Voters in a total of 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will cast their votes in the election…reports Asian Lite News
As polling stations in the United Kingdom opened for voting on Thursday in historic snap general elections in the country, it becomes significant to see how issues like economy, tax, and immigration turn the tide for contenders, including current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Polling opened at 7 am (local time) today and will close at 10 pm.
The six-week campaign that saw all major parties comb the nation will end today with the voting to decide the next Prime Minister of the country.
Voters in a total of 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will cast their votes in the election.
A party needs to win at least 326 out of 650 parliamentary seats and the leader of that party becomes prime minister.
The status of Britain’s public services, the cost of living, taxes, immigration, and the economy will remain major subjects, around which much of the debate during the campaigns have revolved, according to CNN.
The subject of Britain’s relationship with the European Union, which it left in 2020 following a referendum held four years earlier, has, however, been largely ignored in the discussion.
in late May this year, Sunak called for a snap vote, which came as a surprise for many in his party.
It is under the leadership of Keir Starmer, that the opposition Labour party has recovered from its worst defeat since 1935 in the last general election.
Since Boris Johnson easily won the most recent general election in 2019, Britain has had three prime ministers from the Conservative party.
However, a large portion of the nation and his party lost interest in Johnson, and in 2022, members of the Conservative party chose Liz Truss to succeed him as prime minister, making her the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history, CNN reported.
Then, Sunak was chosen by Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) to succeed her.
One of the most well-known champions of Brexit, Nigel Farage, declared throughout the campaign that he would be rejoining the political scene to head the fledgling hard-right Reform UK party.
Throughout the day, Sunak, Starmer, Farage, and the leaders of all the other main parties are anticipated to attend at the local polling stations.
Predictions reveal that the vote will result in a Labour majority after more than a decade of Conservative rule under five leaders, including current PM Rishi Sunak and David Cameron, now foreign secretary.
However, there is also an intensifying atmosphere of division as the hard-right party Reform, led by populist leader Nigel Farage, appears on track to improve on its performance in the 2019 elections, when it was known as the Brexit Party.
The past 15 years have seen the worst income growth in the UK for generations, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
In recent years, Britons have also been battling a cost-of-living crisis as prices surge and salaries stagnate. The Conservative and Labour parties have set out differing routes to fix the economy.
Elections in the UK are usually held every four to five years. The latest this contest could have been held was in January 2025, but the prime minister made the decision to go to the polls earlier. Elections have typically been held in May, though the election in December 2019 was the first winter election in almost a century.
On Wednesday, leaders made their final pitches to voters. In some of his most confident remarks yet, Labour’s Keir Starmer said his party is “ready for what comes next” as voters prepare to head to the polls.
He told reporters the changes he had made to Labour since taking over as leader in 2020 were “being vindicated”. Meanwhile Rishi Sunak used a campaign event to repeat his pleas for voters to deprive Labour of a “supermajority”. Speaking in Hampshire, the prime minister said the result was not a “foregone conclusion” and he would “fight for every vote”.
The Conservatives, who have failed to narrow a large gap with Labour in national opinion polls during the campaign, have increasingly made warnings about the dangers of a big Labour majority a key plank of their campaign.
Earlier, Tory cabinet minister Mel Stride said Labour was “highly likely” to win the largest majority in modern British history – a comment Sir Keir described as “voter suppression” designed to “get people to stay home”.
Speaking at a rally in the West Midlands, the Labour leader urged against complacency, warning voters who want change of the dangers of waking up on Friday to “five more years of Tory government”.
“If you want change, you have to vote for it,” he added.
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