Exit polls published earlier showed Labour winning the national election with a clear majority, placing Starmer on track to take over as prime minister from Rishi Sunak.

Also read: Britons vote in election expected to deliver Labour landslide

Centre-left Labour was on course to capture 410 of the 650 seats in parliament, an astonishing reversal of fortunes from five years ago when it suffered its worst performance since 1935.

The result would give Labour a majority of 170 and would bring the curtain down on 14 years of increasingly tumultuous Conservative-led government.