UK Election 2024 Live Updates: United Kingdom is gearing up for a national election.
New Delhi:
Britain’s political leaders made a frantic push for votes late Wednesday in the last hours of an election campaign expected to return a Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Several surveys predict Labour will win more than the record 418 seats it secured when ex-leader Tony Blair ended 18 years of Conservative rule in 1997.
The UK operates under a first-past-the-post electoral system where voters elect representatives in 650 constituencies. The party that wins the majority of seats, at least 326, will form the government, and its leader will become the prime minister. If no party secures a majority, the existing prime minister gets the first opportunity to form a coalition government.
The main political parties include the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Labour Party led by Keir Starmer, Liberal Democrats led by Ed Davey, Reform UK led by Nigel Farage, Scottish National Party (SNP) led by John Swinney, and the Green Party co-led by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay.
Here are the live updates of UK Elections:
British voters go to the polls on Thursday in a general election to choose new members of parliament.
House of Commons
Voting is taking place for all 650 MPs in the lower chamber of parliament, each representing a constituency or seat.
First-past-the-post
Polls open at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and close at 10:00 pm. Electors vote once for a candidate in their constituency, marking a cross on a ballot paper.
Majority
For an overall majority, a party has to secure at least 326 seats.
Function
MPs scrutinise and vote on proposals from the government, and can sit on parliamentary committees to study the work of the executive as a whole or specific issues.
2019
At the last general election, held on December 12, 2019, Boris Johnson’s Conservatives were runaway winners with 365 seats, with Labour on 202.
Here are some of the key numbers as UK voters go to the polls Thursday in a general election predicted to see the ruling Conservatives dumped out of office after 14 years.
650 seats
The number of seats up for grabs across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A party needs to secure 326 seats to have a majority in parliament.
4,515 candidates
The total number of candidates from 98 different political parties — a record. Of them, 459 are independents and 30 percent are women.
46 million voters
There were over 46 million voters registered in the UK in December 2023, according to government data.
40,000 polling stations
There are around 40,000 polling stations across the country, according to Democracy Club.
15 Tory ministers under threat
At least 15 Conservative candidates who are ministers in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet have been projected to lose their seats in YouGov polling.
13 million pounds in donations
In the first three weeks of election campaigning, from May 30 to June 19, around 13 million pounds ($16.4 million) was donated to political parties, according to Electoral Commission data.
Seven water stunts
Ed Davey, leader of the smaller opposition Liberal Democrats, has taken part in seven campaign stunts involving water.
12 percent trust
Only 12 percent of Britons said they trusted political parties in a government survey from last year, down from 20 percent in 2022.
Britain’s political leaders made a final frantic push for votes Wednesday on the last day of an election campaign expected to return a Labour government after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted he was still “fighting hard” despite one of his closest allies conceding that the Tories were heading for an “extraordinary landslide” defeat on Thursday.
The Conservatives suffered a further blow at the 11th hour when The Sun tabloid, famous for backing election winners, endorsed Keir Starmer’s Labour.
Polls overwhelmingly predict that Labour will win its first general election since 2005 — making Starmer the party’s first prime minister since Gordon Brown left office in 2010.
That outcome would see Britain swing leftwards back to the centre ground after almost a decade and a half of right-wing Conservative governments, dominated first by austerity, then Brexit and a cost-of-living crisis.
Starmer, 61, criss-crossed the UK in a bid to shore up Labour support and warn against complacency in the campaign’s final hours.
Britain will hold a parliamentary election on July 4 which opinion polls indicate will hand power to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and end 14 years of Conservative Party-led government.
HOW IS THE WINNER DECIDED?
To win outright, one party needs to win at least 326 out of the 650 parliamentary seats. The leader of that party becomes prime minister.
Stop Labour’s “supermajority” is the final message British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is trying to drive home on Wednesday, the final day of campaigning ahead of polling day on Thursday, as most of the incumbent Conservatives seem to have all but conceded defeat in the general election.
“This is what unites us. We need to stop the Labour supermajority that will put up your taxes. The only way to do that is to vote Conservative tomorrow,” said 44-year-old Rishi Sunak on social media, as he focused on drumming up support in the last few hours of the campaign trail.
Here are some key issues at stake in the UK general election on Thursday:
– Will jaded voters turn out? –
The main opposition Labour party is widely predicted to win and has been determined not to take any risks, making for a lacklustre election campaign.
For the past two years, polling has suggested that Labour is 20 points ahead of the Conservatives, and no amount of campaigning has managed to shift the dial.
But if that indicates a desire for change after 14 years of Tory government, there does not appear to be much enthusiasm for Labour’s plans.
When either Rishi Sunak or Keir Starmer take to the stage to hail victory in the British election on Friday, they will be joined at their moment of triumph by either a man with a trash can on his head or someone dressed as “Elmo” from the Muppets.
Among the more than 4,500 candidates standing for election to parliament’s 650 seats are those from fringe parties, single-issue campaigners, and, in a peculiarly British tradition, those who are simply making fun of the whole thing.
