The United Kingdom includes countries like England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak from the Conservative party, who succeeded Boris Johnson, aims for a second term in power. Sunak, a Hindu, is also the first non-white prime minister.

The Conservatives and the Labour party dominate British politics. The former has been in power for 14 years and had five different prime ministers.

Exit poll by a polling company Survation has predicted a dramatic loss for the Conservatives. Keir Starmer from the Labour Party is predicted to win 484 of the 650 seats in Parliament, far more than the party’s record of 418 seats in the 1997 election under Tony Blair.

The Conservatives are predicted to win just 64 seats, the fewest since the party was founded in 1834. Right-wing Reform UK party, known for its anti-immigration and Eurosceptic stance is projected to win seven seats.

Who are the key candidates?

PM Rishi Sunak (44), Conservatives – An Oxford graduate and former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs, he claims to have steadied Britain’s economy after the Brexit turmoil. Critics say he lacks political judgement and stays out of touch with ordinary voters.

Keir Starmer (61), Labour party –  He is a former lawyer and a chief prosecutor for England and Wales. Known to be a centrist, he is credited with moving the party away from its overtly socialist orientation. Labour Party has surged in popularity under his leadership, but critics call him unexciting and unambitious.

Ed Davey (58), Liberal Democrats – A former economics researcher, he has also served as climate and energy secretary under the previous Conservative coalition government. Davey gained fame for taking to bungee-jumping to urge voters to take “a leap of faith”.

Nigel Farage (60), Reform UK – A former staunch proponent of Brexit, Farage is known for his anti-immigrant and Eurosceptic stance. He has contested for Parliament seven times but never won.

John Swinney (60), Scottish National Party (SNP) –  He is credited for bringing stability to the party, after abrupt exit of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. She had quit after her husband was found guilty of violating campaign finance rules.

Key promises

The Conservatives have promised more spending on public health and a boost in defence spending. The party also promised tax cuts to avoid evasion and build a stronger economy. One of the contentious decisions to cap immigration and move asylum seekers to Rwanda remains.

The Labour Party has promised more wealth creation and investment to improve Britain’s infrastructure, majorly the railways. A windfall tax will be imposed on oil and gas giants to set up a state-owned clean power company to boost energy security. The party will tax private schools to pay for thousands of new teachers in state schools and also cut record-high public health waiting times.

Key promise of the Liberal Democrats is free nursing care at home by improving social health systems. The party has also promised to lower the voting age to 16 and rejoin the European Union (EU)’s single market.

Right-wing Reform UK has promised to focus on “British values”. The party will freeze all “nonessential immigration” and also bar international students from bringing their dependents into the UK. It also seeks to leave the European Convention on Human Rights so that asylum-seekers can be deported without interventions from the courts.

SNP has promised to open Scottish independence negotiations with the government in London. Seeking to rejoin the EU and its single market. It also wants to scrap the UK’s Scotland-based nuclear deterrent and an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.

The Greens led by Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay has promised to phase out nuclear power and to net zero emission targets by 2040. A 40 billion will be raised by a carbon tax to invest in the “green economy”. A new wealth tax on the very rich and an income tax hike for high-earning individuals is also on cards.

Key issues at stake

The UK is facing sluggish economic growth since the 2008 global financial crisis, even when the Conservatives have been in power since 2010. Britain’s economy has been the second weakest among G7 since the COVID-19 pandemic. Living standards are predicted to suffer over the years for the first time since 1950’s.

Private investors are wary of investing in an economy marred by years of political instability since the referendum to leave the EU in 2016.

Inactivity rate, a measure of working-age people who are neither employed nor seeking a job – is higher than before the coronavirus pandemic.

Increased long-term illness since the pandemic and an ageing population have led to labour shortages, which are met by increased immigration. This has led to strain in public funded National Health Service (NHS) and other social systems.

Wait time for non-urgent treatment at the NHS, already growing since 2010, hit almost 8 million in late 2023 in England alone, almost doubling from four years earlier. NHS is far behind the target to treat almost all non-urgent patients within 18 weeks and also missing the target to treat emergency patients promptly. Slow increase in health spending despite an ageing and growing population remains a challenge.

Conservatives have missed targets to scrap immigration despite scrapping free movement for workers from the EU.

(With inputs from AP, Reuters)