes and four seats.

Tory minister Steve Baker said “thank God I’m a free man” after he was ousted from his Wycombe seat.

The self-styled “Brexit hardman”, who had signalled his intention to launch a Tory leadership bid after the election, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I fought this to win it and I wanted to do my duty and continue. But I am today, thank God, a free man.

“Try being elected to Parliament and you’ll understand. I am able now to resume my life and that is going to be a great blessing to me.

“So I’m afraid I will be honest with the public. Thank God I’m a free man.”

Former prime minister Liz Truss has lost her Norfolk South West seat to Labour.

Outgoing Home Secretary James Cleverly has warned “there is nothing honourable in presenting simple and thin solutions to challenging and complex problems”.

The Braintree MP, who has held his seat, said: “This has been a very difficult night for my party and losing the position of government of this country is painful, but it is the nature of our democracy that it happens.

“And when it happens it is incumbent upon I suppose all parties, but particularly the party leaving government, to listen carefully to what the voters are telling us.

“I am not going to rush to any quick judgments. I think the right thing to do is be thoughtful and take a short period of time to really assess what the voters are telling us, but it is clear that, when you see the vote share of the traditional main parties of government, that many voters are disillusioned with all of us.

“And we should take that on board.

“I think it is also right that we have the humility to recognise that there is nothing honourable in presenting simple and thin solutions to challenging and complex problems, and the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and we have to respond to that.”

With 600 constituency results declared, Labour has won 395 seats with a 34.6% share of the vote.

The Conservatives have 103 seats and a 23.2% vote share.

The Liberal Democrats have 63 constituencies with 11.8% of the overall vote, while Reform UK has 14.4% of the vote, translating to success in four seats.

The SNP has seven seats, Plaid Cymru is on four, Sinn Fein has seven and the DUP four.

The Green Party has 6.9% of the votes and four seats.

From the Green point of view, do the maths - just under a third of the Tory vote share yet 99 fewer seats. More than half of the Lib Dem vote share and yet 59 fewer seats.

The Green Party has successfully defended its Brighton Pavilion seat as Siân Berry won the coastal constituency with 28,809 votes.

The Greens held onto the seat in East Sussex where Caroline Lucas had been their only MP since 2010, but Ms Berry said she is now “joined by three others” following results so far today.

Former London Assembly member Ms Berry beat nearest challenger, Labour’s Tom Gray, with a majority of 14,290.