Sunak Delivers His Final Speech as PM

The British political system doesn't give lame ducks much time to linger in power. Hours after the vote count confirmed the Labour Party's landslide victory and Rishi Sunak conceded defeat, the Conservative leader traveled to London and delivered a final speech as prime minister. He then went to Buckingham Palace to submit his resignation to King Charles III.

• "I have given this job my all but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change and yours is the only judgment that matters," Sunak said in his speech outside 10 Downing Street, per the Guardian. "I have heard your anger, your disappointment. And I take responsibility for this loss."

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• Sunak said he would resign as party leader, but not immediately. He said he would stay on until arrangements to choose a successor had been finalized.
• Sunak kept his seat in North Yorkshire but a record 12 members of his Cabinet lost theirs, the Express reports, as did Liz Truss, his predecessor as prime minister. The Conservatives also lost the seats formerly held by the party's three previous PMs: Boris Johnson, Teresa May, and David Cameron.
• After Sunak meets the king, incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer will "go to the palace to seek the king's blessing to form a government," as the AP puts it. Starmer's Labour Party won more than 400 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. Sunak's party is down to below 120 seats in its worst election result since it was founded in 1834.

(More British elections stories.)