Rishi Sunak resigns, leaves 10 Downing Street after final speech as British PM

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak left Buckingham Palace after resigning on Friday morning, following the Conservative Party’s devastating defeats in the general election.

Sunak also apologised to the nation following his farewell statement as prime minister.

He departed 10 Downing Street just hours before the left-leaning Labor party, which will form a government for the first time in 14 years, crushed him in the polls.

Sunak said earlier that he took responsibility for his party’s loss and that he had called Labor leader Keir Starmer to congratulate him on his victory.

Voters in the U.K. cast their ballots Thursday in a national election to choose the 650 lawmakers who will sit in Parliament for the next five years.

With almost all results counted, Labor, led by Starmer, has gained at least 400 seats in Parliament.

After over a decade in power under five different prime ministers, Sunak ’s Conservatives are set to have their seats in the 650-seat House of Commons cut down to around 130.

That would be the Tories’ worst result in the party’s two-century history and one that would leave the party in disarray.