The Labour Party won Thursday’s U.K. general election with a landslide that ended 14 years of Conservative rule and will install Keir Starmer as prime minister with a legislative program that leaves the direction of crypto regulation unclear.
Labour won well over the 326 seats needed for a majority, with BBC reporting it held 410 seats as of 8:30 a.m. British Summer Time (7:30 UTC) Friday, relegating the Tories – as the Conservative Party is known – to 119. Neither party mentioned the crypto industry in their manifestos in the lead-up to the election. Labour concentrated on the economy, police and the National Health Service.
Labour, for its part, has said it will support the Bank of England’s digital pound plans. A decision on whether to issue the central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be taken by the bank in 2025-2026. Before that happens, the Parliament will need to approve the appropriate legislation.
“Four and a half years of work, changing the party, this is what it is for: a changed Labour Party ready to serve our country, ready to restore Britain to the service of working people,” he said.
“The Labour Party has won this general election and I have called Keir Starmer to congratulate him,” Sunak said in a concession speech early Friday. “The British people have delivered a sobering verdict tonight.”
“A lot of the really important work has been done and it’s not been done by the parties themselves, it’s been done by government departments,” Jordan Wain, U.K. policy lead at Chainalysis, told CoinDesk in an earlier interview. “It’s been done by the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority], they’re the ones that are formulating legislation. They are not going to sweep all of that hard work off the table, it’s not going anywhere.”
UPDATE (July 5, 07:40 UTC): Updates seat count in second paragraph.
