Historic British election begins as centre-left Labour seeks return to power after 14 years – NBC New York

• The United Kingdom goes to the polls on Thursday to elect a new parliament.
• The current Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is attempting to defy months of polling that suggests the party will suffer a historic defeat at the hands of Keir Starmer’s centre-left Labour Party.
• The votes will be counted tonight and the results will be announced Friday morning.

LONDON — Britain goes to the polls on Thursday as the incumbent Conservative Party attempts to debunk months of polling that suggested it would suffer a historic defeat to the center-left Labour Party.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the vote six weeks ago, surprising politicians and the public alike. Most had expected the election to take place later in the year, giving more time for the recent fall in inflation and expected interest rate cuts to hit voters’ wallets.

A number of smaller parties are vying for seats in the 650-strong House of Commons, the lower house of the British parliament, including the Liberal Democrats, Greens, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, the Democratic Unionist Party and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Votes are being cast in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In the British political system, a party that increases its share of the vote does not necessarily mean it will win more seats in parliament — and it is almost certain that either the Conservatives or Labour, led by Keir Starmer, will gain power, either by winning an outright majority or by forming a coalition government.

Convention says the leader of the party with the most seats in the House of Commons will become prime minister

Political polls have been pointing to a resounding Labour victory for almost two years, even though the party needs a historic gain of almost 13% in the national vote to secure even a slim parliamentary majority, according to Hannah Bunting, a lecturer in quantitative British politics at the University of Exeter. That would be a bigger swing than that achieved by Labour’s Tony Blair over John Major in 1997.

Labour’s strong lead was confirmed in a major general poll published by YouGov earlier this week.

However, politicians and Labour itself warn that there is no guarantee of an outcome and that the polls can be inaccurate. More than 100 seats are considered very close to call, including those currently held by leading Conservatives including Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt and Sunak himself.

Thursday’s vote will be Britain’s first general election since 2019, when then-Conservative leader Boris Johnson won the party’s biggest majority since 1987 over Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour on a platform promising to complete the “Brexit” process of leaving the European Union, which had reached a political stalemate.

Johnson’s government was subsequently marked by several public scandals, including the ‘Partygate’ affair, in which senior politicians broke lockdown rules during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to his reluctance to resign in July 2022.

He was succeeded by Liz Truss, who lasted just 44 days in office before resigning amid the so-called mini-budget crisis that shocked financial markets.

Sunak, a former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, has since overseen a period of relative political stability, during which the country has struggled with a severe cost of living crisis and sluggish economic growth.

The legacy of 14 years of Conservative rule — which saw the party win power in 2010 through a coalition led by David Cameron — has been a key theme on the campaign trail.

Sunak and Starmer have tried to convince the public that their party can tackle key issues on housing, the NHS and defence.

Sunak claimed during a debate in early June that Labour’s policy would lead to a £2,000 ($2,553.73) tax increase for “every working family” over the course of the next parliament. Starmer said the figure was “made up”, while the party has proposed tax increases targeted only at specific groups.

The public has from 7am to 10pm local time to vote for their local parliamentary candidate, with a closely watched exit poll published shortly afterwards.

The votes will be counted tonight and the results are expected Friday morning.