The front pages are dominated by the exit poll from Thursday’s election, which predicts Labour 410 seats, the Conservatives 131, the Lib Dems 61, Reform 13, the SNP 10, and other parties 25. The Daily Mirror carries the headline “Landslide!” and says it is a “thumping victory” for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
The Metro carries a picture of the man set to be the next prime minister alongside the headline: “Keir Stormer!”
The exit poll data, which suggests Labour is on course for a majority of 170 seats, means Britain has seen “red”, according to the Sun. The paper says Rishi Sunak’s decision to call an early election has “backfired”.
The Daily Express says more than a dozen senior Tories, including cabinet ministers, could lose their seats, in what it calls a “brutal reckoning by voters after 14 years in government”.
The Liberal Democrats are on course to become the third largest party once again, while voters appear to have punished the SNP for the recent turmoil within the party, according to the i.
The Guardian says the exit poll predictions “appeared to confirm that Labour’s ‘time for change’ message struck a chord with voters after years of chaos and division”. It adds the exit poll forecast appears to suggest Reform UK has “squeezed the Conservative vote”.
The exit poll predicts a Labour majority that could set the party up for a decade in power, the Daily Mail says. It forecasts a “crushing defeat” for the Tories, the paper adds.
The Daily Star’s front page carries what it says is a list of the “good bits in full” after the Conservatives’ 14 years in government. The image shows a blank piece of paper.
If the exit poll proves accurate, it would be the worst result for the Conservative Party in modern times, the Daily Telegraph reports. The paper says Mr Sunak would be expected to resign as party leader on Friday, but some cabinet members have urged him to remain in post until a successor is picked. “Who that could be will depend on which Tory ‘big beasts’ survived election night,” it adds.
The Times says that, while the scale of the Labour victory predicted by the exit poll is less than some of the previous polls had suggested, it would give Sir Keir a huge mandate to change Britain and “potentially go farther than Labour’s cautious manifesto for government”.
And away from the election, the Financial Times reports that US tech giant Nvidia is on course to sell $12bn (£9.4bn) worth of artificial intelligence chips in China this year despite export controls imposed by US President Joe Biden’s administration. The paper says the controls were imposed on the chips because of fears they could be used for military systems, and the resulting shortage has hampered the ability of Chinese tech firms to keep up with their US competitors. It adds that Nvidia is just the latest Silicon Valley company to “find itself entangled in tensions between Washington and Beijing”.
