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London— In a seismic shift in British politics, the Labour Party has secured a decisive victory in the UK general election, ending 14 years of Conservative rule. Keir Starmer is set to become the new Prime Minister after Labour won 410 seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. The Conservative Party, reeling from a catastrophic defeat, managed to secure only 118 seats, marking their worst performance in history.

“Change begins now,” declared Starmer in his victory speech, emphasizing his commitment to addressing the nation’s challenges. Outgoing Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged the voters’ “sobering verdict” as he prepared to leave office.

The Liberal Democrats also celebrated significant gains, while the Scottish National Party (SNP) suffered substantial losses, losing dozens of seats. High-profile Conservative figures, including former Prime Minister Liz Truss, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and Penny Mordaunt, were among the casualties of the night.

In a notable development, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage secured a seat in Parliament, with the party winning four seats. The Green Party also matched this number, achieving their best election result to date.

With nearly all results tallied, the Labour victory represents both a remarkable triumph for Starmer and a formidable set of challenges ahead. He inherits a nation grappling with economic difficulties, widespread distrust in institutions, and a fragmented social landscape.

Rishi Sunak is scheduled to depart No. 10 Downing Street for the last time at 10:30 BST, and will formally resign to the King at Buckingham Palace. Keir Starmer is expected to be appointed shortly thereafter and will arrive at No. 10 around 12:20 BST to begin his tenure as Prime Minister.

July 4 – After an intense six-week election campaign, the moment of decision has arrived as polls open across the United Kingdom. Millions of voters will head to 40,000 polling stations throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland to elect their new Members of Parliament (MPs).

In a historic first for a UK general election, voters casting their ballots in person must present photo identification. This new requirement aims to enhance the integrity of the voting process, ensuring each vote cast is legitimate and verified.

Polling stations will be open until 22:00 BST, after which the vote counting will commence immediately. The first seat declarations are anticipated to be announced approximately an hour after polls close.

Stay tuned for live updates as the nation votes in what could be a pivotal election shaping the future of the UK.

Alia Middleton

Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Surrey

David Cutts

Professor of Political Science, University of Birmingham

One of the most important decisions party leaders have to make in an election campaign is where they want to visit. Their strategists will put together an itinerary of trips to schools, businesses, and community centres around the country.

We can always expect to see them trundling in on their battle buses to shake hands with local voters. And a lot can be gleaned from where they choose to make their stops.

The places

In a highly competitive contest, a leader’s satnav will be pre-programmed with directions to marginal seats – those with small majorities that could go either way. The smaller the majority, the greater the chance that local voters will see a campaign battle bus descending.

But in an election where a party expects to suffer losses, strategists will send leaders to safe seats to shore up support. Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s campaign has followed this strategy. Of the 39 seats (excluding his constituency) that he has visited as the last week of the campaign dawns, 87% have been his party’s own seats.

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What’s more, Sunak has become more defensive as the election unfolds, increasing his visits to safe seats with a minimum 15% notional majority. Strikingly, this includes six visits to ultra-safe seats (30% plus majorities) in the past two weeks.

This is not the strategy of a confident party, but one of damage limitation in the face of some bruising polls – a hope to hang on to some heartland seats that look to be at risk of turning red.

So we have seen Sunak visit Torridge and Tavistock, boarding a lobster boat despite the party’s theoretically comfy 42 percentage point majority. And voters in Thirsk and Malton may have been surprised to see Sunak canvassing in their seat, considering it has only ever voted for a Conservative MP.

Conversely, Labour leader Keir Starmer has spent 82% of his visits so far in seats held by other parties. They were predominantly Conservative but also places where the Scottish National Party is the incumbent. Only five of the 27 non-Labour incumbent seats visited by Starmer have been marginal, like Bury North, where Starmer gave a speech on national security.

This might be described as a strategy of aggressive expansionism. Starmer is not spending time in what have been identified as easy wins – he is touching down in true blue territory like Nuneaton; a bellwether seat where the Conservative incumbent is defending a majority of more than 13,000. His approach fits the narrative of an opposition party on the front foot, aspiring to win a sizeable majority.

The people

Careful decisions also need to be made about the people party leaders are going to meet as they travel around. Interacting with the public can lead to awkward encounters for politicians, so leaders often look for structured scenarios to limit the threat.

Sunak has also changed tack in this respect as the campaign has developed. Question-and-answer sessions in workplaces have been largely jettisoned in favour of safer environments where conversation is minimal.

Although Starmer is still keen to be pictured chatting to workers, these, too are highly choreographed. This has been a common strategy for both of the two main parties in recent elections. Visits take place in an artificial environment that gives the impression a leader is responding to issues raised by the public, without the risk that anyone will go off script.

The shift towards these controlled meetings is in no small part down to an infamous incident involving former prime minister Gordon Brown during the 2010 election campaign.

Brown had travelled to Rochdale and had a short interaction with Gillian Duffy, a local woman. But when they went their separate ways, Brown was caught on a hot mic describing Duffy as a “bigoted woman”. The remark dominated the news and political discourse for the rest of the election.

Brown had been on a “walkabout” when he met Duffy – when a leader walks down a street and stops to chat to members of the public as they encounter them. These are the most fraught type of visits for party leaders.

By the final stage of the 2010 campaign, both David Cameron and Gordon Brown had completed just two walkabouts. It is perhaps unsurprising that neither Sunak nor Starmer have ventured out into the public in this non-scripted way in 2024.

The hospitals

The Duffy incident is not the only reason to consider the 2010 campaign. That was the last election in the UK where a party lost power after a long time in government. In 2024, Sunak is being even more defensive than Brown was that year, visiting even more safe seats.

There was also a notable focus on visiting hospitals, doctors and other emblems of the NHS. Both Brown and Cameron hot-footed it to hospitals on the first day of the 2010 election campaign. And with a week to go before polling day, Cameron had made three healthcare-related visits. In the final week of the campaign he made a further three such visits. Brown made another two.

Their choices are understandable. Leaders tend to visit locations that help them convey their commitment to particular policy areas. And given that healthcare is often one of the most (if not the most) important issues in elections, leaders are usually keen to illustrate their commitment to the NHS by visiting a hospital or a GP practice. Starmer has done exactly this in 2024, visiting a medical school and two hospitals.

Sunak is, however, the outlier here. Remarkably, despite the salience of the NHS to voters in 2024, Sunak has yet to visit a single healthcare setting.

Where next?

The patterns mapped out in previous elections give us a good indication of what Starmer and Sunak’s travel itineraries will look like in the final days of the campaign. Their visits will ramp up in frequency and we should expect to see a lot of them. Cameron managed to visit 22 seats in the final week of the 2010 campaign. Brown managed nine on a single day.

Leaders’ visits are more than just window dressing. They tell us a great deal about a party’s electoral strategy and what their expectations are for the big day. In 2010, Brown’s campaign visits map told the story of Labour dominance coming to an end. Today they tell us a similar story for the Conservatives. ( From : The Conversations)

CHELSEA WHYTE is the Liberal Democrat candidate for Slough. Chelsea has been a consistent volunteer and campaigner for local organisations, including volunteering full-time at her local food bank during the Covid-19 pandemic after losing herjob because of Brexit. Seeing first hand the struggles that too many families face when trying to feed themselves re-affirmed Chelsea’s commitment to tackling the rising cost of living andSlough’s housing crisis.

Now a senior public affairs and strategic communications consultant, Chelsea has experience working with international businesses across a range of sectors including energy,manufacturing, legal and finance. Chelsea has a legal background and has worked at various levels of government, including at the European Parliament in Brussels. Understanding the globalised nature of business, she has long-campaigned for the UK’sposition in Europe and at the heart of international debate. As an avid rower in her free time, Chelsea is passionate about the Lib Dems’ policy to stop water companies dumping sewage, having witnessed the decline in our waterways over recent years. She is particularly concerned about the risk of harm to people and wildlife. She spoke to SOUTH ASIA TIME regarding her ongoing campaign. Excerpts of the interview:

Now that elections are taking place on 4th July, how is your canvassing going on? What type of response are you getting on doorsteps?

We’ve had a fantastic reception in Slough, getting out to meet voters on doorsteps, at local places of worship, and at all the hustings we’ve had so far. It’s clear people want a fresh voice that isn’t embroiled in the stale politics of the past, and they see the Liberal Democrats as that option. We elected three fantastic new Lib Dem councillors locally last year and the momentum is continuing to grow.

What is your main message to the voters? What are your main agenda for Slough?

Our main campaign issues have been focused on:

● Fixing the crisis in our NHS – the Conservatives have neglected our health and social care services for too long, and it’s having a detrimental impact on the everyday lives of people in Slough, some of whom struggle to get appointments and stay healthy.

● Addressing the rising cost of living – the pressure on public finances has hit particularly hard in Slough, especially since Labour bankrupted the council a few years ago. We want to see more funding for local government to ensure essential services can continue in places like Slough. We also want to support local families by scrapping the two-child limit and cap on benefits and extending free school meals to all primary school children and even more secondary school pupils.

● Protecting our local environment – we are fortunate to have beautiful parks and rivers which are home to important wildlife that forms an essential part of our ecosystem. But the natural environment is under constant threat from developers and water companies that have no concern for the way they treat our local communities. We want to see a general duty of care for the environment and hold big businesses to account for things like sewage dumping in our rivers.

● Campaigning for a ceasefire in Gaza and an independent Palestine.

Labour party is far ahead than Tories in the opinion polls and they are calling on Britons to vote for change.  Don’t you see the prospect of Tories benefitting in your constituency out of the three-way contest?

Slough is actually an 11-way contest this time and in a unique position when compared to the national political picture. Labour had a stronghold in this area for a long time, eventually leading to the financial ruin of the local authority. Local people used their votes last year to elect Liberal Democrat councillors for the first time in years. We are hoping to see this trend continue locally. The Conservatives nationally have let our essential services fall into disrepair by cutting funding to public spending. The Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix our NHS, protect our local environment, and tackle the cost of living crisis. We are seeing a lot of support for these policies locally and hope voters keep this in mind on 4th July.

One of the main concerns of local residents has been long queues at the NHS, incidences of burglary and potholes on the road. How will your party address these concerns?

● The Lib Dems want to fix our health and social care services, believing that the two must be tackled hand in hand for long-term success. Included in our manifesto is:

○ The right to see a GP within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, with 8,000 more GPs to deliver on it.

○ Guaranteed access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care, ending DIY dentistry and ‘dental deserts’.

○ Create a social care workforce plan, establish a Royal College of Care Workers to improve recognition and career progression, and introduce a higher Carer’s Minimum Wage.

● Slough has seen crime, and violent crime in particular, increase to worrying levels. The Liberal Democrats believe everyone has the right to feel safe in their local community. Included in our manifesto is:

○ Restoring proper community policing, where officers are visible, trusted and focused on preventing and solving crimes – especially rape and other violent crime.

○ Creating a new statutory guarantee that all burglaries will be attended by the police and properly investigated.

○ Investing in the criminal justice system to tackle the backlog of court cases and ensure swift justice.

● The state of our roads and increasing number of potholes is an issue across the country. Unfortunately, this is something which falls under the responsibility of local authorities and is a service severely underfunded because of years of Conservative cuts to public spending. The Liberal Democrats want to tackle the funding crisis in local government and ensure councils like Slough can get back to delivering the services everyone expects and deserves.

Slough is known for ethnic diversity and cultural harmony.  How will you support to promote cultural harmony in your constituency if you get elected?

We are fortunate in the UK, and indeed in Slough, to have such diverse communities. Unfortunately, the Conservatives have created a hostile environment in which some people feel like they don’t belong. The Liberal Democrats stand for “a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.” If elected, I will use these values as the pillar for which I represent the voters of Slough and try to create community cohesion across the constituency.

How do you see the contributions of South Asian community in the UK?

I want to see us return to the welcoming country we once were, where we value the different backgrounds and cultural experiences that different communities bring. We have a lot to learn from each other, and, as the late, great Jo Cox said, “we have more in common than that which divides us”. I believe the South Asian community is essential to the Slough community and they have an important role to play in our continued growth.

On a personal note, what motivated you to become a full time politician?

Let’s be clear, I am not a full-time politician, yet! I would like to be the next Member of Parliament for Slough, which is a full-time position, but until that happens, I remain a voluntary campaigner. I have a full-time job which I have had to juggle alongside the campaign.  

I got into politics because I was tired of the broken two-party politics in the UK, and the perception it is the best this country could do. I am passionate about reforming our political system, including by introducing proportional representation, so everyone feels like their vote matters, and to eliminate the need for tactical voting.

Having studied law at university, it was clear that a lot of our laws are stuck in the past and in need of updating. I want to see competent and trustworthy people do that, and I hope I could be that person for Slough.

Finally, your message to the voters?

For a fair deal for everyone in Slough, vote Liberal Democrat on 4th July.

London, 27 June 2024 – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer engaged in a heated debate last night, their final showdown before the upcoming general election on 4 July. The two leaders sparred on a variety of critical issues, including tax policies, immigration, Brexit, and gender rights.

Sunak accused Starmer of planning significant tax increases and lacking a coherent strategy on immigration. “Labour’s tax hikes will stifle economic growth and hurt working families,” Sunak argued. He also criticized Starmer’s stance on immigration, suggesting the Labour leader has no viable plan to manage the issue.

In response, Starmer lambasted Sunak, claiming the prime minister had been pressured into addressing the political betting scandal. “Rishi Sunak is out of touch with the everyday concerns of voters and is only acting now because he’s been bullied into it,” Starmer retorted.

Both leaders continue their vigorous campaign efforts today as the election race reaches its final stretch. Sunak will face the media during a visit to a Derbyshire factory and later at a campaign event in Leeds. Meanwhile, Starmer will travel on the Labour battle bus through the North West and West Midlands, highlighting Labour’s plans for incorporating work experience programs in schools.

Other political leaders are also making their final pushes. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey will participate in a BBC 5 Live phone-in with Nicky Campbell at 9 am, followed by visits to the North West, West Midlands, and Oxfordshire. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage will speak at a rally in County Durham, and SNP leader John Swinney will campaign in Edinburgh.