Labour secure wins in first results of the night - as Reform take second place from Tories

Labour have secured their first wins of the night as early election results begin to come in.

Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson held on to Houghton and Sunderland South with an increased majority, while her colleague Ian Lavery kept Blyth and Ashington.

But in the first blows for the Conservative Party, Reform UK came second in both seats, pushing the Tories into third place.

Politics live: Tories to collapse in worst result ever, exit poll predicts

In Sunderland, Reform took 11,668, compared to 5,514 for the Conservatives, and in Blyth, Reform won 10,857 votes, compared to 6,121 for the Tories.

But there are still more than 600 results to go.

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It comes as Sir Keir Starmer’s party looks set for a landslide victory after the exit poll projected it would win 410 seats overnight – with an overall majority of 170 in the Commons.

That compares to a prediction of just 131 seats for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives – which would be the lowest seat tally in the party’s history – along with the expected loss of some big beasts, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

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Labour’s deputy leader – and possibly the next deputy prime minister – Angela Rayner told Sky News that Sir Keir had “done a tremendous job in transforming the Labour Party and putting forward a programme for government that the country can get behind”.

Meanwhile, a Conservative Party spokesperson said: “If these results are correct it is clear that Starmer and Angela Rayner will be in Downing Street tomorrow – that means your taxes will rise and our country will be less secure.”

The Liberal Democrats are also looking likely to have a strong night, going from 11 seats to 61 in the poll, while the SNP could fall to as few as 10 seats – swapping with the Lib Dems as the third largest party.

Reform’s first real electoral test could see them win as many as 13 seats, according to the poll – with Nigel Farage almost certain to take Clacton.

And the Green Party could gain an extra seat, taking their total to two.

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The results have started coming in after a six-week campaign, launched by Mr Sunak in the pouring rain in Downing Street, which has seen Labour dominate in the polls throughout.

He has faced a number of mishaps throughout the campaign, from his decision to leave D-Day early to his party becoming embroiled in a betting scandal.

But the prime minister insisted he would “fight” to prevent a Labour “supermajority”.

Both main parties are playing down the early projections ahead of the final results being announced.

But Labour’s shadow environment secretary Steve Reed told Sky News the “big, solid wins” for Labour in the first results “were starting to authenticate the direction of travel that we saw in that exit poll”.

Former minister and Tory peer Lord Jo Johnson also told Sky that the election “raised really important issues as to whether it’s a sensible thing for the Conservatives to try and be Reform-lite and expect that to be a winning political strategy – it doesn’t look to be on the evidence of what we’re seeing today.”

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