Britain’s voters head to the polls

Britons go to the polls today in the shadow of terrorism, with bolstered security at voting stations in the wake of attacks on Manchester and London. 

Polls opened 7:00am at more than 40,000 polling stations across the UK. Counting is due to start once voting closes at 10:00pm, with the first handful of seat results are expected to be announced by 12:00am. The vast majority of the 650 constituencies are due to announce results between 3:00am and 6:00am on Friday morning.

A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 46.9 million people registered to vote, up from the UK’s last general election in 2015, when there were 46.4 million registered voters.

Some votes have already been cast, through postal voting, which accounted for 16.4% of the total electorate at the 2015 general election.

Prime Minister Theresa May called the snap election to strengthen her hand in looming Brexit talks. However, with tight security nationwide after two Islamist attacks killed 30 people in Manchester and London in less than two weeks, the issue of how to counter violent extremism was thrust to the top of the agenda in the closing stages of the campaign.

In the final hours of campaigning, both leaders returned to their core campaign messages.

"If we get Brexit right, we can build a Britain that is more prosperous and more secure, a Britain in which prosperity and opportunity is shared by all," May said in a last appeal to voters to trust her to "knuckle down and get the job done".

After becoming prime minister without an election taking place in the turmoil that followed last year's EU referendum, May wants a personal mandate and a parliamentary majority bigger than the one she inherited from predecessor David Cameron.

Basing her campaign on the slogan of "strong and stable leadership", she has said she alone could face the 27 other EU leaders and clinch a deal that would give Britain control over immigration policy while ensuring favourable trading terms.

She has portrayed Corbyn as the weak and hapless leader of a spendthrift party that would hit voters with a "tax bombshell", crash the economy and flounder in the Brexit negotiations.

Corbyn has hit back that Conservative fiscal austerity imposed since 2010 has hurt the poor and widened social inequalities.

A final flurry of opinion polls gave May's Conservatives a lead ranging between five and 12 percentage points over the main opposition Labour Party, suggesting she would increase her majority - but not win the landslide foreseen when she called the election seven weeks ago.

Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus have been used in the past.

To form a majority in the House of Commons one party must win 326 seats.