British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urged people to vote for the Conservative Party and prevent the Labour Party from getting a majority

As voting began in the United Kingdom on Thursday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called on people to vote Conservative and prevent a Labour majority that would see taxes rise for a generation.

Sunak also shared a photo of himself with his/her wife Akshata Murthy outside the polling booth.

Speaking to X, Sunak said: “The voting has begun. Vote Conservative to prevent a Labour majority, which will mean higher taxes for a generation.”

Voting stations opened at 7am (local time) today for the historic general election in the United Kingdom.

Voters in a total of 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will cast their votes in the election. Any party has to win at least 326 out of 650 parliamentary seats and the leader of that party becomes the Prime Minister of the country.

According to CNN, the state of Britain’s public services, cost of living, taxes, immigration and the economy will remain the key topics around which much of the debate during the election campaign will revolve.

However, the discussion has largely ignored the topic of Britain’s relationship with the EU, which it left in 2020 after a referendum four years ago. In late May this year, Sunak called for a quick vote, a move that came as a surprise to many in his/her party.

Under the leadership of Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party has bounced back from its worst defeat in the last general election since 1935. Britain has had three prime ministers from the Conservative Party since Boris Johnson easily won the most recent general election in 2019.

However, the nation and a large portion of his/her party lost interest in Johnson, and in 2022, Conservative Party members elected Liz Truss as his/her successor as prime minister, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history, CNN reported.

After that, Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) elected Sunak as his/her successor. Nigel Farage, one of the best-known supporters of Brexit, announced during the campaign that he/she would rejoin the political scene to lead the nascent hard-right Reform UK party.

Forecasts suggest the election will see the Labour Party win a majority after more than a decade of Conservative rule under five leaders, including current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and current British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

However, an atmosphere of division is also growing as Reform, the hard-right party led by populist leader Nigel Farage, appears on track to improve on its performance in the 2019 election, when it was known as the Brexit Party.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), Britain has seen its worst income growth in the past 15 years. In recent years, Britons have also struggled with a cost-of-living crisis, as prices are rising and wages are stagnant. The Conservative and Labour parties have taken different approaches to fixing the economy.