May looks a winner

Tories tipped to comfortably hold power as UK heads to polls

BRITAIN holds its general election today with the opinion polls showing Prime Minister Theresa May likely to be returned by a comfortable margin.

After an eight-week campaign which saw campaigning suspended twice due to terror attacks in Manchester and London, the nation will cast its vote on whether to return Mrs May’s Conservatives, or elect 2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES HOST CITY Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.

Polls show Mrs May has a lead of around 7 per cent on Mr Corbyn – a big drop from the massive 20-point lead she held when she called the snap election on April 18.

A series of fumbles, including a plan to charge elderly residents more to be cared for in their own homes, knocked some of the shine off Mrs May’s Tories after Labour dubbed it a “dementia tax’’. Their clumsy U-turn on the proposal four days later didn’t do much to ease the pain.

Labour’s pain came mainly in the areas of defence and security, with avowed nuclear disarmament supporter Mr Corbyn tying himself in knots about whether he would use the Trident nuclear weapon program to respond if there was an attack.

The London Bridge terror attacks on Saturday saw the final days of the campaign overshadowed by terrorism and national security issues.

Labour said Mrs May had, as home secretary for six years, presided over budget cuts which took 20,000 police off the beat. The Tories said Mr Corbyn had opposed tougher anti-terrorism laws.

While Mrs May said the snap election was called to ensure there were no political hurdles in the way when the UK began to negotiate its Brexit divorce from the EU, no one in this campaign wanted to talk about Brexit.

Of the 650 seats in the House of Commons up for election today, the Tories hold 330 and Labour 229, with 10 other parties holding the remainder.