Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted he was still “fighting hard” despite one of his closest allies conceding that the Tories were heading for an “extraordinary landslide” defeat on Thursday.
The Conservatives suffered a further blow at the eleventh hour when The Sun tabloid, famous for backing election winners, endorsed Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Polls overwhelmingly predict that Labour will win its first general election since 2005, making Starmer the party’s first prime minister since Gordon Brown left office in 2010. This outcome would see Britain swing back to the center ground after nearly 15 years of right-wing Conservative governments, marked by austerity, Brexit, and a cost-of-living crisis.
Starmer, 61, traversed the UK to bolster Labour support and warn against complacency in the campaign’s final hours. “If you want change, you have to vote for it,” he told reporters at an event in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, where supporters handed out cakes with red ribbons, the party’s color. “I’m not taking anything for granted,” he added, before flying to Scotland on the same plane that took the England football team to the European Championships in Germany.
Sunak, 44, reiterated his warnings that a Labour government would mean tax rises and weaker national security, jibes that Labour has dismissed as desperate attempts to cling to power. The Tories also ramped up their warnings about Labour winning a “supermajority,” which they fear is intended to depress turnout.
Sunak ally Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, said Wednesday that the electorate would “regret” handing Labour “untrammeled” power without an effective Tory opposition. “If you look at the polls, it is pretty clear that Labour at this stage are heading for an extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before,” he told right-wing broadcaster GB News.
But ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ousted by his colleagues, including Sunak, in 2022, made his first major intervention of the campaign on Tuesday, urging supporters not to see the result as a “foregone conclusion.”
Labour has maintained a consistent 20-point lead in the polls over the past two years, with many voters dissatisfied with the Conservatives’ handling of public services, immigration, and the economy. Several surveys predict that Labour will win more than the record 418 seats it secured when Tony Blair ended 18 years of Conservative rule in 1997. Labour requires at least 326 seats to secure a majority in the 650-seat parliament.
Voters head to the polls from 7:00 am with results expected to start coming in from about 2230 GMT late Thursday into Friday morning. This is Britain’s first July election since 1945 when Labour under Clement Attlee defeated the Conservatives led by World War II leader Winston Churchill, ushering in a period of transformational social change. Attlee’s government created the modern welfare state, including the state-run National Health Service (NHS), Britain’s most cherished institution after the royal family.
Starmer’s “change” agenda is less radical this time around, promising cautious economic management and a long-term growth plan to revive battered public services. A Labour government would face a formidable to-do list, from spurring growth to ending NHS strikes and improving post-Brexit ties with Europe.
Some voters simply seek a respite from politics after a chaotic period of five prime ministers, numerous scandals, and Tory infighting between centrists and right-wingers that shows no sign of abating. The Sun described the Conservatives as a “divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country,” adding: “It is time for a change.”
Starmer, the working-class son of a toolmaker and a nurse, lacks the political charisma or popularity of former leader Blair, who presided over Labour’s last victory in 2005. However, the former human rights lawyer and chief public prosecutor stands to gain from a country tired of the Tories and a sense of national decline.
Arch-Eurosceptic Nigel Farage hopes the discontent will see him elected an MP at the eighth attempt, while the Liberal Democrats are expected to gain dozens of seats.
