DAY BRITAIN DEFIED THE DELUGE
Queues around the block at polling stations as huge turnout predicted
MILLIONS of Britons defied the weather yesterday as the first December election in almost a century saw unprecedented queues at some polling stations.
Despite torrential downpours, voters lined up in the cold and wind outside schools, village halls, churches and even pubs.
Many polling stations reported being busier than usual and in London some people complained they had been forced to leave before casting their ballot because of waits of more than half an hour.
With the exit poll last night suggesting a big Tory majority, turnout looked to be as high or even higher than the 68.8 per cent in 2017.
But Tory sources were fearing a wipeout in London, with younger voters and Remainers combining to squeeze the Conservative vote.
Some of the constituencies most at risk include the seats of highprofile Tories such as former party leader Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford and Woodford Green, Environment Secretary Theresa
Villiers in Chipping Barnet and Zac Goldsmith in Richmond Park.
Even Boris Johnson, defending a majority of only 5,034 in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, faced a tense wait for the result.
It raised the prospect of Labour turning London almost completely red, while large numbers of students voting in constituencies such Canterbury triggered concern among Tories that they would struggle to take back seats they lost at the last election.
The Conservatives were, however, hoping that the polls pointed to
‘Gains in the North’
gains in traditional Labour areas in the North and the Midlands. The contest was the third general election in five years and the first to be held in December since 1923 – but there appeared to be little sign of voter fatigue. Several claimed they had never seen queues like it.
Wandsworth Council in south London reported ‘unprecedented numbers’ at its polling stations, which include the marginal seats of Battersea and Putney Putney. More than 70 voters were in a queue at Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said consultant Chris Schofield, 27. Some gave up and left during his 20-minute wait, ‘presumably to go to work’ work’. It’s about 20 times busier than it was in 2017, and for the locals and Euro elections,’ he said. ‘Atmosphere is very London: orderly queuing and no one is talking to each other!’ Asked why so
many were queuing, Mr Schofield said: ‘I think it’s the election of a lifetime for many of us.’
Alixe Bovey reported queuing for 35 minutes in the Streatham constituency. ‘In 20 years of voting in Streatham Hill, always at about this time of day, I have never encountered a queue of more than six or seven people,’ she tweeted.
Long waits to vote were also reported in English cities such as Cambridge, Norwich and Lincoln.
Snow had to be cleared from outside some polling stations in the Scottish Highlands, while voters had to contend with ice on the ground in the North of England.
A car crashed through a wall outside West Ashling and Funtington District Hall, which was being used as a polling station in Chichester, West Sussex. Police said no one was injured and the hall had remained open for voters.
In Somerset, Sarah Sutton and Annie Price took their reindeer with them to vote at the Village Hall in Chilthorne Domer.