Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech to supporters during a visit to a community centre on 3 July 2024 in Redditch, United Kingdom. Keir Starmer visited three countries of the UK on the final day of election campaigning. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
- The UK general election is anticipated to end
Conservative rule, with Labour projected to win by historic margins, marking
its first general election victory since 2005. - Polls indicate a
significant defeat for the Conservative Party, potentially leading to Labour
leader Keir Starmer becoming Prime Minister. - Significant endorsements from major newspapers have
shifted towards Labour, with exit polls expected to confirm a large-scale voter
shift and potential record seats for Labour.
Britons
head to the polls Thursday in a general election widely expected to
emphatically return the opposition Labour party to power and end nearly a
decade-and-a-half of Conservative rule.
This is the
country’s first national ballot since Boris Johnson won a landslide for the
Tories in 2019, and it follows Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s surprise call to
hold it six months earlier than required.
His gamble
looks set to backfire spectacularly, with polls throughout the six-week
campaign – and for the last two years – pointing to a heavy defeat for his
right-wing party.
That would
almost certainly put Labour leader Keir Starmer, 61, in Downing Street, as
leader of the largest party in parliament.
Centre-left
Labour is projected to win its first general election since 2005 by historic
proportions, with a flurry of election-eve polls all forecasting its
biggest-ever victory.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | LIVE: UK Elections 2024: Britain heads to the polls and near-certain defeat for its ruling party
But Starmer
was taking nothing for granted as he urged voters not to stay at home.
“Britain’s future is on the ballot,” he said. “But change will
only happen if you vote for it.”
Long night
Voting
begins at 07:00 in more than 40 000 polling stations across the country, from
church halls, community centres and schools to more unusual venues such as pubs
and even a ship.
At 22:00,
broadcasters then announce exit polls, which typically provide an accurate
picture of how the main parties have performed.
Results
from the UK’s 650 constituencies trickle in overnight, with the winning party
expected to hit 326 seats – the threshold for a parliamentary majority – as
dawn breaks Friday.
Polls
suggest voters will punish the Tories after 14 years of often chaotic rule and
could oust a string of government ministers, with talk that even Sunak himself
might not be safe.
Britain’s Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak delivers a speech at the National Army Museum in London on 2 July 2024 as part of a campaign event in the build-up to the UK general election on 4 July. (Justin Tallis/AFP)
That would
make him the first sitting prime minister not to retain his seat in a general
election.
“I
appreciate people have frustrations with our party,” he conceded on
Wednesday. “But tomorrow’s vote… is a vote about the future.”
Endorsements
Sunak, 44,
is widely seen as having run a dismal campaign, with anger over his decision to
leave D-Day commemorations in France early the standout moment.
In new
blows Wednesday, The Sun newspaper switched allegiance to Labour – a key
endorsement given the tabloid has backed the winner at every election for
several decades.
It follows
the Financial Times, the Economist and The Sunday Times as well as
traditionally left-leaning papers The Guardian and The Daily Mirror, also
endorsing the party.
Meanwhile,
three large-scale surveys indicated Labour was on the brink of a record
victory, with the Tories set for their worst-ever result and the centrist
Liberal Democrats resurgent in third.
Britain’s Liberal Democrat party leader Ed Davey (R) and Liberal Democrat candidate for Winchester Danny Chambers pose for a photo during a visit to the Winchester Abbey Gardens, in south England, on 3 July 2024, as part of a party general election campaign event in the build-up to the UK general election on 4 July. (Justin Tallis/AFP)
YouGov,
Focaldata and More in Common all projected Labour would secure at least 430
seats, topping the 418 under Tony Blair in 1997.
The
Conservatives could plunge to a record low of less than 127, the trio
predicted.
The Lib
Dems were tipped to scoop dozens of seats – up from their current tally of 15 –
while Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party was set to win a handful.
Leader of Reform UK Nigel Farage attends a general election campaign event at the Seconds Out Gym in Clacton, southeast England, on 3 July 2024, in the build-up to the UK general election on 4 July. (Paul Ellis/AFP)
YouGov and
More in Common both forecast the Brexit figurehead would finally become an MP
at the eighth time of asking.
‘National
renewal’
If the
predictions are accurate, Sunak will visit the head of state, King Charles III,
on Friday to tender his resignation as prime minister.
Starmer
will meet the monarch shortly after to take up his invitation to head the next
government – and become prime minister.
The Labour
leader will then travel to Downing Street – the office and residence of British
leaders – where he would be expected to deliver a speech before making
ministerial appointments.
It would
cap a remarkable political rise for the former human rights lawyer and chief
prosecutor, who was first elected an MP in 2015.
He has
promised a “decade of national renewal” but faces the daunting task
of revitalising creaking public services and a flatlining economy.
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