Senior UK Conservative Jacob Rees-Mogg loses election bid

Former British Conservative minister Jacob Rees-Mogg failed to win the parliamentary seat of North East Somerset and Hanham, losing to the Labour Party, results showed early on Friday.

Both Starmer and Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak kicked off the last day of campaigning before polls open warning voters of dire economic consequences if the other man wins.

But, facing predictions of the worst result in the party's history, the Conservatives turned their focus to damage limitation, saying they needed to hang on to enough seats to provide an effective opposition to a Labour government.

Opinion polls showed the centre-left Labour Party is set for a big win in Thursday's vote that would end 14 years of the Conservative government and hand Starmer the keys to the prime minister's Number 10 Downing Street office on Friday morning.