Ten places to watch as results come in

LONDON: Polls show Britain’s Labor Party is set to return to government with a large majority in Thursday’s national election after 14 years in opposition.

Polls close at 22:00 (21:00 GMT) and results are due to be announced in each of the 650 parliamentary constituencies overnight.

Since the last UK general election held in December 2019, new constituency boundaries have been implemented to reflect population changes, with some seats being abolished and replaced.

Below are ten positions to watch out for that could provide clues as to how the rest of the night will play out, in order of expected statement time:

Basildon and Billericay, the result is due at 23:15 GMT

This seat, contested by Conservative Party Chairman Richard Holden, has been comfortably won by the ruling Conservatives at every election since it was created in 2010.

Victory here would mean Labor would overturn a majority of more than 20,000 votes and could be a sign of the size of the Labor landslide to come.

Broxbourne, the result is expected at 23:15 GMT

This seat has been won by the Conservatives at every election since it was created in 1983. In 2019 they won it with a majority of just under 20,000 votes.

A Labor victory in Broxbourne would be a huge loss for the Conservatives and an early indication of the size of the potential national swing towards Labor leader Keir Starmer’s party.

Swindon South, the result is expected at 23:30 GMT

Swindon South is a seat, having elected a representative from the party that has continued to form government at every election since 1983.

Conservative former justice minister Robert Buckland has been a member of parliament since 2010 and is defending a majority of 6,625.

This is the kind of seat that Labor would comfortably win if it is to achieve the large majority that the polls have predicted.

Cranlington and Killingworth, the result is expected at 2345 GMT

This newly created constituency includes most of the former seat of Blyth Valley, which was the first seat in the former Labor stronghold known as ‘Red Wall’ to be taken by the Conservatives in 2019.

The Conservatives overturned a majority of 7,915 in the seat, which had been held by Labor since its foundation in 1950.

A victory here for Labor could signal the start of rebuilding the wall.

Hamilton and Clyde Valley, the result is due at 0045 GMT

This is a newly created seat in Scotland, but its predecessor, Lanark and Hamilton East, has been held by the Scottish National Party (SNP) since it was won by Labor in 2015.

In the last election in 2019, Labor came third behind the Conservatives here.

If Labor takes that position, it could suggest the party has achieved the kind of escape from the SNP it needs to win back many of the Scottish seats it lost in 2015, when Labor was wiped out in its former stronghold.

Cannock Chase, the result is expected at 01:00 GMT

Labor would need to achieve a huge swing to regain Cannock Chase, which it held from 1997-2010. The Conservatives won it by a majority of almost 20,000 votes in 2019.

Modeling by pollsters YouGov has predicted a Labor victory is likely here, a result that could signal the Conservatives are in for a very bad night.

This seat also voted 69% to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, so a win here could signal a rebound in support for Labor in Brexit-backing areas.

Castle Point, expected result at 01:00 GMT

Incumbent Conservative candidate Rebecca Harris has represented the seat since 2010 and had a majority of over 26,600 votes at the last election.

The region voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU in 2016 and the pro-Brexit UK Independence Party (UKIP) topped 30% of the vote in the 2015 election.

If Reform UK, led by Brexit campaigner and former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, wins here, it would be a strong sign of his party’s growing support in pro-Leave areas and bad news for Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives .

Godalming and Ash, expected result at 23:00 GMT

That seat is contested by Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt, who has been the region’s member of parliament since 2005. Some polls predict he will lose it to the Lib Dems.

If Hunt is defeated, his fate will symbolize the collapse of Conservative support in the affluent “home counties” around London that has been stable for more than a century.

Hunt never saw his share of the vote in his constituency fall below 50%, but YouGov has predicted it will fall to 29%, with the Lib Dems on 46%.

Watford, the result is expected at 03:00 GMT

This is considered a seat, having elected an MP from the winning party in every UK general election since 1974.

In the last election in 2019, the Conservatives won it with a majority of just over 4,400 votes.

Clacton, the result is expected at 03:00 GMT

Some polls have predicted that Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, will take Clacton, his eighth bid to win a parliamentary seat.

The seat, which the Conservatives won in 2019 with a majority of more than 24,700, voted for Farage’s previous party, pro-Brexit UKIP, in 2015.