London - Tens of thousands of polling stations were set to open
at 7:00 am on Thursday as British voters prepare to choose
members of parliament in a snap election called by Conservative Prime
Minister Boris Johnson to seek a majority and "get Brexit done."
"Vote one-nation Conservative party, get Brexit done [and] move our
country forward," Johnson said in a video message to voters on the
eve of the "most important election in modern memory."
He campaigned on promises to withdraw Britain from the European Union
on January 31 and cut taxes while funding improvements to health,
education, police and rail services.
The deal he negotiated with Brussels is "oven-ready... to get Brexit
done," if a Conservative majority can push it through a new
parliament, Johnson said at a campaign event on Wednesday.
Johnson, 55, has also pledged to limit immigration and negotiate
liberal post-Brexit trade deals with the United States and other
non-EU nations.
"We're a great country and we can be greater still," he said in
another campaign message on Wednesday.
The main opposition Labour party's left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn
offered a radical "manifesto of hope," promising to renationalize key
industries, invest massively in infrastructure and provide free
broadband services.
Corbyn, 70, promised that Labour would negotiate an improved Brexit
deal to pit against remaining in the EU in a second Brexit
referendum, and would then "carry out" whatever the majority decided.
He urged voters to save the national health service, which has been
subject to cuts and privatization in recent years.
"We can rewrite the economy for the many, not the few," Corbyn said
in a campaign speech. "It's time for real change."
About two-thirds of eligible voters, or more than 30 million people,
are expected to take part in the election.
Most analysts believe a comfortable parliamentary majority for the
Conservatives is the most likely outcome under Britain's
constituency-based, first-past-the-post system.
A key opinion poll late Tuesday also suggested the Conservatives will
win a majority of several dozen seats in parliament.
Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, lost the party's majority after
calling a disastrous snap election in June 2017.
The YouGov poll predicted the Conservatives will win about 43 per
cent of votes on Thursday, with Labour on 34 per cent and the
anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats on 12 per cent.
That would give Johnson a parliamentary majority of 28 seats,
according to the pollster's seat-by-seat analysis.
Leading political analysts have warned, however, that a hung
parliament remains possible.
Much could depend on the results in several dozen key marginals.
Tactical voting could also play a part in a small number of seats
where the anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats are competing for votes with
Labour, or where veteran eurosceptic Nigel Farage's Brexit Party are
vying with the Conservatives.
If the election does, however, lead to a hung parliament, Labour
could win enough seats to form a minority government with support
from the smaller Scottish National Party (SNP) and possibly the
Liberal Democrats.