Voters are heading to the UK general election and Kier Starmer’s Labor is set for a historic victory.
Voters went to the UK general election after the final day of campaigning was overwhelming with many polls showing a historic victory for Keir Starmer and even Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper endorsing the opposition Labor Party over Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives.
“Today, Britain can start a new chapter,” Starmer said in his final message before polling stations opened at 7am on Thursday. He promised “a new era of hope and opportunity after 14 years of chaos and decline,” in a statement released by his office, which he said was meant to encourage people to get out and not think Labor had won. “Change will only happen if you vote for it.”
Sunak made another appeal to conservative Conservative voters who have been disaffected during his tenure, urging them to vote Tory to stop Labor from becoming an “unchecked power.” His strategy is based in the final weeks of the campaign on agreeing to a viable deal that his party will lose.
Anything short of a landslide victory for Labor would be a major shock. The latest Bloomberg poll, a 14-day rolling average using data from 11 polling firms, gave Starmer’s party a 20-point lead over the Tories.
On Wednesday, another MRP election yielded a major victory for labor. YouGov modeling showed Labor winning 431 seats with a parliamentary majority of 212. Focaldata had 238 seats, while More In Common identified 210. If any of those conditions were to prevail in the election, they would exceed Tony Blair’s 1997 Labor tally and represent us. a stunning loss for the Tories.
🚨 Our final MRP poll of the election campaign shows Labor on course to win a record-breaking 444 seats.
Counting of seats
Employees: 444 (-6 from last week)
Conservative: 108 (-2)
Highest score of 57 (+7)
SNP: 15 (-1)
Change: 2 (+1)
Plaid: 2 (-)
Green: 1 (-) pic.twitter.com/RuUuEgvY1P– Focaldata (@focaldataHQ) July 3, 2024
There was no respite for Sunak in the final hours of the campaign as the Sun endorsed Starmer and Labour, a stunning move in Britain’s media landscape that reflected the shifting nature of the country’s political sands.
“It’s time for a change,” said The Sun newspaper in an editorial published on the newspaper’s website. “It’s Labor Time.”
The paper, which supported Blair in 1997 but has endorsed the Tories since 2010, delivered a scathing verdict on Sunak’s party after 14 years in power.
“They have become a chaos divided among themselves, who like to fight instead of running the country,” said the newspaper. “Illegal and legal immigration has not been controlled. Taxes have risen to their highest level since the Second World War. The wealth of leadership was endless. Fraud scandals – most recently gambling during elections – have broken public trust.”
The endorsement of Labor would appear to be an opportunistic move given the polls, and the newspaper did not include Starmer’s photo. Still, it’s a move that raises eyebrows as Starmer was chief prosecutor in England and Wales before the 2014 trial of Murdoch’s newspaper staff accused of hacking the phones of politicians and celebrities.
The Sun Says: It’s time for a change…
Here’s an early look at tomorrow’s front page. pic.twitter.com/uaZr4ELdZX— The Sun (@TheSun) July 3, 2024
“I’m happy to have the support of Solezwe,” Starmer told broadcasters at a campaign rally in Scotland. “It shows how much this is a changed Labor Party, getting back to working for working people.”
The Sun drew parallels between Blair and Starmer. “By pulling his party into the center of British politics for the first time since Tony Blair entered Number 10, Sir Keir has earned the right to take over,” the statement said.
