The glamour of debate and dispute is over in Britain. The time for making a choice has arrived. The politicians have spent the last six weeks campaigning, and now the people of Britain get to decide who will run the country. In this General Election, millions of voters have been welcomed at tens of thousands of polling sites across the UK. Britons will use their voting rights to find out which political parties in the country are honest and reliable. According to recent polls, Britain is expected to choose Labour Party leader Keir Starmer as its prime minister in today's election on Thursday, July 4th. This would mean that Rishi Sunak's Conservatives would be ousted from office after 14 often stormy years in authority. Outside of 10 Downing Street on May 22, Rishi Sunak announced an early general election for Thursday, July 4, in the United Kingdom. The Conservatives have been in power since David Cameron succeeded Gordon Brown in 2010, with Sunak being the fifth PM after Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. Sir Keir Starmer has been the leader of the opposition since succeeding Jeremy Corbyn in April 2020.
The destiny of the United Kingdom hangs in the balance of each and every General Election. Nonetheless, this competition ranks among the most significant of the contemporary era. As far as anyone can tell, it will have the greatest impact on Britain's political scene in a two-party system in over a hundred years.
An enormous backlash is what the public expects to happen to the ruling Tories. Assuming even a small fraction of the voters' predictions are correct, the Labour Party might pull off the biggest landslide victory since Britain's transition to democracy today. According to the most recent YouGov poll, the current opposition party, Labour, will secure the most seats of any one political party with about 430 MPs. Voters' opinions on the Tory government's fourteen years will show up in today's election.
People were quite supportive of Rishi after he succeeded Sajid Javid as chancellor. However, there were noticeable ups and downs in popularity after becoming prime minister. A "divided rabble, and recently they were more interested in fighting themselves than running the country" describes the current state of the Conservative Party, which has worsened over the last 14 years.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, the Conservative administration enacted public-benefitting programmes. The working class benefited greatly from the government's "furlough scheme" that was implemented during the COVID-19 era. In order to help businesses keep their staff and pay them up to 80% of their regular salary during coronavirus lockdowns, this programme offered grants. A programme called "Eat Out to Help Out" was also put in place to assist small businesses during that period. The public rallied behind all of these. The British public took exception to Rishi's fine for celebrating Boris's birthday during the lockdown in 2022, and they were outraged by his wife Akshata Murty's decision to remain a non-domiciled British citizen in order to avoid paying taxes on her foreign wealth.
Last year, the government offered a £400 energy bill cut and a £150 council tax reduction to all households to win over the public. In addition, they gave the elderly an additional £300 and low-income families an additional £650.
A number of factors came together to spark a crisis, including a surge in illegal immigration via channel crossing boats, the dismissal of cabinet members, and investigations into charges of bullying. Subsequently, migrant advocacy organisations put a stop to the sabotage conducted against the Rwandan initiative to regulate asylum seekers and illegal immigrants.
Every EU member state that intended to follow Britain's lead is now researching the problems and repercussions of the irresponsible Brexit proposal. Their governments have come to realise that their citizens will also lose many of the rights, powers, and benefits enjoyed by EU nationals if their country exits the EU.
Nurses and carers from Kerala were able to find work in the UK after the Brexit vote that the Tories engineered, but the majority of Britons lost out on much more than they gained. People are also somewhat irritated by the skyrocketing price increases of items imported from Europe. The use of university courses for personal gain, illegal boat crossings of the English Channel, re-entry into the EU, free mobility within and between the EU, trade links within and between the EU, and other issues were consistently brought up by all political parties during the election campaign. Many students were taking advantage of the university admissions process to expedite the process of obtaining permanent residency in the UK with their families.
Since taking leadership of the Labour Party from the anti-European Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition leader Keir Starmer has been uttering extremely reasonable statements. A lot of people like Keir Starmer because he takes things slowly and doesn't bring up Europe or the EU too often, which helps his popularity. No matter whether the party takes control, the members of parliament will always have their own plans to dismantle the administration. They will raise concerns about climate change, poverty, and the rights of workers, among other things. Many are worried about the Labour leader's remarks on the overcrowding in UK prisons, the early release of some inmates, and the abandonment of Sunak's plan for Rwanda. Lawmakers are worried that if the Rwandan programme were to be dismantled, it would invite an influx of illegal migrants to cross the English Channel.
Even though Labour is predicted to win, the people aren't interested in any party. People are sick and tired of politicians. But when it comes time to cast their ballots, the people remain unchanged: they couldn't care less about the candidate.
Voting started from 7 am GMT and will continue until 10 pm GMT. At the conclusion of the voting period, the tallying will commence. The outcome will determine the political trajectory of the UK for the next four years, and it will be decided on Friday.