General election results – live: Exit poll shows Labour landslide as Tories suffer devastating losses
Labour predicted to win majority of 170 seats - but fall short of 1997 result
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Labour is on course for one of the biggest Commons majority in history with the official exit poll pointing to a crushing defeat for the Tories.
Sir Keir Starmer’s party is expected to win 410 seats, a significantly larger number than under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in 2019
Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are set to fall to 131 seats, down from 365 five years ago when Boris Johnson secured a dominant 80-seat majority.
The Liberal Democrats are forecast to win 61, with Reform UK on 13, the Green Party on 2, the SNP on 10 and Plaid Cymru on 4. It will give Sir Keir a 170-seat majority in parliament, just shy of Sir Tony Blair’s 1997 record of 179.
The result will almost certainly lead to a series of high-profile Conservatives losing their seats as results come in in the early hours.
More than seven cabinet casualties would be a new record in British electoral history. Before polls closed at 10pm massive queues were reported at polling stations and it is now believed turnout could be one of the highest in recent election history.
What happens if Rishi Sunak loses his seat before general election result is called?
When will we know who’s won? An hour-by-hour guide to general election results and key seat announcements
How exit polls work and how much you can trust the result
Starmer set for record majority as exit poll predicts crushing Tory defeat
Parties splurge over £1m on polling day online political adverts
The political parties are spending more than £1m on online advertising in just 24 hours, analysis suggests.
An organisation that tracks digital political advertising found that by 6pm today, with four hours of voting remaining, the parties’ main pages had spent £481,000 between them on Meta (Facebook) alone, with an estimated further £250,000 on Google/YouTube.
Transparency campaign group Who Targets Me found that while the Conservatives had significantly increased their Meta spending before polls opened, they still trailed Labour, spending an estimated £159,000 against Labour’s £257,000.
Reform UK has spent around £30,000 and the Lib Dems almost as much at £26,000, the figures suggested.
Polling predicts how Britain’s diverse voter base could swing at the general election
New polling has forecast how the UK’s different ethnic minority groups will likely be voting on Thursday, with the war in Gaza a major concern for 1 in 5 of the nation’s Asian voters.
Exclusive polling for The Independent by More In Common shows that Black voters are still far more likely to vote Labour than any other party and more than any other ethnicity.
Despite the Labour’s recent race rows, some 64 per cent of Black voters are set to rally behind Sir Keir Starmer’s party, compared with 37 per cent of the country’s white population.
Read the full article here:
Polling predicts how Britain’s diverse voter base could swing at the general election
Exclusive: polling shows that war in Gaza may impact 1 in 5 Asian voters ahead of tomorrow’s ballot, though ethnic minority voters stay loyal to Labour overall.
Chancellor’s battle to hang on to his seat
Archie Mitchell met voters in the Godalming and Ash constituency:
Behind the scenes of the Lib Dem assault on Jeremy Hunt’s true blue Surrey seat
The chancellor is plotting a narrow course to victory in the ‘true-blue’ seat but, on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, Archie Mitchell struggled to see how he can hold on
Do men and women vote differently in general elections?
Do men and women vote differently in general elections?
Women and men have often had different ideas when it comes to voting in elections. In the 2019 general election, the British Election study found one of the biggest gender gaps in party support in modern British history, with more men voting Conservative and more women voting Labour. But what about now? The Independent’s data correspondent Alicja Hagopian dives into the numbers. A recent YouGov polling shows that the gender gap among Labour and Tory voters in this election is shrinking — but the real divide comes for Reform voters. The latest polls, released just yesterday (3 July), showed that 40 per cent of women were planning to vote Labour, compared to 38 per cent of men. It’s the same similarity for Conservative voters, with 23 per cent support among women, and 21 per cent men.
What happens to the MPs who lose their seats at the elections?
For some, the defeat will be a surprise, for others they will have seen the writing on the wall during the campaign.
There will be several removal vans on the parliamentary estate in the coming days and weeks as the former MPs clear out their offices and make way for the new intake.
It is expected some new MPs will start arriving in Parliament just hours after the results are announced as they begin a new chapter in their lives.
They will eventually be assigned office space in Parliament by their party whips once the areas have been cleared out.
The taxpayer-funded Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) – which governs MPs’ expenses – supports those candidates who have lost their seat.
Winding-down payments are designed to help departing MPs close their office and manage the departure of staff.
Everything to watch out for once the polls close
John Rentoul’s guide to what to watch for, “Portillo moments” — and when best to take a power nap:
Election night: Everything to watch out for once the polls close
John Rentoul offers his guide to the seats to worth staying up for, the ‘Portillo moments’ you won’t want to miss… and when best to take a power nap
Anticipation builds for exit poll as final votes cast
Voters are awaiting the exit poll which will indicate who has won the General Election as the final ballots are cast following weeks of campaigning by party leaders.
Polling stations across the UK opened at 7am, giving millions of voters the chance to decide if the Tory incumbent Rishi Sunak remains in the top job or the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer enters Downing Street.
Opinion polls suggest Labour is on course to secure a big majority in the House of Commons and form a new government.
The first indication of whether the pollsters were correct will come moments after the ballot closes at 10pm, when the exit poll is broadcast by the BBC, Sky and ITV.
When will we know who’s won? An hour-by-hour guide
After a whirlwind six-week general election campaign, the day has finally arrived, with millions heading to the polls to decide the future of the country.
In the lead-up to today, the Tories and Labour have scoured the country to secure votes as party leaders Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer battled it out in fierce head-to-head debates.
But the campaign trail was shaken by the last-minute addition of Nigel Farage as the new leader of Reform UK, chasing the PM’s tail in shock polls which saw the party only marginally behind the Conservatives in the vote share.
Read the full story here:
General election results: Hour-by-hour guide to when key seats will be called tonight
Polls close at 10pm and big results will be announced throughout the night
Watch live from 10 Downing Street as Britons vote in general election
Why we vote with pencils: fact check
Claims have been made on social media encouraging voters to take their own pen to the polling station, as a pencil might allow votes to be tampered with.
Pencils are commonly used at polling stations instead of pens, because ink might run on to different sections of the ballot and obscure the voter’s choice.
But in its guidance for polling station staff, the Electoral Commission says people can vote with a pen or pencil.
It says pencils are typically used for practical reasons - pens may dry out or spill on to the voting booth.
Ink can also transfer on to different parts of the page when the ballot paper is folded, potentially leading to a vote being rejected if the voter appears to have picked multiple candidates.
The Electoral Commission adds that there are safeguards in place to prevent tampering with ballot papers.
Seals are attached to ballot boxes at the close of voting, and are removed only when the count begins.
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