Voting booths open across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, with results of the election due in early hours of Friday
Voters are going to the polls across the UK in a general election that is expected to deliver the first Labour government in 14 years.
Polling stations in 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland opened at 7am on Thursday. Counting will begin immediately afterwards, with the results announced in the early hours of Friday morning.
Writing on X as the polls opened, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said: “Change. Today, you can vote for it.” Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, posted a series of messages on the same site that urged voters to “stop the Labour supermajority”.
The Lib Dems tweeted: “This election is our chance to win the change our country desperately needs.” The SNP tweeted: “VoteSNP to deliver independence, rejoin the EU, scrap the two-child benefit cap, invest in the just transition, protect free tuition.”
The contest closes six weeks of campaigning by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. It follows a period in which the UK has had three Conservative prime ministers in nearly five years.
It is the first election to take place in July since 1945, after Sunak took the country by surprise six weeks ago and called a summer poll.
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Labour is seeking election on a platform of change, and has promised to create a new publicly owned energy company, nationalize the railways, cut net migration, recruit 6,500 teachers and create more than 100,000 new nursery places.
The Conservatives have promised to introduce compulsory national service for 18-year-olds, introduce an annual cap on migrant visas, recruit 8,000 police officers and cut a further 2p off national insurance with a view to abolishing it.
Senior Tories including one of Sunak’s closest cabinet allies were effectively conceding defeat on Wednesday. Starmer accused the Conservatives of trying to suppress voter turnout by presenting the election result as a done deal.
Labour has maintained its 20-point lead in opinion polls for the entirety of the election campaign and is hoping to make huge gains across England, Wales and Scotland. A YouGov poll published on Wednesday night said Starmer’s party was on track to win its largest majority in modern history.
It would mark an unprecedented turnaround from the last election, held in December 2019, when Boris Johnson defeated Jeremy Corbyn to win an 80-seat majority for the Conservatives. His campaign was centred around the promise to “get Brexit done”.
Less than three months into his premiership, Johnson had to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic. He resigned in July 2022 after losing the confidence of his MPs due to a string of scandals including Partygate and the handling of internal misconduct allegations.
Johnson was succeeded by Liz Truss in September 2022, but her disastrous premiership lasted only 45 days. She was forced to resign after presenting a mini-budget that lost the confidence of the markets and caused the value of the pound to plummet to a historic low.
Sunak, who was defeated by Truss in the 2022 Conservative leadership contest, took over but has failed to turn the Conservatives’ fortunes around.
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