UK elections tomorrow: Rishi Sunak’s party says rival Keir Starmer heading for record-breaking win | Everything to know

Posted On 03 Jul 2024

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FILE - British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, left, take part in a BBC debate, in Nottingham, England. UK voters are set to cast ballots in a national election on July 4, passing judgment on 14 years of Conservative rule.

UK gears up to vote on Thursday to decide whether Labour Party leader Keir Starmer can end 14 years of opposition and win the keys to 10 Downing Street, or whether — somehow — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can buck the polls and claim what would be an extraordinary turnaround victory.

The polling booths across the country will open at 7 am and close at 10 pm as voters elect their MPs for the UK Parliament’s 650 constituencies – with 326 required for a majority and to avert a hung Parliament.

Here is all you need to know about Rishi Sunak vs Keir Starmer:

Keir Starmer’s campaign has been built around a one-word promise of ‘change’, tapping into discontent at the state of Britain’s stretched public services and falling living standards – symptoms of a sluggish economy and political instability.
While Rishi Sunak has sought to persuade voters that his 20 months in charge have set the economy on an upward path after the external shocks of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine and drawn a line under years of turmoil overseen by his Conservative predecessors.

However, the Conservative Party all-but conceded election defeat to Keir Starmer’s Labour on Wednesday, a day before polling stations even opened. It also warned that the opposition party was on course for a record-breaking victory.
Starmer reacted to these claims saying it amounted to “voter suppression”.
Opinion polls show the centre-left Labour Party is set for a big win in Thursday’s vote that would end 14 years of Conservative government and hand Starmer the keys to the prime minister’s Number 10 Downing Street office on Friday morning.
Conservatives turned their focus to damage limitation, saying they needed to hang on to enough seats to provide an effective opposition to a Labour government.
Major UK tabloid The Sun said it was “time for Labour”, backing the opposition party for election victory and calling the ruling Conservatives “exhausted” and divided after 14 years in power.
“Time for a new manager,” was the tabloid’s headlined, in a football-themed cover to coincide with Euro 2024, adding: “and we don’t mean sack (England team manager Gareth) Southgate!”
Polling analysis by Survation sees Labour winning 484 of the 650 seats in parliament, far more than the 418 won by the party’s former leader Tony Blair in his 1997 landslide victory, and the most in its history. The Conservatives were predicted to win just 64 seats, which would be the fewest since the party was founded in 1834.