London
CNN
—
British voters will go to the polls on Thursday for a crucial general election, seen as a referendum on 14 years of Conservative rule.
The early vote, called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, came months earlier than necessary and took much of his party by surprise.
The opposition Labour Party suffered its worst defeat since 1935 in the last general election but has since rebuilt under the leadership of Keir Starmer.
Thursday’s vote follows a six-week campaign in which all the main parties crisscrossed the country in search of votes. Much of the debate revolved around the economy, the cost of living, the state of Britain’s public services, taxation and immigration.
However, the UK’s relationship with the European Union, which it left in 2020 after a referendum four years earlier, has been largely absent from the debate.
Britain has had three Conservative prime ministers since the last general election in 2019, which was won by Boris Johnson.
But after the majority of the country and his party turned away from Johnson, Conservative Party members voted in 2022 to replace him with Liz Truss, who became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. Conservative MPs then voted to replace her with Sunak.
During the campaign, Nigel Farage – one of the most prominent Brexit advocates – announced his return to the political scene to lead the nascent far-right Reform UK party.
Sunak, Starmer, Farage and the leaders of all the other major parties are expected to make appearances at their own local polling stations throughout the day.
Around 46.5 million Britons are eligible to vote in this election. They are voting in 650 different constituencies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 326 seats are needed for a party to form a majority government.
Media outlets are required not to publish information that could influence voters while polls are open. An exit poll conducted by British broadcasters is expected to give the total number of seats when polls close at 10pm local time (5pm Eastern time), with counting continuing through the night and into Friday morning.
