UK General Elections 2024 updates: Millions vote in vital polls

Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross casts his vote.

Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer  casts her vote.

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has cast his vote. He was seen at a polling station at Pollokshields Burgh Hall in Glasgow with his wife Furheen and their son Aliyan.

Scottish First Minister and Scottish National Party (SNP) leader John Swinney has recently voted at Burrelton Village Hall in Blairgowrie.

Polls opened at 7am (local time) and will close at 10pm.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson has voted, at Dundonald Elim Pentecostal alongside his wife.

Rishi Sunak called a snap general election for July 4, 2024, despite the next election not being required until December 2024.

This decision left political analysts puzzled, as Sunak’s reasoning remains a mystery.

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Scottish National Party leader has cast his vote in UK general election.

Here are some of the key numbers as UK voters go to the polls:

- Seats

The number of seats up for grabs across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is 650. To win, a party needs to secure 326 seats majority in parliament.

- Candidates

A record 4,515 candidates from 98 different political parties are participating. Of them, 459 are independent and 30 per cent are women.

Furthermore, as per AFP, there were also at least 29 joke candidates, including 22 running for the "Official Monster Raving Loony Party".

- Voters

There were over 46 million voters registered in the UK in December 2023, according to government data.

This number is likely to have risen closer to the election, which was called on May 22.

For the first time this year, British citizens who have lived outside the country for more than 15 years will be eligible to vote as well.

- Polling stations

There are around 40,000 polling stations across the country, according to the Democracy Club.

Opinion polls put Keir Starmer's centre-left party on course for a landslide victory. They suggest that many voters simply want a change after a period of infighting and turmoil under the Conservatives that led to five prime ministers in eight years.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak arrived to vote in the country's general election in his northern English constituency. Sunak walked into the polling station in Northallerton accompanied by his wife Akshata Murty to cast his vote.

The Labour Party's campaign was built around a one-word promise of 'Change', tapping into anger at the state of stretched public services and falling living standards.

Keir Starmer, the 61-year-old lawyer, a former chief prosecutor for England and Wales, is the current choice to be Britain's next leader.

The Labour Party leader has made significant efforts to distance his party from the more overtly socialist policies of former leader Jeremy Corbyn and to address internal divisions. While critics describe him as unexciting and lacking ambition, Labour's popularity has surged under his leadership.

The Conservatives are promising to deliver a stronger economy and cutting taxes by some 17 billion pounds per year.

Furthermore, they are looking to increase public health spending above inflation and boosting defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030. 

The party has also pledged a cap on immigration numbers and the removal of some asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

Rishi Sunak, who has been prime minister since October 2022, is leading the Conservative party into the election.

Sunak inherited a Conservative Party and an economy in turmoil after Liz Truss's premiership. The Oxford graduate and former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager is Britain's first leader of colour and the first Hindu to become prime minister. 

Rishi Sunak said he was "fighting hard" for votes after one of his most loyal Cabinet allies said Labour is likely to win “the largest majority any party has ever achieved”.

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