UK polls: Millions head out to vote including PM Rishi Sunak, wife Akshata Murty

Millions of voters in the UK are casting their ballots in a national election to choose the 650 lawmakers who will sit in Parliament for the next five years. Polls opened at 7 am (BST) and will close at 10 pm (BST) on Thursday night. Even before in-person voting began, hundreds of thousands of people had cast their ballot by postal vote. (Photo/Agencies)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty cast their votes during the general election at Kirby Sigston Village Hall in Kirby Sigston, England. Sunak, who tried to bring stability to a Conservative Party in chaos when he was picked as leader in October 2022, spent the past six weeks trying to persuade voters across the UK to give his party another term after 14 years in power. (Photo/Agencies)

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised his own party on May 22 when he called the election, which could have taken place as late as January 2025. After 14 years in power under five different prime ministers, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ’s Conservatives are widely expected to lose to the main opposition party, the left-of-center Labour Party led by Keir Starmer. (Photo/Agencies)

Voters will give their verdict Thursday on five tumultuous years of government that have spanned the coronavirus pandemic, the troubled implementation of Brexit, the "partygate" scandal around rule-breaking during pandemic lockdowns by Johnson and some of his colleagues and the disastrous six-week tenure of Prime Minister Liz Truss. (Photo/Agencies)

The United Kingdom -- which consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales -- is divided into 650 constituencies. To win an overall majority, a party must secure 326 seats. (Photo/Agencies)

The state of Britain's economy is the top issue for most voters today, according to polls, in the wake of a cost-of-living crisis and record inflation -- which reached a peak of 11.1 per cent in 2022 and has only recently begun to return to target levels. Immigration also comes in many voters' lists of top issues. (Photo/Agencies)

The two largest parties in Britain are the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, a former public prosecutor and human rights lawyer. (Photo/Agencies)

Labour has maintained a double-digit lead in the polls for more than 18 months. In that time, the Conservatives have suffered stinging losses in parliamentary special elections and elections for mayors and local councils. And while the polls often narrow during an election season, that does not appear to have happened much this time. Analysts believe the Conservatives would have to achieve something close to miraculous now to win even a slim majority. (Photo/Agencies)