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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Amy Sedghi, Martin Belam and Helen Sullivan

Millions go to the polls in general election – as it happened

Sir Keir Starmer Tories United Kingdom Neil Henderson ​​Rishi Sunak Voter Farage Rupert Murdoch Scotland England

Thank you for following along on this blog today. We’ve loved seeing your dog picture submissions and enjoyed reading your comments. I’m signing off now, with a last batch of your dogs at polling stations pics. Have a good evening!

Jon has sent in an adorable picture of Wookie, the dog, taking a well-earned rest in Glynde, East Sussex, “after an eventful six weeks of canvassing”.

Jamie and Kyra have shared a picture of their miniature dachshund Ralph at a polling station in Brixton this morning. Jamie says that Ralph is “clearly not too happy about it” as he’s “usually super smiley”.

This is Burt at Darren’s local polling station in Chesterfield.

Jen has shared a picture of her two dogs, Lily and Jess, at Stapehill village hall in Dorset. I’ve been informed that Lily enjoyed exploring on her first trip to the polling station and Jess “never wants to pose nicely”.

Fozzie the pyredoodle is pictured looking very happy outside a polling station in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency. Fozzie’s owner, Adam, says “he’d love to be put on the Guardian’s general election live page”. Apparently, Fozzie is a “longtime reader”.

“This is Zac the German wirehired pointer at his first general election since he came to live with us in Rockcliffe on the Solway Firth,” says Steve. “He was not impressed [that] he had to wait outside the village hall as he’s usually at the bar. I explained that it’s only, hopefully, every five years.”

Tom has shared this picture of his mum’s dog, Riley the cockapoo. Lovely.

Updated

This blog will be closing shortly. But, the great news is that Andrew Sparrow is ready to take you through the general election evening and into Friday morning in this new blog:

The Guardian’s community team want to hear how people are spending Thursday night as results begin to come in.

They would like to hear from UK voters – in the country and abroad – and other residents in the UK, about whether they’ll be following the results tonight.

So, please share your stories and pictures of election night where you are, via the form in the below link.

Updated

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has shared a post on X asking people to share their experience of voting by filling in a short survey.

In its post today, the RNIB said that a young lady featured in its video, Khadija, was able to vote independently and in secret using a McGonagle reader.

In the video, Khadija says:

“I went into the polling station and they did have the McGonagle device, so that was great. It was the first time they’d ever used it before and I think I was their first person using it. So, I think they were a bit nervous.

But it worked really well. They did align. I checked that they aligned the ballot correctly underneath. The person assisting me gave me headphones to use with it, which was good for the secret portion of it.

I was a bit worried that it would be more complicated on an election day than the previous times. I’ve used it as a test, but it was really simple to use.

So, it was the first time I’ve ever voted by just listening to the ballot myself and marking the box for myself.”

The RNIB noted though that “not everyone’s voting experiences have gone as smoothly”.

Last week, the RNIB called on all political parties to commit to remove barriers that prevent blind people voting on their own and without help in future elections.

It estimated that 160,000 people in the UK of voting age with severe sight loss would struggle to vote independently because of the lack adjustments made at polling stations.

At the last general election, research for the RNIB found that only 13% of blind people felt they could vote independently and in secret.

Updated

The Guardian photographer Jill Mead was granted exclusive access to spend polling day with the deputy leader of the Labour party, Angela Rayner.

You can see Mead’s day on the road with Rayner as the Labour battlebus made its final stops on polling day:

The BBC have a short video on how the elections expert Prof Sir John Curtice prepares for a general election night.

In the clip, Curtice says:

The truth is that preparing for election night begins almost the day after the last election, because you’re trying to work out what happened and why. And that’s important to understanding what’s going to happen in the next election.

Thereafter, it’s a continuous process, following the polls, particularly of course as the election campaign gets on.”

Under bright, blustery skies across most of the UK, British voters went to the polls on Thursday to elect their fourth prime minister in five years, with Keir Starmer’s Labour party heavily tipped to win an overwhelming parliamentary majority and bring to an end 14 years of Conservative-led government.

After weeks of campaigning after Rishi Sunak’s surprise gamble to call a July election, he and the other party leaders cast their votes across the country while making their final appeals to the electorate.

Sunak voted early with his wife, Akshata Murty, in his home constituency of Richmond and Northallerton, urging voters on X to “stop the Labour supermajority which would mean higher taxes for a generation”.

Starmer, accompanied by his wife, Victoria, was met by a small group of supporters at a polling station in Kentish Town, north London. On social media, he repeated Labour’s campaign theme that “it is time for change”.

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, the Green party co-leader, Carla Denyer, and party leaders in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were also pictured at their constituencies.

Davey, whose campaign has been characterised by stunts including bungee jumps, water slides and Zumba dancing, paid tribute to his wife, saying: “Without my rock, Emily, I simply would not be on the ballot paper.”

Jeremy Corbyn, running against Labour in his north London constituency after being expelled by the party he formerly led, tweeted: “I just voted for the independent candidate in Islington North. I hear he’s alright.” The Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, posted a TikTok video of himself buying a drink in a Clacton pub.

Thank you for sending in your pictures of dogs at polling stations today. Here are a few more that have popped up in my inbox:

Pam has sent a lovely message saying that she’s enjoying seeing all the dog pictures making it on to the live blog today.

This sweet pooch is Lola, Pam’s parson russell terrier, making her first visit to a polling station in the Angus and Perthshire Glens constituency in Scotland.

Barnaby has shared a picture of a very keen Freddie from 7.15am this morning. He was “desperate to get to the polling station in Hackney,” says Barnaby. Incidentally, it’s also where his pal, Duster, was this morning (16:04 BST).

“Here’s Crumble, fulfilling her civic duty in Hove, this morning,” says Simon. Excellent work.

Christian has got in touch to share a picture of his friend’s dog, Lenny the dachshund, that he’s looking after.

“I took a photo of him waiting outside – eager to know the results. It’s going to be a long day,” says Christian.

Basset hounds Pippin and Padfoot have also been our at a polling station today. This time in Lewisham, along with owner, Rob.

This “pensive pooch”, pictured in south-east London was provided by Terry.

The UK is not the diplomatic powerhouse it once was, with Brexit leaving it looking inward and years of economic failures meaning the Conservatives and Labour are both sidelining foreign policy in their campaign messaging. Still, leaders around the world (some more than others) will be taking an interest in the 4 July election.

The Guardian’s Oliver Holmes has taken a look at some of the key issues here:

Live election results for the UK’s 650 constituencies will start to be announced at about 11:30pm. You can follow the results later via our live tracker.

There’s also an election night guide, via the Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast. Presented and produced by Lucy Hough with Archie Bland, it has tips on when to set your alarm for the potential Portillo-moments, the seats to watch and how to make it through to dawn.

Updated

The Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has voted and shared a picture of himself with a dog outside the polling station. Everyone is getting in on it.

“It has been a terrible general election. The least we can do is learn from it,” writes the Guardian’s executive opinion editor, Hugh Muir.

Muir writes:

It started with dark comedy. The sight of Rishi Sunak, behind the podium at No 10, drenched by the rain – a drowned rat in a sharp suit, drowned out by a hostile loudspeaker, bellowing out the fact of his sudden-death election – belonged to vaudeville.

The race itself belonged to Hobbes: “poor, nasty, brutish and short”.

And at the end, after all the speeches, the televised debates, the photo ops, the accusations, the helicopter rides, the leaflet-filled vehicles crisscrossing the country, the vox pops, what did we learn about our country and our politics?

We learned more about the foolish recklessness of those who have ruled us. Sunak called his election for himself and for his party and for his faction. There was nothing further from his mind, as he dripped rainwater, than the good of the nation or our democracy. He had no plan, other than to parrot the inanity that “the plan” was working. Tell that to the food bank volunteers or the coastguard at Dover.

You can read his full opinion piece here:

What happens next for former MPs defeated at the general election? Well, the PA news agency’s parliamentary editor, Richard Wheeler, has answered just that question, and more, in this explainer:

When did they stop being an MP?

Parliament was dissolved on 30 May and at that point there ceased to be any MPs until the election took place. Ministers continue in their roles and remain in post until a new government is formed.

What happens next for a former MP who failed to be re-elected?

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.

What help is available to former MPs?

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. They have up to four months to carry out the necessary tasks.

How much financial support is there?

Former MPs are entitled to receive a one-off winding-up payment to help them close down their parliamentary affairs. This is the equivalent of four months of their salary, minus tax and national insurance contributions.

The basic annual salary for an MP is £91,346. The government’s tax calculator estimates this would mean take-home pay is £63,541.68 – which would suggest four months of salary is about £21,000.

Former MPs are also able to claim for certain costs during the winding-up period, including office rent.

What is the loss of office payment?

A candidate who loses their seat or stands unsuccessfully in a different seat could also be eligible to receive a loss of office payment. It is similar to a redundancy payment and is equal to double the statutory redundancy entitlement.

It will therefore vary by individual as it takes into account age as well as length of service. Ipsa guidelines state a former MP will be eligible for such a payment if they held office for a continuous period of at least two years at the point they lost their seat.

And what about ministers who lose their jobs in government as a result of the election result?

Regardless of whether an outgoing minister remains an MP or not, they are entitled to receive severance pay, as outlined in 1991 legislation. This is separate from winding-up payments and loss of office entitlement.

The severance pay amounts to 25% of the annual ministerial salary they were being paid.

Not all polling stations are the same. Some make use of a community hall or church, while others are located at more unusual venues. Here is a selection of interesting polling stations via the newswires.

I’d love to hear from you about any unique, or just beautiful, polling station spots. As always, pictures (of the outside – don’t go breaking any rules) are very welcome and I can try to post a mix of them.

With about four hours to go until the polls close, more voters have been in touch to tell us about how election day has gone. And for some, today was an important milestone as it was the first time they were eligible to have their say in a general election.

Liv Skinner, 19, was one of those casting her first vote in a general election in North Devon this morning. “I’ve been excited to vote in a general election since I started becoming interested in politics in Year 10. I understand the importance of making sure my vote counts,” she said.

Skinner, who works as a barista and will study politics and philosophy at university this September, will also be assisting at the vote count tonight with a friend. “I’m really looking forward to it. I was planning to stay up and watch the results roll in anyway,” she said.

She has been preparing for the overnight count, which can go on until the wee hours. “We have to get there at 9:30pm, and then it can go on anytime until 6am. We went to shop and got loads of food and snacks, and I’m planning to have a nap soon!”

James Watts, 20, also voted for the first time in a general election, marking his ballot in the constituency of North Bedfordshire.

“I was happy to do it – I voted in local elections last year but was at university in Southampton this year and was upset to miss it. It felt good to vote in a general election – I was glad to participate, when before I was just watching.”

Watts, who is studying politics, said he felt “civic duty” to vote and planned to stay up to watch the results trickle in. “My mum and dad and I are in different areas but we plan to all be on a call tonight. We’ll probably mainly watch Channel 4, but also go back and forth between BBC, Sky and ITV. I’ll be staying up all night.”

And in south London, Maddie McVickers, 19, accompanied by Ruby the dog, 14, voted for the first time.

Updated

As Martin explained earlier, there’s not a whole lot that we can report on at the moment. So, while we wait, here is a reminder of a few useful general election 2024 pieces and explainers from the Guardian.

What constituency am I in?

The general election on 4 July will be fought across 650 new constituencies after boundary changes were approved by parliament.

You can use the tool in the below interactive to find your new constituency – and see what the notional results would be.

What photo ID do I need to vote in the 2024 UK general election?

For the first time in a UK general election people will need to produce photo ID at polling stations today to be able to vote in person.

You can find everything you need to know, including which forms of photo ID are accepted here:

What is tactical voting and how does it work?

This guide looks at what tactical voting involves and discusses what campaign group Best for Britain recommends.

What time will we know who won?

Want to catch a few results before bed, or see it through to the moment of reckoning? We’ve got you covered with this hour by hour guide to election night and into Friday morning.

If the pictures of dogs at polling stations is too much for you, then you might want to skip past this post.

If you’re still enjoying the canine content, then please enjoy this visual compilation that the Guardian video team have put together:

Voters arriving at a Glasgow polling station were met with posters listing the wrong instructions, reports the PA news agency.

According to the report, posters displayed at Notre Dame primary school told voters to rank candidates in order of preference. This is how ballots are cast in local elections in Scotland, which use the single transferable vote system, while general elections use the first-past-the-post system, which requires voters to put a single “X” next to their chosen candidate.

Glasgow city council said the error was spotted “very soon” after the polling station opened at 7am on Thursday and “after the first few voters”. A council spokesperson said the posters were replaced with the correct information.

The PA news agency reports that the council said no one had been disfranchised as voters’ first preferences would be used from the affected ballots.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) have their own take on the ‘dogs at polling station’ pictures.

Over on X, the charity has been urging voters to share photographs of any feathered friends they spot near a polling station.

The UK’s political parties are on track to spend more than a million pounds on online adverts on Thursday, circumventing a media blackout rule that forces television and radio stations to stop their election coverage when polls open.

British parties have traditionally ceased top-level campaign activity when voting began as they had no way to get out their message out. This is because of a longstanding broadcasting rule, enforced by the media regulator Ofcom, that states: “Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens.”

The switch to online campaigning over the past two decades has increasingly made a mockery of this rule, with early indications suggesting political parties are viewing Thursday as an incredibly important campaign day for pushing their core messages to wavering voters.

Sam Jeffers of WhoTargetsMe, which has monitored election advertising in the UK for the last decade, said substantial funds had been released for Thursday. “The parties are on track to spend a million pounds today on Meta and probably another £250,000 on Google,” he said.

If these figures are correct, it could mean that more money is spent by political parties buying online political advertising on polling day than was spent online during the entire 2015 general election campaign.

The Conservatives have been attempting to spur on support for the party by sending out emails saying turnout is much higher than expected.

“We’re getting reports from our teams on the ground. And the more reports we get, the more it looks like turnout is higher than expected,” according to messages sent out from the ‘CCHQ data team’ to those signed up on the party’s mailing list.

“That means we could have a MUCH better chance than polls have suggested. So if you haven’t voted yet, now’s the time to get out.”

The claim by the Tories that a higher turnout would benefit the party would be contested at this point.

Turnout was 67.3% at the last election in 2019, down from 68.8% during the previous one.

When Labour won in 1997, turnout was relatively high at 71.4%, although lower than the previous poll – 77.7% in 1992 – which was won by the Conservatives in what was a relative surprise to some.

Updated

Let’s step away from the canine contributions for a moment. As people cast their votes on Thursday, the opinion polls continue to predict that Keir Starmer’s Labour party will win the general election with one of the largest ever parliamentary majorities. Conversely, Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party is projected to suffer one of its worst ever losses.

The Guardian’s David Batty has looked at how this prediction of a dramatic Labour win compares with other landslide victories in British history.

While Martin Belam has now headed off for a well-earned rest, I (Amy) have taken over the duties of posting pictures of dogs (and other animals) at polling stations. Here’s a little selection that have come in via our readers.

Jodie has shared a picture of the “noble Bill O’Shea”, who I’m assured is a very good boy and has performed his civic duty in Greenwich today.

Duster the double doodle at Hackney town hall is “hungry for change”, says Oliver, who has sent in this lovely picture.

Jon, has shared a photograph of his white golden retriever, Ted, outside the Hive community centre in Dollar in the new Scottish constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar.

Justin has also got in touch via email with this delightful picture of his puppy, Oscar, going to the polling station today for the first time.

Updated

If a week is a long time in politics, the five-year gap between UK elections is an eternity. The political landscape has changed dramatically since the Tories’ landslide victory in 2019 – but so too has the social media landscape.

In 2019 TikTok was, according to a Guardian explainer, “a video-sharing app which has become phenomenally popular with teenagers”.

Fast-forward to 2023 when, according to an Ofcom survey, 10% of people aged 16-plus said they received their news from TikTok, ahead of BBC Radio 1 and on a par with the Guardian, and up significantly from 1% in 2020, after the last election.

And while there are those who say the so-called battle for TikTok is overstated, platform creators are well aware there is an audience for political content among TikTok users, young and old.

To help understand how the 2024 election played out on TikTok, a number of Guardian reporters monitored the platform using four separate accounts for an hour a day for a week, searching for the widely used tag #ukpolitics and campaign-specific hashtags and terms.

You can see what they found here:

Reporting by Carmen Aguilar García, Pamela Duncan, Michael Goodier and Zeke Hunter-Green with videos by Elena Morresi.

Updated

Fourteen years, five prime ministers, four election cycles, two UK-wide referendums and a global pandemic: a lot has happened since the Conservative party entered coalition in 2010.

But there are other, bigger figures on voters’ minds: 7.6 million people on waiting lists for hospital treatment in England (three times the 2010 figure); 3% of Britons having to use a food bank, all while the cost of a weekly shop, household bills and mortgage repayments is rising.

Numbers matter and data tells a story. A selection of charts, put together by Pamela Duncan, Carmen Aguilar García and Michael Goodier, show how 14 years of Conservative rule has changed the country in five key policy areas.

You can take a look at their piece here:

You can also then click through to explore the wider Tory legacy for each topic, in full, in charts.

Updated

More readers have been getting in touch … and some who are living abroad have shared with us the lengths they’ve gone to ensure their vote is counted today.

Lawrence Cheung, 62, who lives in France but is voting in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, said that he entrusted his voting envelope to a Londoner who was returning on the Eurostar from the Gare du Nord, in Paris this morning.

Cheung did so after his postal vote arrived too late – an issue that the Guardian has been reporting on this week.

“I found a man who was a lone traveller with a simple backpack. He confirmed he was a Londoner who lives close to the City. As he understood what was at stake, it didn’t take much persuasion.

“I received my polling documents yesterday, which was insufficient time for returning by post, even from within the UK. Thankfully, the postal vote can be deposited at any polling station within the constituency.”

Cheung’s volunteer delivered the envelope in the Barbican this afternoon. “It turns out that his name is Moritz, and I cannot thank him enough.”

Andrew Murphy, 63, is one of many Britons living abroad who regained the lifelong right to vote this year after the 15-year rule ended. Remembering that his postal vote hadn’t arrived in time in the past, Murphy, who works for the European Commission and lives in Waterloo, Belgium, wasn’t leaving anything to chance: he decided to take the Eurostar in order to cast his vote in person.

“In the past (until 2005, when I lost the right to vote) I had a postal vote but the papers were never sent early enough to be counted. This way, they won’t be depriving me of my democratic right – I’ve turned up in person,” he said, explaining that he then travelled from London to Bristol to vote in the Filton and Bradley Stoke constituency.

“They kept sending me reminders to get the postal vote – but I thought, I’m not falling for that again!”

Murphy, who is from Liverpool, didn’t have anyone in his constituency that could easily vote for him by proxy. He was determined to vote, particularly after he was deprived of the right during the 2016 referendum. “It’s the first time I’ve been able to vote since the EU referendum, so it’s quite symbolic.

“It was expensive – but I’d probably have walked here, for this particular one.”

Other readers have expressed anger at not being able to vote at all.

Despite applying for her postal vote on 25 May, Sarah, who lives in Copenhagen but votes in Orpington, said she only received her postal vote on 3 July, leaving her unable to vote.

She explained that the options available to her were impractical – couriering it for same-day delivery would be extortionately expensive.“Or I could ask my boss for permission to take an unplanned, last-minute day off in a busy season so I can fly to the UK and deliver it myself. Both options are unaffordable and terrible for the environment,” she said, adding that she also had young children and childcare would be a problem.

“It’s a democratic right, it’s not some company delivering a bikini I’d ordered. I’m cross – I really wanted to vote.”

Updated

The body that represents electoral officers and administrators has said electoral legislation is no longer adequate, amid widespread reports of disfranchisement of postal voters marring Thursday’s general election.

The Association of Electoral Administrators says pressure on running the services has mounted over recent years, with elections delivered “in spite of rather than because of the fragmented framework of laws”.

It has called for sweeping reforms including a new timeline for postal votes, registration of candidates and powers for officers to investigate errors and reports of disfranchisement when they occur.

Laura Lock, the deputy chief executive of the AEA, 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.”

Lock said earlier deadlines for absent voting applications would be “better” and help councils get voting packs posted earlier, including those overseas.

Under existing laws, elections can be called a minimum of 25 days before polling day. The AEA says this is too tight and should be extended to 30 days as is the case for the London mayoral and Greater London authority elections.

It also wants powers to intervene when needed to avert disfranchisement, allowing those who did not receive a postal vote the opportunity to get a friend, family member or trusted person to cast their vote on election day.

The number of people seeking postal votes has rocketed in recent years, with 10 million this year and 8 million in 2019 compared with 1.7 million in 2010 and about 1 million in the decades stretching back to the 1970s.

Data from the House of Commons shows the “turnout” of postal voters is exceptionally high, at more than 83% in the past four elections, representing 20% of the total number of valid votes cast.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for today. Thank you for all your comments, which I always enjoy and often find useful. I am handing over to Amy Sedghi. Andrew Sparrow will be along later for when the results are coming in. I will be back with you bright and early tomorrow. I did ask for your dog pictures, and you have sent me some lovely ones – apologies if I didn’t get to use yours …

This is Bilbo the Westie braving the drizzle in Mossley in the Stalybridge and Hyde constituency, sent in by Joseph and Emma.

This is Dougal the cocker spaniel from Louisa.

Here are Murphy and Macie enjoying the election in Dronfield, North East Derbyshire, from Sam.

And I’ll just finish to say the RSPCA have a #DogsNotAtPollingStations campaign to try to find some forever homes for rescue dogs this election.

PS. There is still time to do my general election quiz. See you tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago my colleague Libby Brooks interviewed Prof Sir John Curtice about his work on the exit poll. It will be published at 10pm, and has an extremely good track record of accurately predicting the results of the election.

Anyway, it appears by now they should have the answer that we have got to wait for another seven-and-a-half hours for.

As he so memorably put it when talking to Libby “From about 11 o’clock in the morning, we’re poring over an exit poll and from about 12 hours later, we’re shitting bricks as to whether it’s right or not.”

Kemi Badenoch, secretary of state for business and trade, has been castigating the local council in North West Essex over missing postal ballots, drawing a comparison with, she says, a desire for change at local elections that voted out the Conservatives, and suggesting that is the risk people take today if they vote for change from the party that has been in government for the last 14 years. “Don’t change for the worse,” her series of messages ends.

For a bit of balance, people are actually posting pictures of themselves taking their cats to polling stations as well.

Some people have used alternative forms of travel in order to get out and cast their vote.

Do these ducks count?

And I’m not at all sure how I would react if I went to vote and got confronted by this …

Polling day is one of the stranger fixtures in the news calendar, as there is clearly huge interest and expectancy, and lots of traffic to the website – thank you for reading – but actually until the exit poll 10pm there isn’t really much concrete to report except that senior figures have turned out to vote and said they have voted.

That is how it comes to be that #DogsAtPollingStations comes to fill time. We will have more of that in a minute. Here are some politicians out and about campaigning though …

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has paid tribute to his wife in a social media message, saying that without her support he wouldn’t be on the ballot paper.

Green party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer is out and about in Bristol, and suggesting if you see their volunteers you should flag them down to get a sticker.

Labour’s leader in Scotland Anas Sarwar is also on a bit of a tour around constituencies.

Sarah Dyke, formerly Liberal Democrat MP for Somerton and Frome, now contesting Glastonbury and Somerton after boundary changes, had the right idea, and borrowed somebody else’s dogs to make sure she could get a mention in the blog.

Northern Ireland’s first minister, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill, has cast her vote today at St Patrick’s primary school in Coalisland.

PA Media reports that asked by photographers for a thumbs up, she laughed and said: “Will a smile do?”

As she left the polling station, she shouted goodbye to local children and waved to voters.

In a message on social media today, O’Neill said “Every vote will count today. Vote Sinn Féin to help shape a brighter future for everyone who call this place home. For positive change, strong leadership, and a commitment to work for all.”

She also called on “people to support progressive candidates in constituencies where Sinn Féin is not standing, ensuring the maximum number of progressive MPs are elected,” adding “Let’s work together.”

In her column today Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett has come out batting for greeting a possible Labour victory with some enthusiasm. Here’s a taster:

If they had reservations about the Blair government, my parents kept them to themselves. My mother, who had never trusted Blair, certainly didn’t allow it to temper her joy that morning. Both my parents are socialists, voters the modern Labour party would regard as being on the far left – people whose votes, perhaps, they feel they could even do without. Both, like so many Labour voters, would later be disgusted over Iraq. Yet they knew then what I also know now in my bones, which is that people’s lives would be improved by a Labour government, even if it wasn’t quite the kind of Labour government you had dreamed of.

I saw my mother the other day, and we talked a bit about 1997. “Our lives,” she said, “would have been materially different under a Conservative government.” A year after the Labour victory, we would become a single parent family. We would struggle financially, but not as much as we would have done under the Tories. The support we received from the local authority as a result of my brother’s severe disability was life changing.

On social media, people have been sharing the images that they feel sum up the last decade and a half of government, from the Johnson administration’s pandemic parties to security tags on blocks of cheese, the Covid memorial wall, Grenfell Tower in flames. One person chose a screenshot of the gaunt little boy from the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary about child poverty, the haunting part where he says: “We try not to eat a lot in one day, even though most of us are really hungry.” Could you look him in the face and say that life won’t be any different for him and children like him under a Labour government? I couldn’t. It has to be.

Read more from Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett here: Pop the champagne, dance for your kids – if Labour wins, I’ll be celebrating like my parents in 1997

Nigel Farage, the recently installed leader of Reform UK, has been in Clacton today, where he is hoping to become an MP after seven previous unsuccesful attempts. For the benefit of the cameras he has both had an ice cream by the seafront and been spotted in the pub.

  • As an aside I can’t really knock having a pint on polling day myself as an activity, as it is almost certainly guaranteed to be my first port of call after my shift finishes this afternoon.

Jeremy Corbyn has again appealed on social media for people to come and help his campaign to get out the vote for him as an independent candidate in Islington North, saying “We are on the verge of a huge, historic victory”.

Rachel Reeves, who could be on the verge of becoming the first woman to be chancellor of the exchequer, has posted a picture of herself at a polling station today.

Northern Ireland’s political leaders have been among those casting their ballots. A total of 136 candidates are standing in the country’s 18 constituencies.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson and his wife Lindsay voted in east Belfast shortly after 9am while UUP leader Doug Beattie cast his ballot in Portadown minutes earlier.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood cast his vote in his Foyle constituency shortly before 11am, while Alliance leader Naomi Long and her husband Michael voted in east Belfast a short time later.

Long and Robinson are contesting the same East Belfast constituency. Defeat for Robinson would cast doubt on his fledgling leadership of the DUP, while a loss for Long would raise questions on whether the Alliance has hit a high-water mark of support.

Long indulged in a doggy-pun in her social media message.

It is not a UK election day without numerous pictures of dogs at polling stations. So here are a few more from Guardian readers …

Emma Towers, who voted in the Southgate and Wood Green constituency, was joined by Freckles and Bugsy, who were bribed with treats to sit for this photo.

Philip Mountford, accompanied by Blossom the cockapoo, did a proxy vote for his daughter Hope, who is travelling around South East Asia and is now in Australia.

He said queues had already formed before 7am at the Bishops Cleeve Tithe Barn polling station in the Tewkesbury constituency.

Andrew Cleland, Cambridge was up early to vote with his Siberian Huskies, Reto and his son, Bruno. “Despite almost four years’ age difference, this is both of their first general elections. They feel ‘cakeism’ is an ideology worthy of further research.”

And one more from Gerry McLean, Camden Square, London. “It was as busy as I’ve ever seen a polling station, but it was very efficiently run,” he says. “I thought you might be short of pictures of dogs, so here is Camilla outside the London Irish Centre.”

  • You can tell us what is happening where you are on polling day – and send a picture of your dog too – details of how to contact the team can be found here. We will also accept photos of more exotic animals out voting.

Updated

An interesting polling day ding dong going on below the line at The Times this morning. There is disgruntlement among readers, who are less than happy that comments on its election leader – which grumpily sat on the fence and failed to endorse any party – have been switched off.

The Murdoch-owned Times stopped short of endorsing Labour when it finally published its final editorial before the election at 8.30pm last night – some hour’s after Starmer won the support of its stablemate the Sun – instead providing its readers with the resounding message of “Don’t know, really”.

After attesting that the Tories were dealt a bad hand, it adds that there were “many unforced errors” and acknowledges that “after 14 years in power there is much baggage.” It describes Starmer as “a sensible man, flexible and pragmatic, a patriot committed to his country’s defence” but says there are “warning signs” about a Labour government including “a disdain for aspiration” shown in its decision to close a loophole that exempts private schools from VAT and “Labour’s attitude to Trans rights”.

After some umming and ahhing it decides: “This newspaper wants the next government to succeed, and it will not be ungenerous in praise if that is the case. But Labour has yet to earn the trust of the British people. It has been sparing with the truth about what it will do in office and cannot ­expect an endorsement.”

Some of its readers were not best pleased. Initial comments under the leader included criticism of its editor Tony Gallagher, former editor of the Daily Telegraph and the Sun (with a little stint as deputy editor of the Mail in between). “Gallgher has penned a very long resignation letter,” wrote one reader. “Once the election is over would The Times consider getting a proper Editor back in?,” asked another.

Then, the comments were inexplicably switched off. Wily readers, determined to have their say, instead took to the comments section of the paper’s second leader, which carried the headline “We the People”, and argued that politicians needed to reconnect with the people they are paid to represent.

“And we, the readers of the Times, petition the editor to reconnect with the readership of this paper and its once vigorous independent-minded ethos,” wrote one reader. “So the Thunderer deems it necessary to switch off comments on its non-endorsement leader, after a stream of adverse comments. A leader, in which it fears for the freedom of the media. Hypocrites!,” added another.

Reader John Ness also reflected on the Times’ nickname of the Thunderer, established – according to the paper – in 1830.

“The irony is painful,” he wrote. “The Times election leader dithers and mumbles and then bravely decides to sit on the fence and then acts decisively to ban comments so that readers cannot point it out. It is election day but it is the date that the Thunderer became the Whimperer.”

The Justice4Grenfell organisation has staged a protest today near to a polling station in the vicinity of Grenfell Tower, the scene of the fire which killed 72 people just days after the 2017 general election.

Since then there has been a further general election, and both Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have followed Theresa May as prime minister, but seven years later over 150,000 homes still have flammable cladding, Grenfell inquiry recommendations remain unimplemented, and no prosecutions have been made.

Organisers have placed 72 “Caution, Slippery Politicians” signs within view of the tower.

In a statement, the organisation said the protest was “to remind everyone to scrutinise politicians’ pledges, particular those regarding housing safety or the treatment of renters and leaseholders, and urge them to ensure they chose a candidate who will serve the public interest.”

In what must be one of the most unusual – and smallest – polling stations in the country, in the remote village of Winwick in Northamptonshire people will be casting their vote in the hallway of someone’s house.

But even though the ballot box is literally under her own staircase, 80-year-old June Thomas said she always casts her ballot by postal vote. She has already walked the 300 yards to the village post box to send her vote in.

She told the BBC: “I don’t think I’ve ever voted in my house – even though it’s the polling station. I can see why people might laugh.”

Her home, the Old School House which was the village school until 1947, has been the polling station for the area since 1990, and is one of only a few remaining private residences still used as polling stations across the country.

Thomas said she started voting by post as she previously worked as a polling station clerk elsewhere and didn’t have time to cast her vote in person – and has remained doing so ever since.

“I know it sounds funny but I’ve just kept using my postal vote and voting by post,” she said.

Updated

Green party co-leader Carla Denyer votes in Bristol

Green party of England and Wales co-leader Carla Denyer took a moment to sit down after casting her vote in Bristol.

PA Media reports she greeted photographers and reporters outside the church.

Denyer is standing in Bristol Central, which is one of four seats where the party hopes to win. In a message on social media Denyer said:

No need to guess who I voted for! The energy in Bristol today is electric! On the short walk to the polling station, I met 8 Green volunteers and heard “well done” and “I voted for you” from voters Thank you, everyone, and remember to bring ID to vote!

On its social media channels the Green party has claimed the vote of Leap the dog – although the Guardian hasn’t been able to verify whether they are on the electoral roll.

They have also been able to claim the support of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who has been posing with a large vegetable that is occasionally wearing his glasses.

You don’t get this sort of content on the politics live blog every day, do you?

Party leaders join millions across the UK casting their votes

People across the UK have begun casting votes in a general election expected to sweep Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives out of power and usher in Labour’s Keir Starmer as prime minister.

Sunak’s messaging on the day of polling remained about encouraging Tory voters out to “stop the Labour supermajority” rather than positioning himself to continue in Downing Street.

Starmer’s Labour were pushing people to go out and vote for change. Opinion polls suggest Labour is on course to secure a big majority, but last night Starmer told supporters to “imagine a Britain moving forward together with a Labour government. That’s what we are fighting for, let’s continue that fight. If you want change, you have to vote for it.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, Scotland’s first minister John Swinney, and Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth have all also voted. Davey, whose campaign has been marked by a series of extreme stunts, said “It’s a beautiful day. I hope lots of people come out to vote.”

An exit poll, published shortly after polls close at 10pm on Thursday, will provide the first indication of how the election has gone on a national level. These take place at 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.

If Starmer were to become prime minister, it would be the first time the UK’s leader has changed as a result of a general election since 2010, when David Cameron succeeded Gordon Brown. Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Sunak himself all became prime minister after internal Conservative party mechanism rather than through a general election.

  • You can tell us what is happening where you are on polling day – details of how to contact the team can be found here.

Here is a video clip featuring Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer casting their votes.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey votes in Surbiton

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, has voted in Surbiton.

PA Media reports he said “good morning everybody” to the assembled media and waved to the cameras as he arrived at Surbiton Hill Methodist Church. A voter leaving the polling station wished Davey good luck.

Davey, who has certainly made a name for himself with his total dedication to eye-catching stunts this campaign, said “It’s a beautiful day. I hope lots of people come out to vote.”

Our picture desk put together this gallery of the best of Davey’s antics over the last six weeks. The Liberal Democrats are hoping that gains for them, especially in the south-west of England, combined with a Labour squeeze on SNP seats in Scotland, might return the party to being the third-biggest in the House of Commons.

I wouldn’t exactly say that people had been clamouring for it, but there have been a few questions in the comments on here and on the Thursday quiz recently about whether you would get to see my dog Willow visiting a polling station today.

There are two issues. One, I’m clearly doing the live blog, which precludes me being out and about at the moment, and two, thanks to missing the AV referendum in 2011 when I was suddenly called away for work, I’ve had a postal vote for more than a decade.

However, do not despair. The moment has been prepared for. Willow, the official dog of the Guardian Thursday quiz, “helped” me post my vote a couple of weeks ago, and here she is doing it.

This also gives me an opportunity to shamelessly plug today’s Thursday quiz, which has just gone live.

Labour leader Keir Starmer has posted a picture of him with his wife Victoria on their way to vote with the message “Today, Britain’s future is on the ballot”

Labour have also posted a video urging people to go out and vote, saying “nothing is decided yet”. Using archive footage it mocks up the BBC’s David Dimbleby announcing at 10pm tonight that Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are the largest party according to the exit poll, and then cuts to a clip of Sunak celebrating during Euro 2024.

Just to confirm that as with Rishi Sunak, when Keir Starmer voted he breifly greeted people but did not speak to any of the gathered media.

Labour’s leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has voted at Pollokshields Burgh Halls in Glasgow. He was accompanied by his wife Furheen, and son Aliyan. I think it is fair to say that the photo opportunity may have not gone entirely to plan. The family were photobombed by someone holding up a sign which read “Starmer is a snake”.

The SNP have posted an election day message video, with first minister John Swinney reiterating the party’s key messages at this election, calling for an end to the two-child benefit cap, and urging supporters to vote SNP to support “ending Westminster austerity”, “eradicating child poverty” and “rejoining the European Union as an independent country, because we are a country that proudly looks out.”

My colleague Robyn Vinter has been looking into just how some constituencies return their results so quickly on election night:

In most constituencies, counting the tens of thousands of votes cast during an election takes somewhere between five and eight hours, which means voters usually have to stay up very late or get up very early to discover the outcome.

Sunderland has held bragging rights for decades, being the quickest to declare at every general election between 1992 and 2015, and setting that record time of 10.42pm for Sunderland South in 2001.

The feat was described as a “military operation”, with the count masterminded by the returning officer Bill Crawford, who left Sunderland in 2015. Under his stewardship, ballot counters were sourced from local banks because of their speed with small bits of paper. And he would recruit sixth-formers from nearby schools, training them on how best to run with ballot boxes in their hands.

Read more here: Rapid results – UK ballot counters braced for race to declare first winner

If you did not get a chance to do it yesterday, then can I recommend you spend a couple of minutes between now and the exit poll at 10pm having a crack at the Guardian’s supermassive election quiz …

Readers have been getting in touch as they head to the polls this morning.

In Sheffield Central, NHS GP Tom McAnea, 54, said he is “excited” to be voting. “The sun is shining brightly this morning which should be an encouragement for voters to turn out. This is my ninth general election where I can vote, the first being in 1992. I still find the whole process both a privilege and a huge responsibility.”

Tom was accompanied by his 17-year-old daughter, Freya, who hopes to study politics at university next year. “She’s very keyed up today. She’s frustrated she can’t vote but is enthused by the whole process. We’ll be tuning in this evening at 10pm for the exit poll. I voted not long after seven. It wasn’t busy, but I could see that there was already a list of people who had been in and voted. I think they’re expecting a good turnout today.”

Hayley voted earlier this morning in Ashton-under-Lyne with her dog Nova.

She said there she didn’t have any problem voting and there was no queue around 8am. Hayley added it was Nova’s first election (she is 18 months old) though she may not have been as excited as some.

“She was shown the leaflets from all the candidates but she was more interested in the one from the local pizza place.”

Andrew Dunning, 37, from Oxford, voted at 7.30 with his son, aged three. “My son had us up at 4.30 am asking whether ‘goat’ rhymes with ‘poll’. There was nobody at the polling station and I was the tenth person to vote. We put a cross on the ballot papers together.”

Having to show ID has made the process feel “less friendly” this year, he adds. “The very nice fellow who was running the polling station went to ask the manager if they should accept my passport because I’ve grown my hair and beard out since the photo was taken nine years ago. Then he asked my son, ‘Is this daddy?’ My son said yes. ‘That’s fine, then.’”

  • You can tell us what is happening where you are on polling day – details of how to contact the team can be found here.

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth votes in Ynys Môn

Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has posted a video clip of himself after he cast his vote in Ynys Môn.

He said:

I’ve just voted for Llinos Medi and Plaid Cymru here on Ynys Môn. For fairness. For ambition. For Wales. For fair funding for Wales. For the NHS. For your family. For your community. Thank you to you for all your support.

It is one of the constituencies Plaid Cymru have been targeting in this election. Last time out Ynys Môn was won by Conservative Virginia Crosbie as a gain from Labour, but both Labour and Plaid Cymru were only narrowly behind with a couple of thousand votes in it.

Labour leader Keir Starmer votes in London

Keir Starmer has arrived to vote in London with his wife, Victoria. Polling ahead of the election suggests he is the person most likely to be the next prime minister of the UK, five years after his Labour party suffered a disastrous defeat in the December 2019 general election which saw Boris Johnson returned as UK prime minister. The country has changed leader twice since without holding a general election.

Rishi Sunak and John Swinney have already voted, as has now, according to PA Media, Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie. He voted at Seagoe Primary School in Portadown. Beattie told reporters “It is an important day, it is a day for the people to cast their votes. We have run a good campaign.”

The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also voted, posting a picture of himself outside a polling station with the message “Just voted for the independent candidate in Islington North. I heard he’s alright.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has urged people on social media to “be part of it” by voting for Labour today.

Sunak’s message seems to be one of accepting inevitable defeat, telling people to “Head to your polling station. Bring ID. Vote Conservative. Stop the Labour supermajority*”

Jane Dodds, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales, has taken her dog Wanda down to vote.

And Pickles the dachshund has been down to the polling station in Ticknall Village hall in the South Derbyshire, and appears to be showing there is a great deal more trust placed in his recall abilities than I would dare with my very mischievous miniature dachshund Willow.

*There is no such thing as a “supermajority” in British politics. A government either enjoys a majority in the House of Commons, or it does not.

Aletha Adu, our political correspondent, has this explainer on what different results would mean for Labour, looking three scenarios: a moderate majority of 0-80 seats, a Blair-style landslide of 80-179 seats, and a haul of more than 179 seats.

Read more here: Blair-style landslide or ‘supermajority’: what different results would mean for Labour

If you can’t get enough politics coverage – and the fact you are reading an election day live blog more than twelve hours before we get the exit poll suggests you might be that kind of person – then tomorrow evening my colleague Hugh Muir will chair a panel of Guardian columnists and writers including John Crace, Gaby Hinsliff, Jonathan Freedland, and Zoe Williams at an event in London called Guardian Newsroom: Election results special.

It is on from 7.30pm-9pm (BST) tomorrow, and you can join it in person or on a livestream. There are more details here.

First minister John Swinney votes in Blairgowrie

First minister of Scotland, John Swinney, has arrived to vote alongside SNP candidate Dave Doogan at the polling place in Blairgowrie, near Perth.

PA Media report that addressing supporters at a pre-election rally in Leith on Wednesday evening, John Swinney said the Conservatives were going to be “heavily defeated” by the Labour party in England, but that there were “narrow margins” between Labour and the SNP in Scotland.

On social media the SNP has urged people to message friends and family reminded them to vote, saying “Don’t wake up on Friday thinking that you could have done more in the final days of the campaign. You can help to boost turnout at the election by messaging everyone you know to remind them to vote SNP today.”

The SNP candidate for Glasgow West, Carol Monaghan, has posted a pic of Wee Jean wearing an SNP rosette at a polling place in the newly formed constituency of Glasgow West. Monaghan was MP for Glasgow North West from 2015 to 2024.

Updated

Robbie Butler is standing for the Ulster Unionist Party in Lagan Valley, where he came third in 2019. He has just posted to say thathe hasn’t missed an election since he was 18 and has just cast his vote today, but what caught my eye was the similarity in his post to the internet meme of Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz.

[Please note it is not Timothy Dalton’s birthday today, that is just an old social media post]

My colleague John Crace has clearly been up and early to vote, and has posted a picture of Herbert Hound to confirm it. If you missed it, his sketch of the last day of the campaign – Rishi sinks into TV sofa as Boris gloats and Mel goes rogue – can be found here, and he also teamed up with Marina Hyde alongside Helen Pidd to discuss the election on yesterday’s Today in Focus podcast. Crace that is. Herbert Hound is not on the podcast.

Here are some images from around the country as people go to vote this morning. Polling stations will be open until 10pm, and for the first time voters in England, Scotland and Wales will need to produce photo ID to vote in person during a general election. Northern Ireland introduced voter ID in 2002.

Election day is always a good day for publicity stunts getting into the media, as this Peta activist dressed as a bear outside a polling station demonstrates …

Here is a little glimpse behind the scenes, with the press pack of photographers marking time before Rishi Sunak arrived to vote in his constituency by taking lots of pictures of somebody putting up a sign.

Updated

Labour leader Keir Starmer is expected to cast his vote at about 9.30am, with Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer both expected to vote – in different places obviously – at about 10.30am.

If you want to start planning your evening, then here is our hour-by-hour guide to when we can expect to see results declared.

I pity people who are not invested in #DogsAtPollingStations on social media because even the official Conservative party account is joining in.

Former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made an appeal for people to come out and help his campaign in North Islington as an independent. In it he says:

We have built this campaign from nothing. We don’t have party machinery. We don’t have big donors. We have something more powerful: people.

Another independent candidate in London who has previously stood for Labour, Fazia Shaheen, has also posted, saying “Let’s show the world what we’ve got! Our community and people-powered campaign could win today. They know it and they are scared. The Tories are finally out, let’s start a new politics.”

List of 2024 party election manifestos

Polling seems to indicate that there are a lot of potentially undecided voters out there still. If you are undecided, maybe a quick peruse of the manifestos may be in order. Here is a handy list of manifestos for all the parties who had MPs at the end of the last parliament, plus a few select others …

Updated

Obviously you will have this live blog open all through the night, but here is our guide to what you could be watching out of the corner of your eye while reading Andrew Sparrow later on …

Rishi Sunak votes in his Yorkshire constituency

The prime minister has voted. PA Media reports:

Rishi Sunak made the short journey from his grade II-listed manor house to vote at Kirby Sigston Village Hall in his Richmond and Northallerton constituency. Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty arrived in a Range Rover and walked hand-in-hand into the village hall. Sunak greeted the photographers outside the polling station. He left without commenting and was driven away.

Updated

Various senior political figures have been posting messages to encourage people to vote for them on social media.

Vaughan Gething has said in his clip that “You might not be particularly shocked by this, but I think that you should vote for the Labour party.”

The first minister of Wales accused the Conservative government in Westminster of having made a deliberate choice to starve Wales of investment, and said “I can tell you that the number one thing the Wales needs right now is a UK Labour government to work in partnership with.”

Home secretary James Cleverly has posted a picture of him at Braintree railway station, with the message “Happy polling day to all who celebrate this festival of democracy.”

In Northern Ireland, first minister Michelle O’Neill has asked the country to “return the strongest Sinn Féin team”. In a message for the wider UK electorate she said:

I also urge people to support progressive candidates in constituencies where Sinn Féin is not standing, ensuring the maximum number of progressive MPs are elected. Let’s work together.

Nigel Farage, the recently installed leader of Reform UK, has reposted his party’s party political broadcast featuring him in the Kent countryside with his dog, urging people to “Vote with your heart”.

My colleague Libby Brooks is not up for election, but she has urged people to go out and vote with the enthusiasm of a Labrador as displayed by her dog with its friends.

My colleague Nimo Omer has been at the helm of our Thursday morning briefing email today, and has this to say about Rishi Sunak’s election campaign:

Despite trying to hammer home their central message (LABOUR WILL TAX YOU!), the moments everyone has remembered are actually Rishi Sunak’s self-inflicted gaffes.

A defining moment of the campaign that dogged the prime minister for weeks – a lifetime in a six-week campaign – was his decision to leave the D-day commemorations early to get back to London for an ITV interview. “In focus groups, when people were asked what they noticed, they remembered the rain announcement and D-day,” the Guardian’s senior political correspondent, Peter Walker says. There was no explaining it away and even though the prime minister apologised, “it looked pretty bad”. Another political headache for the beleaguered prime minister was the betting scandal, initially revealed by the Guardian, which followed Sunak everywhere he went.

A material roadblock to an effective on-the-ground campaign has been that much infrastructure is not there any more. A local party official effectively told Peter a few weeks ago that there was no one to campaign in their marginal seat. “They have lost many, many local councillors over the last few elections that would have been door-knocking for them,” he says. “There’s hardly anyone left”.

The Conservative campaign has also been surprisingly defensive, particularly in the last few weeks. Sunak has visited what would normally be considered ultra-safe seats.

You can read more of that here: Thursday briefing – The UK campaign trail’s highlights, lowlights – and washouts

Rishi Sunak hasn’t posted to social media since polls opened, but he did post a series of messages in an hourly countdown to “stop the Labour supermajority”, suggesting among other things that Labour intend to raise taxes, scrap exams, demolish the green belt and “tax you just for driving”.

There is no such thing as a “supermajority”. A government in the UK either has a majority or it does not.

We’ve already got our first sausage dog at a polling station, so the day is going swimmingly. This is Maggie voting in Wellingborough and Rushden, which was won by Gen Kitchen for Labour in February, when she overturned an 18,000 Tory majority.

This is the video that Labour leader Keir Starmer has put out on social media as polls open in the UK general election. With a significant lead in polling before the day, Starmer is widely expected to become the next UK prime minister.

Larry Elliott is the Guardian’s economics editor

Labour’s post-election honeymoon will be short-lived unless it takes immediate action to deliver on workers’ rights and brings a swift end to 14 years of public sector pay restraint, the president of the TUC has said.

Matt Wrack, also the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said Sir Keir Starmer should convene a summit with unions within days to plan how a new government would deliver for workers if Labour is victorious in Thursday’s election.

“Unions should be invited in quickly to set out their priorities,” Wrack said in an interview with the Guardian as Starmer prepares for an expected landslide victory.

Wrack said there were issues that required urgent action, including delivering on Labour’s New Deal for workers, resolving long-running public sector strikes and boosting wages.

Read more here: Labour must take immediate action to deliver on workers’ rights, says union chief

Good morning everybody, Martin Belam here. This is the deal with comments. They are open on the blog today. The Representation of the People Act outlaws the reporting of how people voted, so you can let everyone know you cast a vote, but please don’t say how you voted. I know I can trust you to behave yourselves. I will chip in where I think I can add any value and/or joy.

Get in touch – tell us what’s happening where you are on polling day

As the UK goes to the polls on Thursday, our community team want to hear from voters about what’s happening where they are.

If you voted, how was your experience? Were there queues or was it quiet? Did you go alone or with others? Did you have any issues voting, such as problems with a proxy vote, or voter registration or ID? If so, tell us about it. Were you able to vote in the end?

You can find out how to get in touch with the team here, and some of your contributions may end up on the live blog if you give permission.

Election boundary changes – find out what constituency you are in for this election

As well as the introduction of new photo ID requirements in England, Scotland and Wales, this election is also different from 2019 because a number of boundary changes have been implemented.

With only 77 constituencies remaining unchanged, the boundary review changes which seat many people will be voting in. You can check which is your constituency with our interactive tool here.

What photo ID do I need to vote in the 2024 UK general election?

Don’t get caught out like Boris Johnson did in May’s local elections. For the first time in a UK general election people in England, Scotland and Wales will need to produce photo ID at polling stations on Thursday to be able to vote in person. Northern Ireland introduced voter ID in 2002. Here is what you need to know.

The main things to use are either a passport or a driving licence. Passports can be from the UK, EU or Commonwealth, driving licences from the UK and EU. Documents from Norway, Iceland are Liechtenstein are also accepted, as are driving licences from the Isle of Man or any of the Channel Islands.

There are also a mind-boggling 18 other types of document that can be used, including concessionary travel pass for older and disabled people. Student ID is not accepted.

The ID can have expired, as long as you still look like the photo. You can find more details here.

Polling stations open in UK as country poised to eject Tories after 14 years of government

Voting has begun across the UK for a general election which polling suggests could bring an end to 14 years of the Conservative party in government, and see Labour opposition leader Keir Starmer installed in Downing Street as the new prime minister.

Polling stations will be open until 10pm, and for the first time in England, Scotland and Wales general election voters will be required to provide photo identification before voting in person. Northern Ireland introduced voter ID in 2002.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak called the election six weeks ago in a rain-soaked speech outside No 10 where he had to battle against the sounds of 1997 New Labour anthem Things Can Only Get Better by D:Ream being blasted out by a protester, and his campaign has been uphill ever since. The Conservatives have barely made a dent into Labour’s polling lead, which has consistently shown Starmer’s party to be about 20 points ahead, much higher than the swing needed to reverse the party’s dismal 2019 general election result.

The Conservative campaign has been bedevilled with scandal, as people close to the PM and Tory candidates were accused of betting on the timing of the election, leading to a police investigation. The last few days of the campaign have seen the Tories seize desperately on the Labour leader saying he intends to carve out some time with his family each week to claim he would “clock off” from being PM at 6pm, and claim that people should vote Conservative to avoid Labour winning a “supermajority” – a meaningless concept that has no formal existence in the Westminster system. Sunak has repeatedly used a discredited line that Labour policies will add more than £2,000 to tax bills.

Labour have faced their own problems, with selection rows over Diane Abbott and Faiza Shaheen overshadowing the early days of the campaign, and accusations that the party is putting forward an uninspiring programme that has undone much of the enthusiasm younger voters had developed for Labour during the years that Jeremy Corbyn was leader. Corbyn is standing as an independent candidate for his old seat in North Islington. Disquiet over the party’s approach to Israel’s conflict in Gaza is also expected to cost the party votes, especially in urban areas and areas with significant Muslim populations. Comments Starmer made in recent days about Bangladeshi immigrants have landed badly with that community.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has tried to use a stunt-laden campaign to attract coverage of his party’s policies as it attempts to overtake the SNP and once again become the third largest party in the House of Commons.

For their part, the SNP with Westminster leader Stephen Flynn and recently installed first minister of Scotland John Swinney have campaigned on a platform insisting that however people feel about the government in Holyrood, this election is a chance to send a strong Scottish voice to London. Labour are looking to reclaim seats in Scotland’s central belt that had for many, many years been traditional Labour heartlands. Polls have Labour and SNP closer than they have been for years in Scotland.

In Wales, Labour’s campaign has been hindered by controversy swirling around donations to first minister Vaughan Gething’s leadership campaign, which Plaid Cymru will hope they can exploit. In Northern Ireland, DUP interim leader Gavin Robinson is defending a narrow majority in Belfast East. George Galloway is attempting to hold the Rochdale seat he won in a February byelection for the Workers Party of Britain. The Green Party of England and Wales have made four seats in England their main target.

The early surprise of the campaign was Nigel Farage’s decision to seize leadership of the Reform UK party from Richard Tice. MRP polling models have suggested the party might win as many as 18 seats, or indeed none at all. Predictions they would surge in polling have during the campaign have broadly not been met, but Farage has said his intention is to build a movement to oppose Labour that will put him in a position to become prime minister in 2029.

  • It is Martin Belam with you on the blog for the next few hours – do drop me a line at martin.belam@theguardian.com if you like, especially if you spot errors, mistakes, omissions, have questions, or just want to send me a picture of your dog enjoying the election.

Rules at the polling station

With 15 minutes to go until polling stations open, a reminder that they close at 10pm today, Thursday 4 July.

If you are in the queue outside your polling station at 10pm you will still be allowed to vote, but if you arrive after 10pm you will not be able to cast a ballot.

If you are in the UK, you will have been sent a polling card which will tell you which polling station to go to. If you have not got that card for whatever reason, you can enter your address into wheredoivote.co.uk.

Some other rules:

  • If you make a mistake on your ballot paper, you can ask a member of staff for a replacement (as long as you’ve not put your voting paper in the ballot box)

  • You will be provided with a pencil, but may use your own if you prefer to

  • You are not allowed to take photographs inside the polling station

  • Some polling stations allow dogs inside, others don’t

Updated

From the moment six weeks ago that Rishi Sunak announced the election in pouring rain outside 10 Downing Street, his campaign has faced a series of setbacks, from the backlash triggered by his early return from a D-day commemoration, to a betting scandal in which a Conservative politician was discovered to have bet on the date of the election. The Guardian’s political media editor, Jim Waterson, explains how the party’s campaign fell apart and whether it stood a chance to begin with:

What is the King's role in the election?

It is the King’s duty as head of state to appoint a prime minister, and he is travelling from Scotland to Windsor Castle, ready to be on stand-by after being in Edinburgh for Holyrood Week.

The role is one of the few remaining personal prerogatives of the sovereign, because Charles does not act on advice nor need to consult anyone before doing so.

But the overriding requirement is to appoint someone who can command the confidence of the House of Commons – usually the leader of the party with an overall majority of seats in the Commons – to form a government.

If Keir Starmer leads the Labour Party to victory, Charles could be set for the third prime minister of his less than two-year reign: his first was Liz Truss, and the King welcomed Rishi Sunak as his second PM just six weeks after acceding to the throne.

Depending on the election outcome, Charles is set to hold a private audience with the leader of the winning party at Buckingham Palace in London on Friday. They will be invited by the King to form a government and become prime minister.

Best photos from the last day of campaigning

On the last day of campaigning, the UK’s most tattooed woman met the UK’s richest-ever prime minister:

Did that really happen? 14 years of chaotic Tory government

Come with me to another country, far, far away, where things are a little bit different. In this fantastical land, young people can live and work in any country in Europe. You can swim in a river without catching Weil’s disease, or see your doctor.

Things aren’t perfect in this country, but 40,000 people rely on food banks instead of 3.1 million. People live half a year longer. Five-year-olds are taller.

Reader, you’ll never guess what. That country is Britain! Or it was until 2010, when a parade of five Conservative prime ministers, seven chancellors and eight home secretaries (two of whom were Suella Braverman) climbed behind the wheel of Britain’s temperamental but mostly reliable family hatchback, and drove it into a hedge.

What the hell just happened? If you’re feeling nostalgic, or just possibly a little angry, here is a recap of the lurches, plunges and nausea of 14 years on the Tory rollercoaster.

When will we know the results?

Results come in throughout the night after polls close at 10pm, with the very earliest expected by about 1am. Houghton and Sunderland South is historically one of the quickest, if not often the first, constituencies to declare. The national record is 10.43pm for the declaration for its predecessor seat, Sunderland South, set in 2001.

Houghton and Sunderland South competes every year – with youths running from polling to counting stations as fast as they can with boxes holding ballots – with Newcastle.

All seats seats should be declared by 7am, with perhaps a few exceptions.

What is 'first past the post'?

The UK uses a voting system called “first past the post” (a horse racing term), which means that voters vote for a candidate in their constituency, rather than a party, and the candidate with the most votes wins and becomes a member of parliament.

The UK – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – is divided into 650 constituencies. The party with the most MPs then has the chance to form government, either because it wins the majority of seats in the parliament, or makes a deal with one or more other parties to do so. If the party with the most seats forms government, its leader becomes the prime minister.

This means that millions of votes for a party won’t necessarily translate to seats. For example, in 2015 more than 3.8 million people voted for Nigel Farage’s Ukip party, but this resulted in only one seat in parliament. If the UK had a proportional system like many other countries, the party would have won 82 seats.

A candidate who is least liked in a constituency can still win if the opposition is divided.

This election, a higher number of voters than usual may try to get past this system by voting tactically – casting their ballot not for their preferred candidate, but rather for the candidate most likely to unseat their least preferred candidate.

How do general elections work in the UK?

The UK – that is England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – is divided into 650 constituencies, a geographical electoral division or district.

Voters cast a ballot for the person they want to represent their constituency in the UK Houses of Parliament. Candidates run as members of political parties with the key parties including: the Labour party, the Conservative party, Liberal Democrats, Scottish National party, Green party, Reform UK, Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist party. Candidates can also run as independents.

The candidate with the most votes in that constituency is elected as a member of parliament (MP).

The party with the most MPs then forms a government if it has a majority (at least 326 seats).

Does bad weather tend to impact turnout?

Wind and rain are no match for a roughly three in five eligible Britons who turn out to vote every five years. If anything, it makes them more determined.

Voter turnout is not generally affected by weather conditions, records suggest.

According to the Parliament website, despite the last general election in 2019 being the wettest since records began in 1931, turnout was actually higher (67.3%) than in 2001 (59.4%) and 2005 (61.4%) when polling day fell in June and May respectively.

The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s public body for official data, show there are about 49 million people registered to vote in the UK.

Today's weather

Could those be winds of… change?

Winds of up to 40mph are set to blow accross the UK today, according to the Met Office.

Showers are also expected across west and northwest Scotland, northwest England and across Northern Ireland on Thursday, according to the forecaster.

Southeast England will experience the brightest, warmest weather with areas around London expected to reach temperatures of up to 22C.

Chillier weather is predicted further north with most of the day’s rainfall expected in northwest Scotland, the forecaster said.

Liam Eslick, meteorologist at the Met Office, told PA:

It’s going to be quite a windy day across much of the UK.

The strongest winds are going to be towards Northern Ireland, the western parts of Scotland and northern England - so we could see winds getting up to around 35, maybe even possibly 40mph, especially around the coasts of Scotland.

It’s going to be a windy day for most people but it is going to be bright for central and southern England as well as Wales.”

Updated

Today's front pages

Campaigning has ended and voters are set to decide who will lead the UK for the next five years, with the country’s newspapers covering the parties final pitches – while making a few suggestions of their own.

“Starmer hails ‘new age of hope’ as Britain votes in historic election”, reads the Guardian’s front page. The paper’s lead story notes that Rishi Sunak’s closest allies have already appeared “to concede defeat”, while the final opinion polls show Labour is on track for an unprecedented victory.

“On the last day of a fractious six-week campaign, the Guardian was told Sunak had confided to members of his inner circle that he was fearful of losing his own seat”, the paper reports.

With voters about to go to the polls, the Mirror unsurprisingly comes out with an endorsement for Keir Starmer. Against a stark, black background, its headline reads “Vote for change. Vote Labour”.

Perhaps more surprisingly, the Sun’s front page also come out in support for Labour, with “Time for a new manager”. Despite the waning impact of newspaper endorsements over recent years, there had been fevered speculation over who the Sun would back.

It’s the first time since 2005 that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid has endorsed Labour and the editorial outlining its case is decidedly lukewarm, labelling Starmer an “ex-remainer” who wants “closer ties with Brussels”. It does however praise him for “dragging his party back to the centre ground of British politics”.

The Times – another Murdoch-owned paper – also offered cautious support for Starmer. The historic scale this election is underline in its headline: “Labour set for ‘biggest majority since 1832’”.

In an editorial headlined “Leap in the dark”, the paper states that “democracy requires change” and tellingly stopped short of urging people to vote Conservative. There is little enthusiasm in its message though, with the paper writing that “Sir Keir has left the British people with little clue as to his intentions in government”.

The Mail carries no such equivocations, with its front page dominated by a warning that votes for Reform will ensure a Labour victory. The headline reads “Vote Farage, get them …” above a picture of Starmer and his deputy, Angela Rayner.

The paper’s election day edition promises a tactical voting guide, that reads “If Labour win today, I warn you not to own a home, run a business, drive a car”; a clear allusion to former Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s celebrated speech, in the days before the 1983 election.

North of the border, the Mail’s Scottish edition tells voters to “Back Rishi and beat the SNP”, accompanied by a full page image of Nicola Sturgeon who resigned as first minister more than a year ago.

Scotland’s Daily Record also turns to recent political history, with a reference to Shepard Fairey’s iconic “Hope” poster of Barack Obama. Under an image of Keir Starmer shaded in red and blue, the paper urges voters to back Labour with the headline “Change”.

The front page of Scotland’s National reads as a direct rebuke to the Record’s headline, with “Change? What Change?” Outlining the areas in which the paper believes Starmer’s Labour will be identical to the Tories, the front page concludes by stating “in Westminster nothing ever changes”.

Across the entirety of its front page, the Express urges Britain to “Vote Tory”. Above the headline, the paper appears to take some time to convince itself of its position, acknowledging that frustration at the government is “understandable” and that it is the right of all voters to register there “protest”, however it concludes by saying it will carry the “torch of Conservatism until it is burning bright again.”

The i reports that “Labour’s lead narrows in final poll but Starmer still on course for landslide”. The paper notes that “most cabinet minister fear for their futures”.

The Financial Times says that Starmer is poised for a “200-plus majority”. “Tories braced for bleak night as polls put Labour on track for landslide win”, is the paper’s headline.

Telegraph readers would be forgiven for forgetting there was an election on, with only one small story on “postal vote chaos” indicating that it’s polling day.

The paper’s main headline reads “Homeowners face council tax raid under Labour”.

Finally, the Star’s front page simply carries a picture of a pair of oversized clown shoes and the headline “Toodle pip!”.

The paper’s front page story is just five lines long and reads “Remeber Bozo. Remember Partygate. Remember Lettuce Liz. Remember Rishi and D-Day. Remember to vote.”

Voting day is here at last

Today is the day! With one hour to go, in caravans, castles, cricket clubs, and, who knows, a laundromat, a hairdresser, someone’s living room across the UK, staff at polling stations are on their way to unlock the doors, or inside making tea, or thumping a pile of ballot papers on a desk to get them straight, as they prepare to open in what is likely to be a particularly memorable election.

As Britons prepare fill their ballots in today, Labour is in the lead over the Conservatives. We will be bringing you results as they happen after polls close at 10pm BST.

Today is about the fun and excitement and power, even, of voting with me, Helen Sullivan, and my colleagues Martin Belam, Léonie Chao-Fong, Amy Sedghi and Andrew Sparrow. Our political reporters will be sending analysis and news live from around the country. It is, for journalists, a day that is about consuming many, many biscuits. We’ll be with you throughout the day, night and all of Friday as results come in.

Let’s begin.

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