Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s party is expected to lose the July 4 election after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Vote counting is under way in the United Kingdom’s snap general election with 650 seats in the House of Commons – the lower house of Britain’s parliament – up for grabs.
The candidates with the most votes in each constituency will be declared winners by the early hours of July 5. By 7am local time, most results should be declared.
Here is how all the parties are performing:
Previous election results
In 2019, Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party secured a majority by seizing seats from the Labour Party in its traditional heartlands in the north and midlands.
The Conservatives won 365 seats with a net change of +49, while Labour had 203 seats, a net change of -60 from the prior election. The SNP gained 13 seats, bringing the total number of seats in parliament to 48. The Liberal Democrats had 11 seats, a net change of -2 since the last election. The Greens maintained their only seat.
Which are the main parties in the race?
There are several political parties in the UK, however, the two that have dominated the political arena in the 20th and 21st century are the Conservatives and Labour.
- The Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, is a centre-right to right party, currently led by Rishi Sunak, who took over from Liz Truss in October 2022.
- Labour is a centre-left party, led by Keir Starmer. They were last in power between 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
- Liberal Democrats, centre to centre-left aligned, led by Ed Davey. In power from 2010 to 2015 in coalition with the Conservatives under David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, then leader of the Liberal Democrats.
- Greens, left-wing ecopolitics, led by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay.
- Reform UK, right-wing party led by Nigel Farage.
- SNP, Scottish National Party, centre-left party led by John Swinney.
- Plaid Cymru, centre-left to left-wing Welsh party, led by Rhun ap Iorwerth.
- DUP, Democratic Unionist Party, centre-right Northern Irish party, led by Gavin Robinson.
How does voting work in the UK?
Voters in 650 constituencies across the UK will elect members of parliament to the lower chamber, the House of Commons, via the first-past-the-post system. To win each constituency and gain a seat in the House, candidates need to receive more votes than any of their competitors.
A party needs to win at least 50 percent of the seats – 326 – to secure a majority in the House of Commons and be asked to form a government by the monarch, King Charles III. The members of parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords, are appointed rather than elected.
If no party wins a majority, there is a hung parliament.
The UK’s outgoing parliament
Before parliament closed on May 30, the House of Commons was represented by 13 parties and 17 independents, including:
- The Conservatives – 344 seats (52.9 percent)
- Labour – 205 seats (31.5 percent)
- The Scottish National Party (SNP) – 43 seats (6.6 percent)
- The Liberal Democrats – 15 seats (2.3 percent)
The remaining 43 seats were held by nine other parties and independents.
