UK votes in a closest-ever election battle

On a cool but sunny morning a steady stream of people headed into Hambrough Primary School, in the Ealing Southall parliamentary constituency in West London, and one of 50,000 polling stations open across the UK on Thursday, as the country headed to the polls.

A largely working class, multicultural community, Ealing Southall has long been a safe parliamentary seat for the Labour party, and in the past two general elections has been held by Virendra Sharma, a former bus conductor, and local councillor, who has lived in the area for the past 40 years.

Despite it being considered a safe seat, Sharma is hopeful of a high turnout in his constituency of over 65 per cent. “People are frustrated and they want to make a change,” he said.

While the outcome of Ealing Southall is pretty much guaranteed, this is far from true for the rest of the country and the other 649 parliamentary constituencies, with the latest polls putting the two largest parties, the Conservatives and Labour, neck and neck, and some safe seats up for grabs (some polls have suggested leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg who won in 2010 with a huge majority could lose his parliamentary seat of Sheffield Hallam).

Pollster Ipsos Mori, in its final pre-election poll conducted May 5-6, say the country is on course for an indecisive election result, putting the Conservatives at 36 per cent of the vote, and Labour at 35 per cent. Support for smaller parties is at its highest level in recent times, with a surge in support for the Scottish National Party expected to make a major dent in traditional Labour strongholds in Scotland, and the anti-immigration, anti-EU UKIP, capturing voters from both main parties.

Contributing to the rise of smaller parties had been the current coalition government, which had given an increasing number of people the sense that they didn’t have to vote for one of the two main parties, says Ivor Gabor, professor of politics at the University of Sussex. While the shape of the next parliament will begin to emerge over night – with the first exit polls coming in soon after the polling stations close at 10 pm local time and the first constituency result expected less than an hour later – the shape of the government remains high uncertain.

“With seven parties and a likely hung parliament we are likely to have days if not weeks of uncertainty before a new government is formed,” says Gabor, who sees the possibility of a government headed by a minority party, for the first time since 1924.

Turnout is also expected to be higher in a country which has seen a fall in turnout in recent years. Mori predicts it could be as high as 74 per cent (against 65 per cent in 2010). In Southall local and national issues have come into play, says Sharma. “People have responded to my own constituency work and feel threatened under the present government,” he said. “We are a very multicultural community and we understand the difficulty of new arrivals,” says Sharma.

However, at a polling station in the affluent London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, currently held by the Conservatives, it was national issues that appear to dominate. “The last thing I want is a Labour government,” said Simon, a voter, as he exited the polling station, pointing to his concerns about management of the country’s fiscal deficit, and immigration. Another woman pointed to her fears about the “mansion tax” proposed by Labour, as well as its plans to raise the top rate of tax.

In Southall, Sangeetha, a 36-year-old voter who had voted in every general election since turning 18, said while she felt that “none of the parties are good enough” it was her duty to have a say.

COMMENT NOW