British vote today on House of Commons seats

ELECTION /

LONDON — After a seven-week election campaign that veered from the boredom of staged soundbites to the trauma of two deadly attacks, Britain’s political leaders asked voters Wednesday to choose: Who is best to keep the U.K. safe and lead it out of the European Union?

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn crisscrossed the country on the final day of campaigning, trying to woo voters with rival plans for negotiating Brexit, building a fairer society and combating the terrorist threat.

May promised to crack down on extremism if she wins today’s vote — even if that means watering down humanrights legislation. “We are seeing the terrorist threat changing, we are seeing it evolve and we need to respond to that,” May said.

Corbyn argued that the real danger comes from Conservative cuts to police budgets. “We won’t defeat terrorists by ripping up our basic rights and our democracy,” he said.

Polls will be open today from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with all 650 seats in the House of Commons up for grabs. A party needs to win 326 seats to form a majority government.

May hopes to boost the Conservative majority in Parliament, which she says will strengthen Britain’s hand in divorce talks with the European Union.

“Get those negotiations wrong and the consequences will be dire,” she warned.

The latest opinion polls vary between a solid Conservative lead and a dead heat. The difference depends largely on the size of turnout among young people, traditionally the least likely to vote.

Meanwhile, the death toll from Saturday’s attack in which three men plowed a van into a crowd near London Bridge and then went on a stabbing rampage climbed to eight, as police recovered the body of a missing Frenchman from the River Thames.

Xavier Thomas, 45, was walking with his girlfriend over the bridge when the attack began. His girlfriend was seriously injured by the van.