2024 UK General Elections Live: Surge in British election betting on party control, key dates

As Britain votes, political gurus are predicting a win for the Labour Party after 14 years. This time the Conservatives are under threat from both the Labour and the Liberal Democrats.

As per opinion polls, Labour’s Keir Starmer is set to become the next prime minister of the country with his party making gains even in Scotland. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are focusing their energies on taking seats traditionally belonging to the Conservative Party namely the South of England.

Polls close at 10 pm BST (2.30 am IST) and results will be announced in each of the UK parliament’s 650 constituencies throughout the night.

In Britain, the land of bets and gamblers, politics is open for wagering. Due to a scandal involving the election date—one of the various gambling possibilities—the topic has drawn greater attention than usual this election cycle.

It is anticipated that tens of millions of pounds will be spent on this year’s election, but the amount staked on the U.S. election in the autumn will dwarf that sum. With 1.7 billion pounds risked, the 2020 presidential election on the Betfair Exchange became the greatest betting event globally.

In Britain, you may wager on almost anything. Bettors, or punters, placed bets on a variety of topics, including the future pope’s name, the winner of reality shows like “Love Island,” and the color of the hat Queen Elizabeth II wore to Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding.

To receive a pound coin in return, a gambler would need to wager 100 pounds ($127) on the Labour Party, which is the front-runner. If the Conservatives win, a pound wager on them would return thirty times that amount.

British voters are picking a new government Thursday in a parliamentary election that is widely expected to bring the Labour Party to power against a gloomy backdrop of economic malaise, mounting distrust in institutions and a fraying social fabric.

A jaded electorate is delivering its verdict on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party, which has been in power since 2010. Polls opened at 40,000 polling stations in a vast variety of locales including church halls, a laundromat and a crematorium.

Hundreds of communities are locked in tight contests in which traditional party loyalties come second to more immediate concerns about the economy, crumbling infrastructure and the National Health Service.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged people to support the Conservative Party and prevent the Labour Party from gaining a supermajority, emphasizing that this would mean greater taxes for a generation, as polling for the UK’s election started on Thursday.

Additionally, Sunak posted a photo of himself and his spouse Akshata Murty taken outside a polling place.

“The polls are open. Vote Conservative to stop the Labour supermajority which would mean higher taxes for a generation,” Sunak in a post on social media platform X.

England’s team base at the European Championship soccer tournament in Germany is a “politics-free zone” on election day, defender John Stones says.

Stones said he had no clue about his teammates’ voting intentions.

“I couldn’t tell you about the other lads. I’m sure it it’ll be something that’ll get brought up tonight, later on, but I couldn’t tell you who they vote for. They keep it close to their chests,” he said.

That’s a stark contrast to France’s players, who have been vocal about a hard-fought parliamentary election campaign at home.

England is preparing for its Euro 2024 quarterfinal match against Switzerland on Saturday.

YouGov’s final large-scale poll for “The Times” on election eve suggests the Opposition Labour could be handed a so-called “supermajority” – indicating a 212-seat parliamentary majority and the highest in decades. However, the precise distribution of votes will only become clear once polling closes.

However things turn out, this trend is less a criticism on Sunak’s leadership and more a reflection of the political upheaval that finally forced him into 10 Downing Street.

“I think for British Indian voters, in particular, this election is similar to the rest of the electorate; they’ve been given a chance to choose to keep or remove the government and after 14 years of a Conservative government, the mood is much more for change than for maintaining it,” reflected Sunder Katwala, Director of the British Future think tank.

As the voting for snap general elections began on Thursday, the Indian community in the United Kingdom expressed confidence that the Labour Party would end the nearly 15-year stint of the Conservatives.

“I think if the current political trends are anything to go about and if they continue till the end of the polling day, I think Labour should come back with a resounding victory,” a UK resident said.

“What is going to happen is that they (Conservatives) are going to lose. There are some reasons for that as well. There has been a mess…they have changed so many prime ministers and the services are in a mess. The National Health Service (NHS) is in a mess and other things are in a mess. So I personally believe that Labour should come back with a victory,” he added.

Expressing support for the incumbent Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, the UK resident said that he is a good PM. He said that the Conservative Party will lose due to problems created by previous leaders, not because of the current Prime Minister’s performance.

“He (Rishi Sunak) is a good prime minister. Unfortunately, if the Conservatives lose, which sounds sure, it’s not because of him. It’s because of the mess that the others made. Because he is a very good Prime Minister, he didn’t have enough time as well, because when he came as Prime Minister, there was only a year or something left for the next elections as well. So I would personally love to see him as the Prime Minister,” he told ANI.

Nigel Farage, seeking to become a British MP on Thursday at the eighth attempt, has risen from fringe Eurosceptic rabble-rouser to attention-grabbing figurehead who wants to “reshape” right wing UK politics.

The 60-year-old former European parliamentarian (MEP) was a driving force behind Britain’s 2016 Brexit vote, before forging a career as a presenter on the brash right-wing TV channel GB News. Farage played a significant role in the 2016 EU referendum, where the Leave campaign won with 52 per cent of the vote. Following the referendum, he temporarily stepped back from frontline politics but returned in 2019 to lead the Brexit Party. Under his leadership, the Brexit Party won the most UK seats in the 2019 European Parliament elections, putting additional pressure on the UK government to deliver Brexit.

A vocal Donald Trump advocate nicknamed ‘Mr Brexit’ by the former US president, Farage is a divisive figure, loved and loathed in equal measure by supporters and detractors.

Millions of people are flocking to polling stations to vote in a highly anticipated general election that may significantly reshape British politics. According to opinion polls, the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, is poised for a resounding victory, potentially ending 14 years of Conservative rule.

The polls predict a historic defeat for the Conservatives, led by Rishi Sunak, with a projected 82 seats. Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn, running as an independent in Islington North may secure a surprise win despite losing the Labour whip in 2020, according to a survey conducted by a media outlet in the UK.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is running for reelection as an independent, posted a photo of himself voting Thursday in his North London district.

King Charles III, who also rules over many Caribbean countries, expressed his profound sadness at Hurricane Beryl’s destruction on Thursday during the ongoing UK general election.

“My family and I are profoundly saddened to learn of the dreadful destruction across the Caribbean caused by Hurricane Beryl. We extend our heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of those who tragically lost their lives,” the king said in a statement to the media by Buckingham Palace.

The future of Rishi Sunak as Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian origin and the leader of the Conservative Party – fighting anti-incumbency of 14 years – hangs in the balance as millions cast their ballots in a historic general election on Thursday.

Mr. Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty walked hand-in-hand to their local polling booth on a sunny day in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire, northern England.

A little later, Mr. Starmer and wife Victoria were at their polling station in Camden, north London, sporting Labour red colours.

“Today, Britain can begin a new chapter,” Mr. Starmer told voters in a statement.

“We cannot afford five more years under the Conservatives. But change will only happen if you vote Labour,” he said.

Mr. Sunak, meanwhile, took to social media to drive home his message: “Polls are open. It’s time to stop the Labour supermajority that would mean higher taxes for the rest of your life.” Mr. Sunak, 44, is up against voter angst towards the incumbent Tories after 14 years in power and has had to contend with trailing far behind 61-year-old Keir Starmer-led Labour Party throughout the six-week campaign.

Thursday’s elections in Britain come at a time when popular unhappiness with a number of topics is at an all-time high.

Some disenchanted people have flocked to the populist Reform Party due to issues ranging from a broken state health care system and deteriorating infrastructure to excessive living expenses and a stagnating economy.

With his promise to “take our country back,” its contentious leader Nigel Farage—who supported Brexit—is attracting an increasing number of Conservative voters.

The U.K. is voting in a landmark general election on Thursday, with an estimated 46 million registered voters set to make their ballot count at 40,000 polling stations across the country where any discussion or analysis of political issues remains silenced on the polling day.

On polling day, the U.K.’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) media watchdog rules mean all political and policy debates should be wrapped up before 7 am local time when the polling booths open. From then on, any discussion or analysis of political issues is silenced until 10 pm local time, when the customary election night exit poll results are beamed around the world.

“Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens,” reads the Ofcom guidelines under Section 6 of its code.

“Broadcasters may not publish the results of any opinion poll on polling day itself until the election or referendum poll closes,” it adds.

The rules are intended to prevent any influence over how people choose to vote on election day, though many would have already made their choice through a postal ballot.

Keir Starmer, the human rights barrister turned Labour Party Leader, has made it a manifesto pledge to pursue a “new strategic partnership” with India, including an FTA, if handed a mandate to form a Labour-led government in Thursday’s general election.

Sir Keir, who was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II for his services to law and criminal justice, spent much of his career in the legal profession before stepping into the world of politics, first elected as Labour’s member of Parliament from London in 2015.

The 61-year-old father of two teenage kids, who he and his National Health Service (NHS) employee wife Victoria have chosen to keep out of the political spotlight, has been credited with reversing the party’s fortunes from one of its worst poll performances in the 2019 general election to the edge of government.

The other turnaround Starmer worked on was to try and re-build Labour’s connect with the Indian diaspora, alienated under former leader Jeremy Corbyn over a perceived anti-India stance on Kashmir.

This approach has been entrenched in the party’s 2024 election manifesto, which commits to seeking a “new strategic partnership with India, including a free trade agreement, as well as deepening cooperation in areas like security, education, technology and climate change”.

The UK financial sector is warming to Labour’s pro-business overtures and pledges to provide stability and support, but many in the City remain wary it could be targeted to prop up Britain’s stretched public finances further down the line.

Under leader Keir Starmer, the Labour Party – expected to win Thursday’s U.K. election – has assiduously courted the City of London, mindful that his plans for boosting economic growth will need a big dose of private capital.

“The most important change is that there has been a big shift in mindset by Labour towards the City in the past few years,” William Wright, managing director of think-tank New Financial told Reuters.

“That is reflected in a strong sense of continuity in the reforms to capital markets and pensions underway,” Wright said.

But there is also speculation about changes to how capital gains and wealth are taxed, as well as Reeves’ plans to change the way private equity is taxed, which would likely hit hard.

Michael Moore, chief executive of BVCA, a private equity industry body, said Labour was, however, showing willingness to back up its “pro-business mood music with engagement on substance”.

For the majority of voters in the UK, today has been mostly sunny, with a few showers.

A Sky News report states that while there will be clouds and perhaps spotty showers in the southwest later on, Southern Britain appears to be generally dry and sunny.

There will be sunny spells and sporadic showers, some of which will be heavy and thunderous, in northern and central Britain.

Concentrated over Scotland, they will merge to bring longer-lasting rainstorms to the north before progressively ceasing across northern England.

As cloud cover and rain move southward, the early showers that were over Northern Ireland will also mostly disappear.

Thursday saw gains for the pound and the London stock market relative to the US dollar as voters cast ballots in a general election that is predicted to be won by the main opposition Labour party, which is on the center-left.

Amid political maneuvering to try and prevent Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) from taking control in Sunday’s legislative election in France, eurozone stocks also increased.

Gains were limited while Wall Street was closed for the US Independence Day vacation on July 4.

It is predicted that the right-wing Conservatives led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will be soundly defeated in Britain, ending 14 years of Tory government.

Scottish National Party leader John Swinney has voted as his party fights to hold off a wave of support from the rival Labour Party.

Swinney, who became the SNP’s third leader in just over a year in May, has tried to bring stability to a party in turmoil.

Scotland’s long-serving First Minister Nicola Sturgeon abruptly stepped down last year during a campaign finance investigation that eventually led to criminal charges against her husband, who was the party’s chief executive.

Swinney joined the party at 15 years old, and previously led the party from 2000 to 2004.

Swinney has said that if his party wins a majority of seats in Scotland he will try to open Scottish independence negotiations with the London-based UK government. He wants to rejoin the European Union and the European single market.

Mr. Swinney walked to the polls in Burrelton Village Hall, Perthshire, with his 13-year-old son Matthew.

All voters in the U.K. were required to bring identification with them Thursday for the first time in a general election.

A change in the law has required voters in England, Scotland and Wales to prove their identity since 2023 by showing a passport, drivers’ license and more than a dozen other acceptable forms of ID.

Voters in Northern Ireland have had to show identification since 1985, and photo ID since 2003.

The Elections Act introduced by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022 was enforced, ironically, earlier this year when Mr. Johnson tried to vote without ID in a local election in South Oxfordshire.

He was turned away, but returned later with his identification and cast his vote.

The UK’s historic general election on Thursday marks the first real test at the ballot box for Rishi Sunak when pride in Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian heritage might be trumped by the cost-of-living crisis and sheer fatigue with 14 long years of a Conservative Party-led government.

Exactly how the votes stack up will start to unfold only once polling closes but YouGov’s final large-scale poll for ‘The Times’ on the eve of the election suggests the Opposition Labour could be handed a so-called “supermajority” – indicating a 212-seat parliamentary majority and the highest in decades.

But whatever the final outcome, this pattern is more a reflection of the political turmoil that ultimately brought Sunak into 10 Downing Street than a vote against his own leadership.

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer voted Thursday in an election that is widely expected to return his party to power for the first time in 14 years and make him prime minister.

Starmer, who has warned his supporters not to take the election for granted despite polls and politicians predicting a landslide, voted in his London neighborhood.

Pollsters have given Labour a double-digit lead since before the campaign began six weeks ago.

Starmer has spent his time criss-crossing Britain and urging voters to vote for change.

He has pledged to revive a sluggish economy, invest in the nation’s crumbling infrastructure and repair the broken National Health Service, which his center-left party founded in 1945.

In an attempt to win back his seat as an independent, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn shared a picture of himself casting a ballot on Thursday in his neighborhood in North London.

Labour suspended Corbyn, a socialist who has won his seat in every general election since 1983, and prohibited him from standing for office after accusations of antisemitism against his leadership surfaced.

After Labour suffered its worst defeat since 1935 in 2019, he fell from grace.

After Keir Starmer took over as leader to succeed Corbyn, he rebuilt it and pushed it toward the center. Politicians and pollsters anticipate that Labour will secure the most seats.

Corbyn posted a photo of himself on the social media platform X with his right thumb up, saying: “Just voted for the independent candidate in Islington North. I heard he’s alright.”

On Thursday, one of UM prime minister Rishi Sunak’s closest allies acknowledged that the Tories were going to lose by a “extraordinary landslide,” but the prime minister said he was still “fighting hard”.

According to surveys, Labour is expected to win its first general election since 2005, and Starmer will become the party’s first prime minister after Gordon Brown resigned in 2010. In the event that that happens, Britain would return to the center after nearly fifteen years of right-wing Conservative regimes that were characterized by austerity, Brexit, and the cost-of-living crises.

Sunak made a concerted effort to reinforce his frequently issued warnings that a Labour government would result in higher taxes and less robust national security—ads that Labour has characterised as a desperate attempt to hold onto power. Additionally, the Tories increased their admonitions to voters to prevent Labour from gaining a “supermajority,” which Labour believes is meant to lower turnout.

There won’t be a single political article or story on British news websites or television networks today. The cause? elections in the UK.

The UK is presently holding elections to choose its next prime minister. Polls opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and will close at 10:00 pm when exit polls will give a strong indication of the final result.

Election campaigns are subject to different laws in different nations. In India, political parties are not supposed to hold rallies or post any sort of political message on social media to ensure a fair polling process by not influencing voters. Britain goes a step further by refraining from media houses from publishing political stories.

The purpose of the so-called Rwanda plan, unveiled in April 2022 by then-prime minister Boris Johnson, was to deter asylum seekers from using “dangerous” means, such inflatable boats, to traverse the English Channel, a distance of around 32 km (20 miles), to the UK.

According to the plan, everyone who entered the country illegally after January 1, 2022, would have been sent to Rwanda, which is almost 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) away, where their claims would be evaluated. The UK government estimates that it would cost 169,000 pounds ($210,208) on average to send each asylum applicant there.

Since its announcement, the plan has been the subject of legal challenges.

A new Illegal Migration Act that was subsequently approved tightened restrictions on refugees, stating that anyone coming by small boat would have their asylum claims declared inadmissible and would not be eligible to use modern slavery laws to dispute government actions to deport them in court.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has urged British voters to vote the conservatives out of power and ensure a massive victory for the Labour Party.

“Today we have a chance to turn the page on 14 years of Tory chaos. Good to see so much support with teams out for @ChelFulhamBen across Chelsea and Fulham. Local residents & families are ready to vote for change,” Sadiq Khan said in a post on soial media platform X.

The UK general election on Thursday is predicted to produce the most diverse Parliament in the history of the nation, with a significant number of lawmakers with Indian ancestry set to be elected from all throughout the country.

The Labour Party is expected to have a landslide majority of MPs from ethnic minorities if the party wins an overall majority, according to an estimate by the British Future think tank.

The research concludes that the new Parliament will be closer than ever to reflecting the variety of the British population, with about 14% of MPs hailing from ethnic minorities this time.

Fifteen Members of Parliament of Indian ancestry got elected in the 2019 general election. Many of them are running again alongside a number of newcomers.

Thursdays have historically been the day for UK general elections, and on July 4, millions of Britons will be turning out to cast their ballots. This is a historical practice that dates back to 1918 and is still in use today for a variety of cultural reasons.

General elections in the UK could take place on any day of the week before to 1918, when the country’s Representation of the People Act extended suffrage. This resulted in multiple days of voting for all constituencies, which might have affected the results by causing the winning parties to jump on the bandwagon. The 1918 Act required one polling day, but it did not state on which day of the week it was to be held, according to The Sun newspaper.

In that particular year, the general election was held on a Saturday, breaking with custom. Later on, Thursdays became the popular day, though. Economic and social issues also had a role in this decision. For example, workers receive their weekly wages on Fridays, thus voting on Thursdays was convenient for them because it allowed them to cast their ballots before the weekend.

According to a story by the Guardian, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak expressed his anxiety about losing his district in Thursday’s general election to members of his inner circle. The UK-based newspaper claims that UK Prime Minister Sunak revealed to those close to him that he is “fearful” of losing his post.

People close to Sunak were informed that he believes the votes in Northallerton and Richmond were too close to call. With 63% of the vote and a majority of almost 27,000 votes, Sunak was elected to the Richmond seat.

Sunak would be the first sitting prime minister of the United Kingdom to lose office.

The Institute for Government claims that no prime minister in office has ever lost their seat.

Rishi Sunak has maintained that the polls indicating that the Labour Party is poised to unseat his ruling conservatives are untrue in the weeks preceding Britain’s election.

Voting in the sudden general election that Sunak called has now started across the United Kingdom.

The British media, however, doesn’t appear to be waiting for the outcome.

Unexpectedly, considering the years of criticism the Keir Starmer-led party has endured, the Sun newspaper has decided to back Labour.

One of the best-selling newspapers in Britain, The Sun has a reputation for supporting election winners.

Since 2005, Shailesh Lakhman Vara, a British Conservative politician of Ugandan descent, has served as the North West Cambridgeshire MP. From then, he was elected again to the legislature in 2010, 2015, 2017, and 2019. On a Conservative ticket, Shailesh is running in the elections to keep his seat.

Shailesh held the position of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland from July to September of 2022. He has previously held the positions of Government Whip, Minister for Justice, Minister for Northern Ireland, and Minister in the Department of Work and Pensions.

Sam Carling of Labour, James Sidlow of Reform UK, Bridget Smith of the Liberal Democrats, and Elliot Tong of the Green Party are his rivals for the constituency.

With more than 85% of its territory used by farming, the recently reduced North West Cambridgeshire electorate was made room for the construction of St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire. The constituency currently encompasses parts of rural Huntingdonshire and suburban southern Peterborough.

According to a number of surveys, Labour is expected to capture more seats than the record 418 seats it won in 1997 when former leader Tony Blair overthrew the 18-year Conservative government.

First-past-the-post elections are used in the UK to choose representatives for 650 seats. The party with the most seats—at least 326—will form the government, and the prime minister will be the head of that party. The current prime minister has the first chance to create a coalition administration if no party wins a majority.

Voting has been observed by Chelsea Pensioners at a makeshift polling place erected in the central London grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Founded in 1692, the imposing retirement community accommodated roughly 300 veterans of the army.

Because of their characteristic red coats, Chelsea Pensioners are well-known in the vicinity of Sloane Square.

They are referred to as “blues” since they are pictured here wearing a blue uniform while on hospital property.

While top leaders from several political parties were seen casting their votes, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage was seen out and about this morning. The outspoken politician has already casted his vote via the postal ballot, hence, he was not seen outside any polling stations.

Source: Reuters

The United Kingdom (UK) is voting on Thursday (July 4) to elect a new government. The ruling Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is expected to lose power after 14 years.

Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is set to unseat the Conservatives, scripting a landslide victory. Some opinion polls forecast that Sunak could lose his own constituency. By Friday morning (July 5), we will know the UK voters’ decision and which leader will be the next UK PM.

Let’s take a look at why a Conservative defeat seems almost imminent.

Full Story.  

Britain’s Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak, delivers a speech as part of a Conservative campaign event in the build-up to the UK general election on July 4 in Leeds, northern England. File Photo-AP

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has voted in Surbiton. He arrived at the Surbiton Hill Methodist Church to cast his vote with his wife.

Britain’s LibDem party leader Ed Davey and his wife Emily Davey wave to the media in Kingston, London. AP

Labour Party’s leader from Scotland Anas Sarwar, has voted at Pollokshields Burgh Halls in Glasgow. Sarwar was accompanied by his wife Furheen and his son Aliyan. However, while the family was heading home, they were photobombed by someone holding up a sign which read “Starmer is a snake”.

Source: X