UK

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditor Britain’s upcoming general election is widely expected to lead to a change of government for the first time in 14 years. Many analysts believe it will be one of the country’s most consequential elections since the end of World War II.Ahead of the July 4 vote, The Associated Press takes a look back at other landmark U.K. elections since the war.___When former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called an election in December 2019, it was essentially about one issue: Brexit. General elections in the U.K. are typically held in the spring or early summer. But in the fall of 2019, the recently-appointed Johnson gambled on holding one on December 12, when most people just want to get ready for Christmas and would rather think of anything but politics.For Johnson, desperate times called for desperate measures. The June 23, 2016 Brexit referendum, won narrowly by those backing an exit from the European Union, triggered a chaotic period in politics.Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, had resigned immediately after his side lost the referendum. His successor, Theresa May, tried but failed to find a Brexit formula that a majority in Parliament would back. Everyone seemingly had a different idea as to what post-Brexit deal the U.K. should have with the EU, and the original day of departure — March 2019 — was delayed. Parliament was in chaos, and Johnson, who succeeded May, pledged that he would get “Get Brexit Done.”With Labour’s Brexit policy unclear and its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn deeply unpopular, Johnson’s Conservatives won their biggest majority since 1987 under Margaret Thatcher. Labour suffered its worst election result in terms of seats since the 1930s.Johnson prevailed largely because his message was clear, especially in parts of the country that voted Brexit but had for decades voted Labour. The U.K. left the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020. Any celebrations were short-lived, however, with a deadly coronavirus pandemic soon spreading around the world. Johnson was forced to resign in the summer of 2022 after he was found to have lied to Parliament over lockdown-breaching parties at his offices in Downing Street. The 49-day tenure of his successor, Liz Truss, was even more chaotic after she unveiled unfunded tax cuts that roiled financial markets and sent borrowing costs for homeowners surging.It’s a dual legacy that their successor Rishi Sunak has had to contend with ahead of Thursday’s election. More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditor United Kingdom elections have a distinct vocabulary that draws on traditions of parliamentary democracy as well as modern political slogans and spin.As voters go to the polls Thursday to elect a new government, The Associated Press deciphers some key words and phrases: Battle bus Luxury coaches rented by the main political parties to whisk politicians and journalists around the country for campaign visits during the five-week campaign. Labour has a red bus emblazoned with the word “change,” while the Conservatives’ blue bus promises a “clear plan, bold action, secure future.” The centrist Liberal Democrats’ yellow bus has taken leader Ed Davey on a headline-grabbing journey that has involved paddleboarding, rollercoaster-riding, Zumba and bungee-jumping. Blue wall A swath of seats in southern England, the wealthiest part of the country, where voters traditionally have supported the Conservative Party, whose traditional color is blue. With the Conservatives trailing in the polls, the centrist Liberal Democrats are targeting these affluent, socially liberal voters and hope to snatch some of the seats. See also: Red Wall. Brexit Britain’s departure from the European Union, triggered by a 2016 referendum and completed in 2020, was the country’s most seismic, and divisive, act in decades. Yet it has featured little in the election campaign. The Conservatives don’t want to acknowledge that many of the promised economic benefits haven’t materialized. Labour doesn’t want to reopen old wounds or alienate Brexit-backing voters. So Brexit has become something of a political Voldemort — that which mustn’t be named. Coalition government A rarity in the United Kingdom, a coalition government is one in which two or more political parties divide up ministerial posts, compromise on policies and agree to govern in concert. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition of 2010-2015 was Britain’s first since World War II. First past the post Used to describe an electoral system in which the candidate with the highest number of votes in each district wins, even if that person doesn’t gain a majority of votes cast. The system tends to favor the two big parties, Conservatives and Labour, which historically have won a majority of seats in Parliament, while taking well under half the votes. House of Commons The lower house of Parliament has 650 seats, each representing a district of the U.K. The leader of the party with enough seats to command a majority — either alone or in coalition — becomes prime minister and leads the government. House of Lords The unelected upper house of Parliament scrutinizes legislation passed by the Commons. It’s made up of peers appointed for life by political parties, along with a smattering of judges, bishops and hereditary nobles. Its ballooning size and undemocratic nature are often criticized but reform has proved difficult. Hung Parliament An outcome in which no single party holds a majority of seats in the House of Commons. In that case, parties will try to forge agreements that will assemble a working majority, enabling a government to pass laws. If opinion polls giving Labour a double-digit lead are borne out on polling day, this is an unlikely result. King’s Speech An annual speech — read by the monarch at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament — that is written by the government and outlines its legislative program. This year’s speech will be delivered by King Charles III on July 17, and will lay out the plans of either Labour leader Keir Starmer or Conservative leader Rishi Sunak. Majority/minority government A majority government is formed by a party that holds more than half the seats in the House of Commons. Minority government occurs when a party that doesn’t have a majority of seats governs alone, relying on support from smaller parties on a vote-by-vote basis. Minority governments tend to be short-lived — the most recent lasted from 2017 to 2019. Marginal seat Constituencies won by a small margin and thus more likely to switch hands in an election. The opposite is a safe seat. Red wall A string of seats in England’s Midlands and north once dominated by mining, steelmaking and other heavy industries that traditionally voted Labour, whose traditional color is red. After years of high unemployment and social decay, many of these voters switched to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson. Labour hopes to regain many of these seats Thursday. Supermajority An American term with no clear meaning in Britain, introduced into the U.K. election by the Conservatives in an attempt to shore up the party’s vote by warning that Labour could get untrammeled power if it wins too many seats in Parliament. Swingometer A fixture of the BBC’s election night coverage for decades, a pendulum-style representation of the percentage of voters who have shifted from one party to another, used to predict the outcome in parliamentary seats. Once an actual prop, it’s now delivered through digital graphics. Tactical voting Describes the practice of voters backing a party they wouldn’t usually support in order to defeat another candidate. There has been speculation this election could see high levels of tactical voting by centrist and left-leaning electors to oust Conservatives. More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorVoters in the UK will visit polling stations up and down the country on July 4 to have their say in which political party they want to represent their area and country.Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced the snap general election at the end of May, sparking six frantic weeks of political campaigning. June has seen leaders, candidates and activists fight for every last vote: knocking on doors, taking part in televised debates, and trying to avoid controversy.For the latest political updates ahead of the general election, follow The Independent’s live coveragePolling suggests the election will mark the end of 14 years of Conservative governance, with Labour flying ahead in projected voting intention. Some also predict smaller parties like the Lib Dems, Greens and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK could pick up record seats.Prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer during their BBC head-to-head debate More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRishi Sunak has warned voters against enabling a Labour ‘supermajority’ at the general election on Thursday as his party continues to lag behind in the polls.The prime minister tested out the new line on the campaign trail in the run-up to polling day in a decidedly defensive move against Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.“The outcome of this election is not a foregone conclusion,” said Mr Sunak. “If just 130,000 people switch their vote and lend us their support, we can deny Starmer that supermajority.“Just think about that: you have the power to use your vote to prevent an unchecked Labour government.”For the latest political updates ahead of the general election, follow The Independent’s live coverageRishi Sunak delivers a speech in central London while on the general election campaign trai More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorRishi Sunak is on the verge of leading the Conservative Party to the worst defeat in its 346-year history, according to a new poll for The Independent.The Techne UK survey of 5,503 voters has given Labour a 19-point lead at 40 per cent – almost twice the Tories’ 21 per cent – with just one day of campaigning left to go.While the Conservatives have gained two points from late last week, and Labour dropped one with Reform UK also losing a point to 16 per cent, the narrowing of the polls appears to be too little, too late for Mr Sunak after a disastrous campaign.It comes as Rishi Sunak started a 48-hour tour in the battle bus on the campaign trail by stacking shelves at Morrisons, delivering a message that only 130,000 voters were needed to stop a Labour “supermajority”.However, according to Techne, he will only be able to rely on four in 10 Tory voters who supported Boris Johnson in the 2019 election, representing a collapse in support for the party. While Nigel Farage’s Reform has gone slightly backwards in this poll, the data reveals that the party has taken a quarter (25 per cent) of the previous election’s Tory vote, almost four times as many as Conservative supporters who switched to Labour (7 per cent).If this is how the election pans out, the Tories would be only the third largest party on 66 seats, behind the Lib Dems on 70, while Labour would have a majority of 284, according to Electoral Calculus. Reform would get a foothold in parliament with six seats.Techne chief executive Michela Morizzo warned that the poll contraction in favour of the Tories is “too little, too late”. She said: “Our last Westminster tracker poll of this general election campaign has been delivered with a very large sample audience of 5,503 potential electors. While there has over the last week to 10 days been a small contraction in the Labour lead, it is clear from our final pre-election poll that the Conservatives are heading for a defeat.“With ‘won’t vote’ hitting an all-time high of 26 per cent of the total electorate – an incredible 44 per cent won’t vote in the age group 18-34 years – I am absolutely sure we are heading towards a significant Labour majority and change of government. “The question is: how many Conservative voters will stay at home on Thursday? This time, more than ever, voters will decide on the route to the polling station and I feel a big uncertainty on the final results. It’s not a question about Labour, which will certainly win, but what Conservatives will do and the impact the results will have on the future of the party.”Sunak is set to lose badly to Starmer More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorNigel Farage and Reform have made the biggest splash on social media of any political party or politician this election.The right-wing party and its leader have amassed more than 2.8 million reactions on Facebook since the start of the election, according to data analysed by Hootsuite, a social media analytics platform. Mr Farage’s official Facebook page alone has garnered 2.1 million reactions and shares, with the Reform page taking 719,000. This marks by far the largest Facebook interaction rate for any party or politician. By contrast, Rishi Sunak received just 270,000 Facebook reactions, while Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer attracted 300,000. The Labour Party page has garnered 269,000 reactions since 22 May, when the election was called, while the Conservatives have gained just 163,000. The two parties’ combined Facebook engagements are at just 60 per cent of Reform’sMr Farage also leads engagement on X (Twitter), with 13.9 million likes and retweets; while his videos have been viewed a combined 39.4 billion times on the platform during the election. Tweets from the Reform account are also the highest for party engagement, at 9.3 million interactions.However, the Labour Party’s videos on X – including endorsements from Elton John — are the second most popular during the campaign, garnering 11.4 billion views, or 13.2 billion if combined with Sir Keir’s account.This compares to 8.8 billion views for Mr Sunak and the Conservatives, 4.5 billion views for Reform alone, 4 billion views for the Green Party, and just 260.4 million views for Ed Davey and the Lib Dems. Meanwhile, Mr Sunak has the highest engagement on Instagram (2.6 million) since the election was called, due in part to his large following on the platform – 3.6 million followers.What does this tell us? Not much necessarily, other than the fact that Reform’s target audience is highly engaged on social media, particularly Facebook. It is also unclear how much this engagement will translate into material gains this week.Crucially, while the party may have an increasingly wide reach on social media, it lacks concentrated support in most constituencies; with latest polls estimating Reform could win five seats at best.But it is impossible to ignore that Mr Farage in particular has an online star-power which other politicians have failed to leverage, with even the prime minister making a tiny splash on social media in comparison. More

Support trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorSir Keir Starmer has refused to guarantee any of his top team a job in his new cabinet as Labour appears to be closing in on victory.The Labour leader was pressed on the issue in his final broadcast interview with the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason as he toured the key battleground seats in the midlands.Mr Mason pressed Sir Keir: “People deserve to know who might be running some of the big aspects of the state come Friday, if you are to win. Will the senior figures in your shadow cabinet to take those respective roles in government if you do win?Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Sunak on FarageSupport trulyindependent journalismFind out moreCloseOur mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.Louise ThomasEditorParties have begun a 48-hour blitz in constituencies across the country as they make their final appeals to voters ahead of polling day.Rishi Sunak began Tuesday visiting businesses in Oxfordshire, insisting predictions of a heavy Tory defeat were not going to stop him from continuing his fight to remain in No 10.Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is campaigning across the Midlands. The Labour leader has urged Mr Sunak to meet Royal Mail bosses “in the next hour or two” to fix the ongoing postal vote chaos. It comes as Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake announced the delays to postal vote delivery are being “urgently investigated” and criticised Royal Mail for failing to deliver ballot packs on time. But Royal Mail, who is also conducting sweeps of their delivery system on polling day, said there is “no backlog” and blamed stakeholders instead. Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn warned some Scots could be “disenfranchised” if their postal votes cannot be filled out and returned on time.Show latest update 1719931941Starmer refuses to name new Labour cabinet if he wins electionSir Keir Starmer has refused to name his cabinet if he wins the General Election on Thursday and speculated “plenty of constituencies” could come down to “just a few hundred votes”.The Labour leader told the BBC: “I’m not going to get ahead of myself and announce, say, cabinet or possible cabinet.”He added: “To do so two days before the election, to do so would to be complacent – and you would never expect a leader to do that.”( More