Voting has already started at polling stations across the UK, continuing until tonight at 22.00.
An exit poll will be published almost immediately – a survey of thousands of people outside 144 polling stations, who are asked how they voted by Ipsos MORI. The poll has correctly predicted the winner at the last four General Elections.
If a clear winner is emerging, this may be apparent by about 03.00 tomorrow, but the final result will not be known until several hours later.
Prime Minister Theresa May called the election with her party riding high in polls, in hopes of improving her majority in the House of Commons and thus having a stronger mandate for her as Prime Minister and for her approach to Brexit. However, the latest polls have seen the gap narrow between Labour and Conservatives.
What are the biggest parties’ plans on Brexit?
Theresa May’s Conservatives state they will leave the single market and customs union, but aim to negotiate ‘favourable’ trading terms for the UK, arguing that this is in the best interests of both Britain and the EU.
They would ‘seek to secure the entitlements of EU nationals in Britain and British nationals in the EU’, and Parliament should have a vote on the final exit deal.
However, they believe that leaving the union with ‘no deal’ is better than leaving with a ‘bad deal’ (ie. one that does not have good terms for the UK and leaves it in a weak position). They have not clarified what ‘no deal’ would mean for expats’ rights – for example, whether they would seek to have a specific, separate agreement on this if the overall ‘divorce’ deal fails.
Conservative Brexit Minister David Davis has described the EU’s opening position, which includes guaranteeing lifetime rights for all EU citizens living in the UK on Brexit Day, and their families, as ‘ridiculously high’.
The party has made no pledges on certain matters within the UK’s gift, such as continuing to pay pension uprating to British pensioners in the EU, or to continue to pay for healthcare of British retirees in the EU, arguing that these should all be part of the negotiation and reciprocal agreements.
The UK may wish to continue to participate in certain EU programmes and is willing to consider payments for this.
A ‘Great Repeal Bill’ would repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, which took the UK into the EU, while at the same time incorporating all EU law directly into British law, to be repealed piecemeal as parliament wishes.
As this will be time-consuming and complex, the bill allows for ministers to make ‘corrections’ to laws without consulting parliament ‘where necessary’, under so-called ‘Henry VIII powers’.
The party will aim to cut immigration to less than 100,000/year (compared to 273,000).
It would reduce and control numbers from the EU, prioritising skilled workers.
In this case, the EU may be expected to reciprocate.
The Labour Party accepts the Brexit referendum result and aims to give a ‘meaningful role’ to Parliament in the negotiations.
It would scrap the Conservatives’ Brexit White Paper and have new negotiating priorities, including ‘maintaining benefits’ of the single market and customs union (but not necessarily by staying within them).
It would immediately and unilaterally guarantee existing rights of all EU nationals in the UK and seek reciprocal rights for UK citizens in the EU.
It considers that ‘no deal’ is the worst scenario and it would reject this as a viable option.
The party would negotiate transitional arrangements to avoid a ‘cliff-edge’ effect after Brexit.
Labour would drop the Great Repeal Bill, replacing it with an EU Rights and Protections Bill aiming to ensure there is no detrimental change to workers’ rights, equality law, consumer rights or environmental protections.
It would seek to maintain membership of cross-border agencies like Eurojust and Europol, and the European Arrest Warrant scheme. It would also seek to maintain the same participation in Erasmus.
It would end across the board the policy of freezing expats’ pensions in many parts of the world which lack social security agreements on pensions with the UK.
Labour says that freedom of movement will end when the UK leaves the EU and it would ‘develop and implement fair immigration rules’, which do not discriminate on matters like ‘races or creeds’.
It would end income threshold requirements, but replace them with a ban on new immigrants claiming money from the state. Labour would protect those already working in the UK.
The party makes no specific pledges to reduce numbers of immigrants.
