Millions go to the polls in general election – as it happened

If you did not get a chance to do it yesterday, then can I recommend you spend a couple of minutes between now and the exit poll at 10pm having a crack at the Guardian’s supermassive election quiz …

4 Jul 202405.04 EDT

Alfie Packham

Readers have been getting in touch as they head to the polls this morning.

In Sheffield Central, NHS GP Tom McAnea, 54, said he is “excited” to be voting. “The sun is shining brightly this morning which should be an encouragement for voters to turn out. This is my ninth general election where I can vote, the first being in 1992. I still find the whole process both a privilege and a huge responsibility.”

Tom was accompanied by his 17-year-old daughter, Freya, who hopes to study politics at university next year. “She’s very keyed up today. She’s frustrated she can’t vote but is enthused by the whole process. We’ll be tuning in this evening at 10pm for the exit poll. I voted not long after seven. It wasn’t busy, but I could see that there was already a list of people who had been in and voted. I think they’re expecting a good turnout today.”

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Hayley voted earlier this morning in Ashton-under-Lyne with her dog Nova.

She said there she didn’t have any problem voting and there was no queue around 8am. Hayley added it was Nova’s first election (she is 18 months old) though she may not have been as excited as some.

“She was shown the leaflets from all the candidates but she was more interested in the one from the local pizza place.”

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Andrew Dunning, 37, from Oxford, voted at 7.30 with his son, aged three. “My son had us up at 4.30 am asking whether ‘goat’ rhymes with ‘poll’. There was nobody at the polling station and I was the tenth person to vote. We put a cross on the ballot papers together.”

Having to show ID has made the process feel “less friendly” this year, he adds. “The very nice fellow who was running the polling station went to ask the manager if they should accept my passport because I’ve grown my hair and beard out since the photo was taken nine years ago. Then he asked my son, ‘Is this daddy?’ My son said yes. ‘That’s fine, then.’”

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• You can tell us what is happening where you are on polling day – details of how to contact the team can be found here.

Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has posted a video clip of himself after he cast his vote in Ynys Môn.

He said:

I’ve just voted for Llinos Medi and Plaid Cymru here on Ynys Môn. For fairness. For ambition. For Wales. For fair funding for Wales. For the NHS. For your family. For your community. Thank you to you for all your support.

It is one of the constituencies Plaid Cymru have been targeting in this election. Last time out Ynys Môn was won by Conservative Virginia Crosbie as a gain from Labour, but both Labour and Plaid Cymru were only narrowly behind with a couple of thousand votes in it.

Keir Starmer has arrived to vote in London with his wife, Victoria. Polling ahead of the election suggests he is the person most likely to be the next prime minister of the UK, five years after his Labour party suffered a disastrous defeat in the December 2019 general election which saw Boris Johnson returned as UK prime minister. The country has changed leader twice since without holding a general election.

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Rishi Sunak and John Swinney have already voted, as has now, according to PA Media, Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie. He voted at Seagoe Primary School in Portadown. Beattie told reporters “It is an important day, it is a day for the people to cast their votes. We have run a good campaign.”

The former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also voted, posting a picture of himself outside a polling station with the message “Just voted for the independent candidate in Islington North. I heard he’s alright.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has urged people on social media to “be part of it” by voting for Labour today.

Sunak’s message seems to be one of accepting inevitable defeat, telling people to “Head to your polling station. Bring ID. Vote Conservative. Stop the Labour supermajority^*”

Jane Dodds, leader of the Liberal Democrats in Wales, has taken her dog Wanda down to vote.

And Pickles the dachshund has been down to the polling station in Ticknall Village hall in the South Derbyshire, and appears to be showing there is a great deal more trust placed in his recall abilities than I would dare with my very mischievous miniature dachshund Willow.

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^*There is no such thing as a “supermajority” in British politics. A government either enjoys a majority in the House of Commons, or it does not.

Aletha Adu, our political correspondent, has this explainer on what different results would mean for Labour, looking three scenarios: a moderate majority of 0-80 seats, a Blair-style landslide of 80-179 seats, and a haul of more than 179 seats.

Read more here: Blair-style landslide or ‘supermajority’: what different results would mean for Labour

If you can’t get enough politics coverage – and the fact you are reading an election day live blog more than twelve hours before we get the exit poll suggests you might be that kind of person – then tomorrow evening my colleague Hugh Muir will chair a panel of Guardian columnists and writers including John Crace, Gaby Hinsliff, Jonathan Freedland, and Zoe Williams at an event in London called Guardian Newsroom: Election results special.

It is on from 7.30pm-9pm (BST) tomorrow, and you can join it in person or on a livestream. There are more details here.

First minister of Scotland, John Swinney, has arrived to vote alongside SNP candidate Dave Doogan at the polling place in Blairgowrie, near Perth.

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PA Media report that addressing supporters at a pre-election rally in Leith on Wednesday evening, John Swinney said the Conservatives were going to be “heavily defeated” by the Labour party in England, but that there were “narrow margins” between Labour and the SNP in Scotland.

On social media the SNP has urged people to message friends and family reminded them to vote, saying “Don’t wake up on Friday thinking that you could have done more in the final days of the campaign. You can help to boost turnout at the election by messaging everyone you know to remind them to vote SNP today.”

The SNP candidate for Glasgow West, Carol Monaghan, has posted a pic of Wee Jean wearing an SNP rosette at a polling place in the newly formed constituency of Glasgow West. Monaghan was MP for Glasgow North West from 2015 to 2024.

Robbie Butler is standing for the Ulster Unionist Party in Lagan Valley, where he came third in 2019. He has just posted to say thathe hasn’t missed an election since he was 18 and has just cast his vote today, but what caught my eye was the similarity in his post to the internet meme of Timothy Dalton as Simon Skinner in Hot Fuzz.

[Please note it is not Timothy Dalton’s birthday today, that is just an old social media post]

My colleague John Crace has clearly been up and early to vote, and has posted a picture of Herbert Hound to confirm it. If you missed it, his sketch of the last day of the campaign – Rishi sinks into TV sofa as Boris gloats and Mel goes rogue – can be found here, and he also teamed up with Marina Hyde alongside Helen Pidd to discuss the election on yesterday’s Today in Focus podcast. Crace that is. Herbert Hound is not on the podcast.