Britain is voting in a pivotal national election

(Image credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)

published 12 December 2019

Voters in the United Kingdom are voting for all 650 seats in the House of Commons on Thursday, and the choice between Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party and Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party is pretty stark. Johnson, 55, campaigned on a heavily choreographed "Get Brexit Done" platform marred by misleading tactics and promises, while Corbyn, 70, pledged to hold a second referendum on leaving the European Union, increase public spending, and shift Britain's economic policy significantly leftward. Matthew Goodwin, a visiting senior fellow at the Chatham House think tank, called Thursday's vote "probably the most consequential election we've had in the post-war period."

Several smaller and regional parties, mostly but not exclusively on the left and center-left, are also expected to win seats. The Brexit Party gave Johnson a reprieve by not contesting 317 Conservative-held seats. Johnson called the election, two years ahead of schedule, after his Brexit plans were shot down in Parliament in September and October.

"All major opinion polls suggest Johnson will win, though pollsters got the 2016 referendum wrong and their models predict outcomes ranging from a hung Parliament to the biggest Conservative landslide since the era of Margaret Thatcher," Reuters notes. In fact, "two historic referendums — on Scottish independence in 2014 and Brexit in 2016 — and two national elections in 2015 and 2017 have delivered often unexpected results that ushered in political crises." Polls close at 10 pm GMT (5 pm EST), and the first results should come in an hour later.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.