Rishi Sunak said on Friday he would resign as prime minister and Conservative Party leader after losing heavily to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, leaving with an apology, a tribute to Britain, and a call to protect “kindness, decency and tolerance”.

His defeat ends 14 years of Conservative government – a period marked by division, political instability and, more recently, economic pain. He hands control of the world’s sixth-largest economy to centre-left Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, Reuters reported. 

“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 a speech outside the prime minister’s office in Downing Street.

“I have heard your anger, your disappointment and I take responsibility for this loss.”

Sunak said whatever their disagreements, he respected Starmer as a “decent public-spirited man”.

“He and his family deserve the very best of our understanding as they make the huge transition to their new lives behind this door,” he said.

Sunak’s tone marked a stark contrast to his approach to the final weeks of the campaign when, increasingly desperate as the opinion polls refused to budge, he tore into Starmer, warning the Labour leader would hike taxes, hammer the economy and threaten its security.

Sunak spent 20 months in charge of the party, inheriting an economy suffering soaring inflation and a Conservative reputation badly damaged by a messy end to Boris Johnson’s tenure and the even more chaotic, and brief, leadership of Liz Truss.

He called the election earlier than expected, banking on an improvement in economic data to help him close the gap with Labour, but failed to make any headway in a campaign beset by missteps, and delivered the worst result in the party’s history.

“I will step down as party leader, not immediately but once the formal arrangements for selecting my successor are in place,” he said.

“It is important that after 14 years in government the Conservative Party rebuilds, but also that it takes up its crucial role in opposition professionally and effectively.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Sunak said he had spoken to Starmer to congratulate him and praised the “peaceful and orderly manner” of the transfer of power in Britain.

“That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future,” he said.

Nevertheless, Sunak bears the brunt of his Conservative colleagues’ anger over the scale of the loss while his party faces an ideological battle over how it can chart a course back to power.

In conversations with Reuters, many Conservative members of parliament criticized his decision to call the election early, saying the party wasn’t properly prepared, and calling his policy platform “cautious” and “uninspiring”.

Reflecting on his time in office, Sunak, Britain’s first ethnic-minority prime minister, paid tribute to the electorate.

“One of the most remarkable things about Britain is just how unremarkable it is that two generations after my grandparents came here with little, I could become prime minister and that I could watch my two young daughters light Diwali candles on the steps in Downing Street,” he said.

“We must hold true to that idea of who we are. That vision of kindness, decency, and tolerance that has always been the British way.

“This is a difficult day at the end of a number of difficult days, but I leave this job honored to have been your prime minister.”

Efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release in Gaza were gathering momentum on Friday after Hamas made a revised proposal on the terms of a deal and Israel said it would resume stalled negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday he would send a delegation to resume negotiations, and an Israeli official said his country’s team would be led by the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, Reuters reported.

A source in Israel’s negotiating team, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was a real chance of achieving agreement after Hamas made its revised proposal on the terms of a deal, received by Israel on Wednesday.

“The proposal put forward by Hamas includes a very significant breakthrough,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity and giving no details.

The Israeli response to the Hamas proposal, submitted via mediators, was in marked contrast to past instances during the nearly nine-month-old war in Gaza, when Israel said conditions attached by the militant Islamist group were not acceptable.

A Palestinian official close to the internationally mediated peace efforts told Reuters the new Hamas proposal could lead to a framework agreement if it is embraced by Israel.

He said Hamas was no longer demanding as a pre-condition an Israeli commitment to permanently cease fire before the signing of an agreement, and would allow negotiations to achieve that throughout a first six-week phase.

“Should the sides need more time to seal an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, the two sides should agree there would be no return to the fighting until they do that,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Hamas has previously said any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and sought the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

Israel has previously said it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting until Hamas, which governs the small, densely populated Gaza Strip, is eradicated.

Egyptian sources acknowledged there had been a shift but suggested that the core issue of commitment to a permanent ceasefire was still outstanding.

In the latest fighting in Gaza, residents said Israeli tanks had pushed shortly before dawn into the Al-Nasser neighbourhood in the northern part of Rafah, near the border with Egypt.

Israel said its operations in Rafah were aimed at dismantling the last battalions of Hamas’ armed wing.

An Israeli air strike on a house killed five Palestinians, including three children, in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Gaza medics said.

Five Palestinians were also killed in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

North Korea criticised a joint military exercise by South Korea, Japan and the United States held this month, state media said on Sunday, saying such drills show the relationship among three countries has developed into “the Asian version of NATO”.

On Thursday, the three countries began large-scale joint military drills called “Freedom Edge” involving navy destroyers, fighter jets and the nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, aimed at boosting defences against missiles, submarines and air attacks.

The exercise was devised at the three-way summit at Camp David last year to strengthen military cooperation amid tensions on the Korean peninsula stemming from North Korea’s weapons testing.

Pyongyang will not ignore the strengthening of a military bloc led by the U.S. and its allies and will protect regional peace with an aggressive and overwhelming response, North Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement, according to KCNA news agency.

The ministry also said Washington was continuing its effort to link up South Korea and Japan to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), adding South Korea’s attempts to supply weapons to Ukraine is one example of that effort.

Seoul’s defence ministry said in a statement that the “Freedom Edge” exercise was in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile program while dismissing Pyongyang’s criticism.

South Korea said it would review the possibility of supplying arms directly to Ukraine, in protest against a recent mutual defence pact signed between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

South Korea and the United States have accused the North of supplying weapons to Russia that are being used in the Ukraine war. Both Russia and North Korea deny any such transactions.

North Korea’s ruling party held a meeting over Friday and Saturday presided by Kim, who on the second day addressed “deviations” hampering economic development and laid out the focus for the second half of the year, state media said.

North Korea has long condemned joint drills between the United States and South Korea as a rehearsal for invasion and proof of hostile policies by Washington and Seoul.

Last year, the U.S., South Korea and Japan staged joint naval missile defence and anti-submarine exercises to improve responses to North Korean threats. – Reuters