Foreign media from the United States to Europe and Australia reacted swiftly to the UK first exit polls, reporting on a political “landslide” that had ousted the Conservative Party and heralded a sweeping change of power.

By 3am in the UK, editors in the US had hit publish on ready-made biographies of the incoming prime minister Keir Starmer and critiques of Conservative Party failures that had lost the electorate.

 “Keir Starmer brings working-class roots, a forensic legal style and a ruthless approach to politics,” said the Washington Post in a report about his “intriguing real-life story”.

The “lefty lawyer who defended vegan anarchists” had benefited from a rumour that he was the inspiration for the “Mark Darcy/Colin Firth urbane-human-rights-lawyer character in the Bridget Jones books and movies,” it said, before confirming that “he was not”.

In a scathing comment on the problems facing the UK, it said that while he was “no Winston Churchill”, his “friends say he can be ruthless, which might be what a stumbling-along Britain needs”.

Mr Starmer would focus on trying to address the public’s sense of an unmanageable cost of living, aiming to cut soaring electricity costs and waiting times for medical care, it predicted.

“Starmer’s supporters dare hope that he will be a transformative leader – a kind of 2024 version of Labour prime minister Tony Blair, without the baggage of the Iraq War – if he is not undone by the deep divisions in his own party,” said the Post.

“Critics have described Starmer as dull. He is not. What will be most interesting – to Britain and the world – is what he does now that he and his party have power.”

The New York Times said the “61-year-old former human rights lawyer lacks the star power of some of his predecessors” but did quote an analyst as saying he looks “relatively prime-ministerial”.

CBS asked, “who is Keir Starmer?” before telling its viewers that he had “faced years of criticism for a perceived lack of charisma, but his methodical mission to drag Labour back toward the centre of British politics and broaden its appeal to voters, appears to have worked”.

It concluded that Mr Starmer and his Labour Party had capitalised on years of economic pain and political chaos under Conservative rule, who looked set to be “eviscerated”.

In Australia, author Kathy Lette wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that when a young, crumpled-cardigan-wearing Mr Starmer worked for her then-husband in London in the 1990s, the “bland” junior lawyer would have won her vote for least likely to be a prime minister.

But now “Starmageddon” was underway and British people had cause for jubilation amid a “Tory-ectomy”.

“For the first time in 14 years, this population of pessimistic Eeyores is wondering if perhaps optimism is not an eye disease,” Lette wrote.

The paper’s news pages, meanwhile, bid “so long” to the Conservatives and said, “thanks for all the memes”.

Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, was the first overseas leader to publicly congratulate his “friend”, Mr Starmer:

Mr Albanese was warned by his home nation’s biggest financial newspaper that while his happiness for his “ideological bedfellow” will be genuine, victory for Mr Starmer should make him wary. 

“Starmer did not win because Britain was hankering for a social democratic government,” the Australian Financial Review’s Europe Correspondent wrote. 

“He won merely because he wasn’t the Government.”

A common theme emerged across the ABC and other Australian media: the UK had lurched to the centre-Left while much of Europe was moving to the Right, and Mr Starmer now faced a daunting task.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s London correspondent warned that celebrations would be short-lived as the next prime minister faces “perhaps the most monumental challenges” of any incoming UK leader since 1945.

The Australian newspaper, one of Rupert Murdoch’s favourite mastheads, declared: “Self-described socialist Starmer to drag country to the Left”.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ran a live blog as the results rolled in, reporting that the Labour victory was “a widely expected outcome in an otherwise unstable world”.

It also offered a brutal critique of the “disillusionment” that lay behind the Conservative loss.

“Five Tory prime ministers over 14 years wore down Britons,” the ABC said, concluding the “public had revolted”.

Boris Johnson had been part of the problem, said the ABC. “Larger than life” Johnson and his “wild boy act” had gone too far, especially during the pandemic when Downing Street had held parties and “elderly Britons died alone”.

The “experiment with Liz Truss made things even worse,” it said, as “many homeowners across the UK are still paying the price for Truss’s economic irresponsibility”.

The second story of the night was the rise of Reform UK, reported ABC, describing it as a new party with anti-migration and anti-Europe positions that tapped into a fear of immigration.

Simon Harris, the Irish Taoiseach, said he hoped his nation’s relationship with the UK will go from “strength to strength” as he congratulated Sir Keir Starmer for his election victory.

“Congratulations (Sir Keir) on a comprehensive victory in the UK election,” he posted to X.

“I look forward to working with you as close neighbours and friends.

“The relationship between Ireland and the UK is deep and consequential. I look forward to it going from strength to strength.”

European Council president Charles Michel on Friday congratulated Keir Starmer on a “historic election victory” in Britain and said he looked forward to working with London under a Labour government.

“The EU and Britain are crucial partners, cooperating in all areas of mutual interest for our citizens,” Mr Michel said on X, formerly Twitter.

He added that he would see Mr Starmer at a European Political Community summit to be held in Britain on July 18 “where we will discuss common challenges, including stability, security, energy and migration”.

France’s Le Monde pointed out the expected gains for Reform, calling it the “surprise of the election”.

The New York Times called the Reform leader a Trump-supporting “upstart” who was “Britain’s best known political disruptor”.

Nigel Farage, it continued, was a “polarising, pugilistic figure and a highly skilled communicator” who had been buoyed by an anti-immigration platform as he executed a plan to “destroy” the Tories by “poaching” their voters and taking over “the party’s remnants”.

The French daily was unsparing in its analysis of “an atmosphere of constant fratricidal fights”, as well as political scandals under Boris Johnson and budget miscalculations by Liz Truss that finally exasperated voters.

Germany’s Der Spiegel reported early on a “landslide” win for Labour that showed Britain’s “dissatisfaction” with the Conservatives.

“Many people have the impression that very little still works in the country, which has led to anger against the long-standing government,” it said.

“It threatens the end of the Tory Party as we know it.”

The Australia’s senior writer commented that “slow and steady” Mr Starmer was “just what the doctor ordered”.

But the story most prominently displayed on the newspaper’s website insisted that Mr Starmer and Labour are not popular.

“This was a vote no, not a vote yes,” it said.