General election – live: Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak join millions voting across UK today

Opinion polling has consistently suggested the election will mark the end of 14 years of Conservative governance, with Labour flying ahead in projected voting intention. Some surveys predict smaller parties including the Lib Dems, Greens and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could pick up record numbers of seats.

The true picture will remain unclear until Friday. Before that, the electorate must take to their local polling stations to cast their votes (if they have not done so already via a postal vote).

To ensure everyone gets a fair and equal chance to participate in this democratic process, there are a number of rules in place, which must be followed in and around polling stations.

Here’s everything you need to know about polling day:

Exit polls take place at about 144 polling stations across the country, with tens of thousands of people asked to privately fill in a replica ballot as they leave, to get an indication of how they voted.

Typically, fieldworkers of the polling company Ipsos Mori descend on the same polling stations at every election, these have been chosen to be demographically representative of the country, with rural and urban seats, and weighted slightly in favour of marginal areas.

The accuracy of exit polls seems to have improved over time. In 1974, the first British exit poll predicted a Labour majority of 132, but the actual majority was three.

But in each of the past few elections the exit poll, which is published shortly after 10pm, has produced a very accurate projection of the actual result.

In 2015, the exit poll proved more accurate than opinion polls at the time, but it did not predict a Conservative majority.

Campaigners have placed 72 yellow signs by the polling station near Grenfell Tower.

Each sing represents the lives lost in 2017 when a fire broke out at the residential block in Kensington.

The Justice4Grenfell group posted a picture urging voters not to “slip up again on hollow promises from politicians”.

He writes: “It is hard to recapture the national mood of 1997. There were some striking similarities between the commentaries then and now. It was said that there was no great enthusiasm for Blair’s New Labour. There were complaints about how cautious, unambitious and right wing the opposition’s programme was. The presentation was all very slick and professional, it was said, including group letters to newspapers of Labour supporters in the worlds of arts, business and academia – but where was the substance?

“Yet there was something in the air – not to get too Thunderclap Newman about it – a sense of optimism and the possibility of a new beginning that was captured perfectly by Blair’s quizzical ‘A new dawn has broken, has it not?’ on the morning after the election.

“The sense of anticipation is in a much lower key this time round, mainly because there is a sober realisation of the difficult economic bequest that the new government will inherit.”

The prime minister is challenging for the Richmond and Northallerton seat in the Yorkshire Dales which he previously won in 2019 with a majority of more 27,000.

He has held the seat in the Yorkshire Dales since 2015, succeeding former Tory leader William Hague.

But members of Mr Sunak’s inner circle warned that he could lose in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton, one of the safest Tory seats in the country.

The Association of Electoral Administrators has demanded to overhaul Britain’s postal vote system.

The body, which represents electoral officers and administrators, has said the system is no longer adequate after widespread reports of delays in ballot paper deliveries.

Deputy chief executive Laura Lock said: “Election teams are doing their very best to run this snap election, but with a short timetable and an election held when many are on holiday – plus print and delivery suppliers working at capacity – demand has severely tested the system.”

She also urged for people who have not received their postal votes to be allowed emergency proxy votes on polling day.

Nigel Farage dissed Rishi Sunak in a Facebook video posted earlier today, urging followers not to panic.

Speaking in what seems to be a food truck surrounded by various sauces and bread buns, he said: “But I think Rishi is panicking.”

The attack came after sources from Sunak’s inner circle said the PM is fearful of losing his seat in his Yorkshire constituency at the election. If his fear comes true, Mr Sunak would be the first sitting PM to lose his constituency.

An election eve poll for The Independent predicts a Tory wipeout, saying Sunak may only hold 82 seats in Parliament. Even worse, a mid-June poll suggested the PM might only retain 53 seats.

A separate June poll forecasts Mr Farage’s party to beat the Tories, with Reform UK’s popularity seemingly unaffected by Mr Farage’s previous comments about Putin and Ukraine.

Mr Sunak is rumoured to be considering a return to the finance industry regardless of his election results.

This came after parliament passed the Elections Act in April 2022, enacting a recommendation the Electoral Commission first made in 2014.

Voter ID is now required at by-elections and recall petitions, general elections, local elections and referendums in England, and Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales.