UK Election 2024: Rishi Sunak 2.0 or Keir Starmer for PM? All you need to know

Posted by Admin July 4, 2024 World

The campaigning for the general elections in the United Kingdom came to an end hours before the voting was set to take place across the entire country on July 4. These elections will likely end the current reign of the Conservative Party. While UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak eyes another term in office, the opposition Labour Party is expecting a landslide victory.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (L) and Britain’s main opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer (R) (AFP)

PM Rishi Sunak asserted that the Conservative Party is still “fighting hard” while one of his closest allies conceded defeat saying that the Tories are heading for a “landslide defeat” in the elections.

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, reported Reuters. The winner of the elections will likely be declared in the early hours of Friday, with polls suggesting that Labour Party leader Keir Starmer will take the keys to the prime minister’s 10 Downing Street office.

UK Elections 2024: All you need to know

The Britons will cast their votes on July 4 from 7 am to 10 pm local time. There are a total of 650 constituencies in the United Kingdom, and according to opinion polls, the left-leaning Labour Party is set for a clean sweep. The results of the 2024 elections will be declared in the early hours of Friday, July 5.

Once the results are declared, the leader of the party with the most votes, likely to be Keir Starmer, will be appointed the Prime Minister. After the counting of the votes, the monarch of the UK (presently King Charles III) will invite the leader of the majority party to form a new government.

The current parliament was dissolved on May 30 after the election dates were announced.

You Gov’s final seat projection published on Wednesday put Labour on track to win a majority of 212 seats, the largest of any party in modern history. But, facing predictions of the worst result in the party’s history, the 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.

The Labour Party, in its election campaign, highlighted the public fatigue with the change in prime ministers in the Tories’ ongoing term, Brexit, the crumbling economy and multiple scandals involving top Conservative leaders.

However, Rishi Sunak emphasised the migration issue in the UK and made the revival of the country’s economy his top campaign point. The outgoing prime minister asserted that a change in governance could lead to the economy taking a dip once again.