•Sunak and Starmer
Today, Thursday July 4, British voters will elect a new prime minister and parliament. The U.K. political landscape is dominated by two main parties: the center-right Conservatives and the center-left Labour Party.
Voters will decide if the Conservative Party leader will remain in the top job or if Keir Starmer of the main opposition Labour Party, will become prime minister, reports The Nation.
The Conservatives’ leader is Rishi Sunak, who has served as British prime minister since October 2022 and is running for re-election. Labour is led by Keir Starmer, head of the main opposition party since April 2020.
The Conservative Party, also known as the Tories, has governed the U.K., with a series of different prime ministers, for 14 years.
But also in the running are the Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, the Scottish National Party and the Greens, among others.
In 2019, the Conservative Party, then led by Boris Johnson, won 365 seats, 48 more than they had under Theresa May in 2017.
Voters will elect 650 lawmakers representing as many constituencies.
The party with a majority in the House of Commons – either alone or with the backing of another party – will be tasked with forming the next government while its leader will become Prime Minister.
One of Labour’s most-discussed plans to raise money involves applying value-added tax (VAT) to private schools.
Sunak, who took office in October 2022, has proposed tax cuts for the self-employed and a return to an era of mandatory national service for young people.
Like Labour, he is also promising to boost home ownership.
Sunak is reiterating his aim of sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda in a bid to curb illegal migration – a pre-existing plan that has been mired in years of legal difficulties before it was approved by Parliament in April.
A hung parliament occurs if no single party wins a majority. In this case the incumbent prime minister remains in power and is given the first chance to form a government either by building a coalition or governing with a minority.
Once the overall result is clear, and if the governing party has lost, the prime minister would be expected to tender his resignation to the king tomorrow.
The leader of the winning party will then meet the king, who will request he or she form a government. They will then head to Downing Street to make a speech to the British public as the new prime minister.
The new prime minister will begin appointing ministers, starting with senior positions.
Parliament is scheduled to return on July 9. The Speaker of the House of Commons – parliament’s lower chamber – will be elected from among members of parliament (MPs).
