July 5 (UPI) -- Britain's Labor Party won a landslide victory Friday in a general election that saw the ruling Conservative Party of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak swept from power after 14 years in government.
With votes counted in 648 of 650 parliamentary seats, the Labor party had a majority of around 170 after winning 412 seats to the Conservatives' 121, sweeping large areas across the country, including in Scotland and Wales.
Labor leader Keir Starmer was at Buckingham Palace in London mid-morning for an audience with King Charles, in which the monarch invited him to form a new government led by him.
The brief meeting is formally recorded in the Court Circular as the "kissing of hands," at which prime ministers traditionally kiss the ringed finger of the monarch in allegiance, although Friday's ceremony more likely will have featured a bow and a brisk handshake.
The ceremony is a first for both men -- for Starmer being anointed leader of the country and for Charles appointing a prime minister after a general election, something his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, performed no fewer than 18 times during her 70-year reign.