Labour Win First Seats Of The Night, Swing To Reform UK

With several hours to go until results from the UK general election begin coming in earnest, the small number of seats being declared early will garner notable analysis.

• The first seat to declare, Houghton and Sunderland South, returned Labour shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson as was expected. The most notable statistic from the seat was that the right-wing populist Reform UK came in second place with a 3.3% swing away from Labour to Reform.
• The second seat to declare, Blyth and Ashington, also - as expected - went to the Labour party. As with Houghton and Sunderland South, Reform UK have come in second place.
• The exit poll's national vote share projection compared to seat percentage projections:
  • Labour - vote share projection: 36.1% - seat share projection: 63.1% of seats
  • Conservative - vote share projection: 25.8% - seat share projection: 20.2% of seats
  • Reform UK - vote share projection: 17.2% - seat share projection: 2% of seats
  • Liberal Democrats - vote share projection: 9.4% - seat share projection: 9.4% of seats