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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Politics
Haroon Siddique, Matthew Weaver and Claire Phipps

Voters go to the polls in 2017 Westminster election – as it happened

The 2017 general election explained for non-Brits

This blog is wrapping up now. Our election results live blog, manned by Andrew Sparrow, who will be taking you through the night, is live now. Thanks for reading.

If you thought the offer of a free Banksy print – subsequently withdrawn as it was warned it could invalidate the results – was good, with just over an hour until the polls end, the actor and comedian David Schneider has offered some (tongue in cheek, I should add, in case the Electoral Commission is reading) incentives to get out and vote:

Updated

Liz, a Lib Dem supporter in the south London marginal of Kingston and Surbiton – where Ed Davey is trying to take his old seat back from Tory politician James Berry – has been pounding the street this evening offering lifts to the polling station.

Apparently Cleggmania lives on, if this picture she sent from the Lib Dem HQ toilets is anything to go by:

She says the Lib Dems are “hopeful but not confident” about Davey’s prospects.

She writes:

A steady stream of volunteers is flowing in and out of the K&S LD HQ as we are collecting the names of any potential voters who we think might not have voted yet. It has been a long day – some were out at 6am dropping election day leaflets and are still going, fuelled by orange squash, biscuits and bananas. And if that’s not enough to keep us going, the lifesize Clegg in the ladies’ loo should do it.

We’re hopeful, but not overconfident – Ed Davey is very popular with the locals, but there’s a sense that national politics is going back to a two -party system and this is impacting how people vote locally.

Not giving up though – in 1997 Ed won with just 56 votes, so we know that every last vote is crucial.

Updated

This is the advice to people affected by the problems in Newcastle-under-Lyme:

Another overseas voter has got in touch about problems that stopped him voting.

James Pellington writes from the United States:

I was told my overseas registration had expired (apparently I have to re-register every year) and then, while re-registering, was told that my identity could not be confirmed. This is despite me registering in the exact same address as previously registered. I need to find another British voter who is registered overseas to confirm my identity.

Eventually the election office agreed that I was the same person that they had previously registered. Then I also needed to register to vote by postal ballot, and after providing my overseas address was told I needed to provide an address in the UK.

When they finally agreed to register me at my overseas address, they sent the ballot paper so that it arrived on Monday, despite having registered several weeks before. I arrived at the post office first thing on Monday morning and they told that to get it there before polls closed would cost $80 (£62) and they could not guarantee Thursday delivery.

In the end, I could not justify such a cost for a vote that may or or may not be counted (particularly since my constituency seat is considered ‘safe’). I’m not sure if this experience mirrors other overseas voters but the process is definitely flawed.

Updated

Paul Farrelly, Labour’s candidate in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where Keele University students have been complaining of being turned away despite having voter cards, has been scathing in his criticism of the electoral services department. He will be taking up the issues experienced today, and in the run-up to the election, with the Electoral Commission:

The electoral services department here in Newcastle is a shambles and there is chaos, which is denying people votes on a scale unprecedented in my 30 years of fighting and organising elections.

We have spent the past week firefighting over scores of postal votes, which have not arrived and we not only have lots of registration applications that have not been processed, but people – including students – being turned away when they are indeed registered.

Each passing hour is not only spoiling election day, but just adding to the issues for complaint, which I will be referring tomorrow to the Electoral Commission and other bodies for an independent, outside investigation.

The reality is that electoral services in Newcastle have been all over the place since a licensing fiasco led to the departure of good, experienced staff last summer.

Updated

More on the reports that some voters from Keele University have been turned away.

Ben Anderson, a history lecturer at the university who had reached out via our election callout, told the Guardian:

There have been students who haven’t been able to vote because they haven’t appeared on the registers supplied to officers. The polling officers have been doing their best to sort that out but there’s clearly an issue. There were a number there holding their polling cards so I am sure there were genuine because the assumption is that they registered too late (and were not on the list for that reason).

There are suggestions that hundreds could have been turned away.

Updated

There have been reports of students from Keele University being turned away at polling stations despite being eligible to vote. The reported problem is in the constituency of Newcastle-under-Lyme where Labour won by just 650 votes from the Conservatives at the last election in 2015 and where Ukip is not standing this time.

In a post directed towards students, the university’s English department appeared to acknowledge there were problems, suggesting it was because some registrations were not on the lists sent out to polling stations.

Updated

More queues building up as people finish work and students get out of bed (that’s a joke by the way - a bad one admittedly - before you send me your outraged comments):

The National Federation of Cypriots in the UK has been urging members to get out and vote for candidates who support the island.

The federation, which represents more than 300,000 Britons of Cypriot origin – the largest and most significant community of Cypriots outside of Cyprus itself – has listed parliamentary candidates who have signed the Federation’s #CyprusPledgeCard. It says:

GO OUT AND VOTE for the candidates that have demonstrated real support for Cyprus in the past; have campaigned for a free, united Cyprus; and have campaigned against the Turkish occupation.

We must ensure that these candidates, from all political parties, are elected by casting our votes and having our voice heard. These candidates have asked questions and spoken about Cyprus in parliament; attended and supported our events; actively shown that they support a free, united Cyprus based upon a just and viable solution to the Cyprus Issue; and have campaigned against the Turkish occupation.

Another reader has written in about voting problems. Mary Hart said:

Both my son and my husband (who prefer not to be named) were unable to vote today as overseas voters who registered before the deadline.

My husband sent his signed proxy form to Sheffield election office (for Sheffield Hallam constituency) on 22 May. His proxy turned up to vote for him today and was told he wasn’t on the list. My son phoned the elections office at Sheffield several times to confirm he was able to vote today - he’s actually in the UK at the moment. Turns up at the polling station to be told he hasn’t yet been processed so will be about another two months till he can vote.

Since we’ll have been living away from Britain for over 15 years by the time of the next election (presumably) that was our last chance. I just hope my postal vote made it in time.

Anna Piela has written in to say she was initially refused her vote today as a ‘category G’ EU citizen, even though she is a naturalised British citizen (she is a dual citizen, also with Polish citizenship) and registered to vote.

She has blogged about it:

I approached the table, gave my address, and was then told that I was ‘Category G’ (funny, I felt more like ‘Category B’ at that point), meaning I was ineligible to vote in this election as a Polish citizen. I felt everybody’s eyes on me. Do they think I am a fraud? I started to feel hot and embarassed.

She said a lady at the polling station called a number for her after Piela had called the Leeds electoral commission to no avail.

She got put through and was told that I was ineligible to vote as a Polish citizen. Well, wasn’t I glad to whip out my British passport and wave it in her face. And then whoever was at the end of the line started crumbling. Oh, it’s a clerical error they say. She is indeed a UK citizen. So what do I do? asked the nice lady. ‘Give her a ballot and mark a clerical error in your register’ they said.

So that was that. They said at the station that there had been four other people who were refused the ballot there despite being apparently naturalised and registered, but they didn’t persevere like I did, and walked away.

I voted, smiled, and left. With a very high blood pressure rate, for sure. Well, that’s how elections are won and lost, and citizens categorised as A or B (yes, those of us who may be a G).

Updated

Cumbria’s News & Star reports that police are investigating Copeland’s Conservatives after posters for their candidate, Trudy Harrison, were put up near polling stations.

Political parties are forbidden from displaying election material near to polling stations.

Harrison said the poster, which was on private property, was not put up by her or anyone on her campaign team.

Updated

Just under five hours to go...

If you’ve ever wondered about those people who loiter outside polling stations who ask you for your polling number, this is a useful explainer. They’re not just nosy parkers ...

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This is lovely, although it’s rather dispiriting that the Clangers appear not to live in a democracy ... see how lucky we are.

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You’re probably thinking to yourself (or perhaps not) – what is the former Ukip leader Nigel Farage doing today, now that he’s not standing for parliament? Well, the anti-elitist, public school-educated, former City broker is at the Global Investment Forum, sponsored by a Swiss banking group and global private equity boutique.

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In Liverpool, the Rotunda gym is being used as a polling station. So this is what they mean by a ballot box ...

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And here is another one …

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Here is another contender for best polling station:

The Tory donor Lord Ashcroft has published a forecast of likely results based on different turnouts. The predictions are based on polling on Tuesday and Wednesday. Using voters’ self reported likelihood to vote, he forecasts a Conservative overall majority of 96. That falls to 78 if the turnout is the same as for the 2015 general election and 52 if the number of people who vote is the same as in last year’s EU referendum (ie if turnout is high).

Updated

Taking a dog to a polling station has become a bit passé … so the food blogger and poverty campaigner Jack Monroe took her guinea pig, Sergeant Pepper.

Monroe had planned to contest the Southend West seat for the National Health Action party in today’s vote but pulled out after suffering ill health and receiving death threats.

Updated

EU citizens who are unable to vote have expressed how hard it is to watch the election from the sidelines.

Jana Jaugsch, 26, from Cardiff has lived in the UK for four years with her British partner and son and is worried about the impact the result will have.

“It’s not just Brexit but as a young family we are extremely concerned with the public services and the state of the country we live in,” she said. “My partner is a nurse and like most NHS workers she is finding the handling of the crisis disconcerting.”

As a German citizen she has to wait until September to be eligible to apply for British citizenship.

“We went to the polling station this morning so my partner could cast her vote while I explained to the volunteers why I wouldn’t be allowed to cast one myself. I feel very much at the mercy of a public that only last year voted to abandon the European project that is at the very heart of my being, living and working here.

“Today is an important day for the country and for our family. We now just have to wait and see, which is the hardest part.”

The professional dental care worker Ciro has lived in the UK for nearly 20 years with his partner and son. Unable to apply for British citizenship before the election, he is eagerly awaiting the result to decide what to do next.

“My family and I are really worried about what the result will be tonight,” said the 49-year-old, who lives in Weston-super-Mare. “Hopefully EU citizens will be granted indefinite leave to remain, but if not I will reconsider applying for citizenship.”

Updated

Nicola Sturgeon leaves after casting her vote with her husband, Peter Murrell, at Broomhouse community hall in Glasgow.
Nicola Sturgeon leaves after casting her vote with her husband, Peter Murrell, at Broomhouse community hall in Glasgow. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

There is an inevitability to the Scottish National party losing seats today. Its landslide in 2015 as it surfed the goodwill and exposure it gained in the 2014 independence referendum, winning 56 of Scotland’s 59 Westminster seats on 50% of the vote, was unprecedented.

After 10 years in power, and in Scotland’s crowded political marketplace where five parties compete (including the Scottish Greens), and where Brexit and a second independence referendum overshadow all else, gravity dictates its numbers will shrink. The question is by how many and to which parties.

The opinion polls imply it will lose between eight and 12 seats, but if the Tory surge reaches 30% or above, as some polls suggest, the SNP could lose 15 or more. At the very least, its often huge majorities will be slashed. So which are the seats to watch?

Scottish Conservative targets

Support for Brexit, opposition to independence and the popularity of the party’s combative leader, Ruth Davidson, lead many to expect the Tories will have a good night. They are expected to take all three seats in southern Scotland, winning the SNP seats of Dumfries and Galloway and Berwickshire, Roxburghshire and Selkirk, and holding Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale.

They are targeting the suburban seats of East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh South West and Aberdeen South, all held by the Tories in the pre-Tony Blair era, and are refusing to allow Labour a clear run in East Lothian. They are tipped to win West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine too.

The real test is if the Conservatives can win the north-east Scotland seats of Moray, held by the SNP’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson, and the neighbouring Banff and Buchan, once held by Alex Salmond. The Tories also want Perth and North Perthshire, a former Tory stronghold being defended by the SNP’s Pete Wishart. All three seats are among the six Commons seats longest held by the SNP.

Scottish Liberal Democrat targets

The Scottish Lib Dems are very confident their pro-EU message will help win back Edinburgh West, after a controversy over the previous SNP MP, Michelle Thomson, and are also very bullish that the former UK equalities minister Jo Swinson will regain East Dunbartonshire. Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, the UK’s most northerly mainland seat, is seen as a very real prospect. The party also believes North East Fife, held until his retirement in 2015 by Sir Menzies Campbell, briefly UK party leader, is a possibility.

Scottish Labour targets

Although the latest opinion polls put Labour at about 25%, double its lowest-ever recorded figure of 13% in April, the expectations are it may only win one or two, and hold its sole current seat of Edinburgh South. Labour is optimistic in East Lothian, since it won back the local council on 4 May and took the equivalent Holyrood constituency seat in 2016. But the Tories are fighting hard, splitting the anti-independence vote. There is talk of an upset in Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill, perhaps Edinburgh North and Leith, and also Gordon Brown’s old seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Updated

A civil servant working in Germany, who asked not to be named, complains that he was denied the chance to vote in a marginal Birmingham seat, because of bureaucratic difficulties in securing a postal vote.

In an email, he writes:

I have been registered to vote abroad for the last election and the EU referendum as I live in Germany. Registration lapses annually so on 18 May I put through my registration and received confirmation that I had applied and that they would be in touch if further information was needed.

I returned to Germany from a holiday on Sunday and noticed I had not received a postal vote ballot.

I called the Birmingham elections office and was told that although I had registered to vote, I had not completed the absent vote form and so could not vote.

I was told they had sent this form on 18 May but their system could not tell me if it was post or email. I received neither a letter nor an email, nor was there any guidance suggesting that I could expect to fill in further correspondence.

They told me there was nothing more they could do other than offer me an emergency proxy (which I could not take) and an email address to send a complaint to.

As a result I cannot now vote. And my constituency of Birmingham Erdington is considered marginal for the first time in a generation.

I know of three other people in Munich who have similar problems and so are unable to vote in this election. There are also reports in German media today of people receiving their postal ballot two days ago after signing up in April.

There is clearly something wrong here and I would wager the demographics of overseas voters based in Germany harms the left wing more than the right.

Updated

Students queue to vote

Queues of students waiting to vote have been reported in Oxford.

A student, Sally Le Page, posted this from Oxford East.

There are two seats in Oxford. Oxford West and Abingdon was held by the Conservatives in 2015 with a majority of more than 9,000. Oxford East was held by Labour with a majority of more than 15,000.

At the University of Warwick, in the Labour marginal of Coventry South, the student Nida Ahmad said she had queued for more than 10 minutes to vote.

Long lines of students queuing to vote have also been photographed at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich South, and at the University of Kent in Canterbury (see earlier).

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Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson casting her vote along with partner Jennifer Wilson and their dog Wilson at Café Comino polling station, near the St James’ Centre in Edinburgh
Ruth Davidson, Jen Wilson, and Wilson the dog on the way to vote. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The Scottish Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson, was accompanied by her partner Jen Wilson and dog Wilson to vote at the Cafe Camino venue in central Edinburgh, PA reports.

The polls suggest Scotland could see a Tory resurgence on the back of Davidson’s consistent message of opposition to a second independence referendum.

The party is aiming to make gains in areas including the Borders and north-east Scotland – with the SNP’s deputy leader, Angus Robertson, in Moray among the big hitters it hopes to topple.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, voted in Kelty in Fife, and the Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie cast his ballot in Glasgow.

The Lib Dems are targeting several key seats including Edinburgh West and East Dunbartonshire, and Harvie will be hoping to become the next MP for Glasgow North.

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The Alliance candidate for Belfast West, Sorcha Eastwood, cast her vote still wearing her wedding dress. She was pictured with her new husband, Dale Shirlow, at a polling station in Lisburn after they were married earlier in the day.

Sorcha Eastwood casts her vote with her new husband, Dale Shirlow
Sorcha Eastwood casts her vote with her new husband, Dale Shirlow Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

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Some of the biggest polling station queues have been reported at universities.

This may be a good sign for Labour as it is hoping its plan to scrap tuition fees will boost the youth vote. The polls showing the smallest leads for the Conservatives are based on the assumption that many more young people will turn out to vote in this election than in 2015.

There have been long queues of students voting at the University of East Anglia – in Norwich South, a seat won in 2015 by Labour’s Clive Lewis.

Students were also seen queuing at the University of Kent, in the safe Tory seat of Canterbury.

Updated

During the course of the election campaign, the Labour and Conservative leaders have used Twitter strikingly differently.

Jeremy Corbyn’s account posted 703 tweets, while Theresa May’s tweeted 77 times, the lowest of any of the party leaders since the election was called on 18 April.

Corbyn’s tweets have had higher engagement than May’s, with almost twice as many favourites and retweets per tweet. Corbyn’s most favourited tweets were concerned with the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London.

Theresa May’s most popular tweet was about proposed changes to human rights laws following the London Bridge attack. May wrote: “I’m clear: if human rights laws get in the way of tackling extremism and terrorism, we will change those laws to keep British people safe.” The tweet received almost 24,000 favourites.

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There’s been some excitement below the line and on social media about a Wired story from last night talking about a poll that shows Jeremy Corbyn in front as we come to the general election finishing line.

Without wanting to rain on anybody’s parade, it’s worth exercising some caution around the figures.

The company that carried out the survey in the story is not part of the British Polling Council. It is an ad-tech company called Qriously, without a specific history of political polling.

I asked it about the sample size and methodology, and it said the data was collected between 4 and 7 June, and it asked 2,213 UK adults, including 1,905 registered voters and 1,279 likely voters. That gave an outcome of 41.3% Labour to 38.5% for the Tories. It claims to use machine learning to turn that into a representative sample.

So this isn’t a face-to-face or telephone poll as conducted by other companies. Essentially the company buys ad space within mobile phone apps, and shows a survey question instead of a banner ad. That figure putting Corbyn in the lead is in effect based on a self-selecting sample doing an online poll.

The CEO of the company, Christopher Kahler, told the Guardian: “There seem to be some questions around the representativeness – we’re finding that while there is of course a bias in the smartphone population, so many people have smartphones that there is a representative subset within it.”

One thing is for sure: it’s certainly got the company’s name out and about today, so someone there is doing their job right.

Updated

The traditional #UsePens hashtag is back in action on social media. It’s a reference to the conspiracy theory that votes written in pencil can be erased and changed on ballot papers behind the scenes.

Some people are reporting that polling stations have got specific signs up this year addressing the issue.

Reliability is the key point there. Pen ink might run or smudge if the ballot paper is folded - pencils have no such risk.

On the web, though, the paranoid original meaning has been mostly subverted by people providing ever-elaborate schemes for votes to be switched by the establishment, or just by making jokes.

And one Twitter user has even composed an ode, just for the occasion

But you still get one or two tweets where you just can’t be sure if the intention is serious or not.

Updated

Photographers and camera operators managed to get into a fight over filming the Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, at a polling station in Kendal. It’s been a long campaign.

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Here’s the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, setting out to vote with his family.

Here’s a video compilation of the party leaders casting their votes.

Party leaders cast their votes in general election

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The Blackpool Gazette appears to have subverted a half-page advert by the Conservatives by running it alongside a story about families relying on food banks.

Note also the use of the head “No end in sight”.

The paper has a wave of new admirers.

The Guardian sent reporters to six key constituencies to spend time talking in depth to voters.

Here’s a summary of what they found:

Steven Morris in Wells

A number of people said they would decide on the day, even waiting until they entered the voting booth. If the Tories hold on, they will have done it through dogged hard work and will say it shows that people trust the party and the prime minister. If they lose, the Lib Dems will claim the comeback is on. But it’s really not as straightforward as that.

Nazia Parveen in Birmingham Erdington

It’s difficult to predict how the residents will cast their votes. Many of the Erdington people I spoke to felt abandoned by politicians. Others were politically engaged but had not decided who would get their vote. This indecision has been exacerbated by the recent terrorist attacks on home soil; for many of those I interviewed, these have changed their focus from local to national issues.

Amelia Gentleman in Cambridge

At the start of the election campaign, most people expected the Lib Dems to win Cambridge. The local candidate, Julian Huppert, who was MP here from 2010 to 2015 but who lost by 599 votes at the last election, seemed set to capitalise on the city’s overwhelming remain-voting population. Six weeks later, the picture is very different. The Labour candidate, Daniel Zeichner, who beat Huppert in 2015, is inclined to believe that he can hold on to the seat. Labour’s tuition fee promise and Corbyn’s confident campaign have been popular with students (about 4,000–5,000 of whom are believed to be registered to vote). But there is still caution in the Labour campaign team, who point out that there may be uncounted shy Conservative and Lib Dem voters. It looks like it will be incredibly close.

Gary Younge in Harrow West

My first impression reporting from Harrow West was that, with such a small majority (2,208), pretty much anything could swing it, but that the Conservatives locally were unlikely to be central to making that happen. Within three days I’d made contact with all the main parties except the Tories. Though we finally connected by email, I never got to meet anyone in person. Their failure to show up at two hustings and the fact that, a few weeks in, no one in the focus group had heard much from them, made me wonder how seriously they were taking what I had assumed was a target marginal. The two things I saw change while I was there were the countervailing trajectories of the two main parties. Labour’s vote seemed to harden, while the Tory vote seemed to soften.

Josh Halliday in Hartlepool

Six weeks ago it felt like the Tories could triumph in Hartlepool, despite lingering resentment at the Thatcher-era decline in heavy industry. But May’s recent missteps appear to have cut through with voters, many of whom mentioned her social care U-turn and TV debate no-show in a focus group last week. Labour hopes the Tories and Ukip will cannibalise each other’s vote. It would be an uneasy victory for the party that has held this town for half a century, but it might be the best it can hope for.

Lisa O’Carroll in Glasgow East

Glasgow East was once one of the safest Labour seats in the UK. The constituency had voted Labour since the 1930s before switching to the SNP in a 2008 byelection. Labour took the seat back in 2010, only to lose it again in the 2015 general election when the entire city moved from Labour to the SNP. All indications on the streets are that it will stay that way.

Updated

As Scottish voters went to polling stations amid torrential rain or overcast skies, two eve-of-election polls support forecasts that the Scottish National party will lose as many as 12 Westminster seats.

A Survation telephone poll for the Record, which today backed Labour in the election, put the SNP at its lowest since September 2014, down to 39%, while Scottish Labour scored a remarkable 29%, its highest in over two years, while the Tories were on 26%.

A Panelbase poll published for the Scottish edition of the Times suggested Survation’s unusual results were an outlier. It put Labour at 22%, lower than other recent surveys, while the SNP was at 41% and the Conservatives at 30%.

If those numbers are correct, the Tories could triumph in a dozen or more Scottish seats, heavily cutting SNP MPs from their record high of 56 in 2015 down to the low 40s. That could see longstanding SNP MPs lose their seats, including Pete Wishart and Angus Robertson, the party’s deputy leader.

The Lib Dems, at 6% in the Survation poll and 5% in Panelbase, are confident they will win several former Lib Dem seats now held by the SNP, particularly Edinburgh West, East Dunbartonshire and potentially Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

Much hinges on turnout and on which party can muster the most enthusiasm from its supporters in the rain.

Updated

Sam and Zohra
Sam and Zohra Photograph: Sam Llewellyn Smith/GuardianWitness

First-time voters and their friends have been telling us how it feels to have their say in the election.

Sam Llewellyn Smith, 18, found it “excitingly nerve-wracking” voting with his best friend Zohra for the first time in Islington North.

A great opportunity

Absolutely thrilled l to be in a country where I have the opportunity to vote! Go democracy!! I've been encouraging others to vote as well and I am hoping everyone gets out the vote today. Best of luck Britain!

Supporting a friend

My flatmate (on the left) has never voted before... Well done Lee!

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The Lib Dem candidate for Wells has cast her vote on the (soggy) Isle of Wedmore in Somerset.

She sounded as chipper as she has been throughout this campaign. The result in Wells is a test of whether a Lib Dem revival is on.

Munt, who lost Wells to the Tory James Heappey in 2015, said this had been one of the most interesting campaigns she has been involved in.

She said: “It’s one of the most confusing elections that I’ve ever faced. It’s peppered with different levels of concern about international as well as national as well as local issues. It’s extraordinary.”

Munt added: “I sense we’ve got an awful lot of young people who are interested, which is really brilliant. My Facebook is a full-time job. I’ve spent this morning talking to people who have got questions. Some people are confused with who they are voting for. They come back and ask: ‘Why didn’t it say May, Corbyn or Farron on the voting slip?’ It’s great fun. I love it.”

Munt with her partner and daughter before voting in Wedmore
Munt with her partner and daughter before voting in Wedmore Photograph: Sam Frost

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The Guardian’s former Cairo correspondent Jack Shenker has taken a deep dive into the political dynamics of Tilbury, a port town in Thurrock, one of the most important three-way marginals in the country.

In a long-read for the Huffington Post after spending weeks in the area, he finds evidence to challenge current cliches about it being a typical left-behind community of the type that has embraced Brexit.

Shenker writes:

Tilbury’s stories subvert the claims of those who dismiss places like this as backwards and out of step with the 21st century, as well as those who seek to fetishise them and apologise for bigotry. The tales Tilbury has to tell are more complicated and more urgent than that, and they speak directly to the faultlines that are increasingly shaping our world. Anyone who wishes to make sense of the bigger picture could start by thinking about what has happened to this small, precariously positioned dock town, and what it might do next.

He finds reasons for hope, particularly among the area’s younger people.

If an alternate path is possible for Tilbury and other post-industrial communities like it, it will not lead back to an unreconstructed reboot of the Keynesian postwar settlement but rather something more radical, rooted in grassroots empowerment and faith in the collective institutions that have somehow clung on amid the free market’s atomising storms. Tilbury, despite everything, is home to many such institutions: the football club, Fruitful Land, the dance academy that sits opposite the church on Civic Square and the famed Tilbury brass band, which can trace its history back almost a hundred years. No single group can lay claim to these vital spaces, and younger residents of Tilbury – while remaining as fiercely proud of their town as their parents are – appear to be less concerned than older generations with the matter of cultural borders that Ukip and their kindred political forces believe to be so important.

“Not everyone in Tilbury gets on with everyone, obviously,” noted Abigail Collins, a 16-year-old student at the dance academy. “There’s a mixture [of people from different backgrounds] … but as time goes by, everyone is going to become used to it, because more people are born, and that’s what they’re going to live with.”

Olamide Olufemi, a 19-year-old member of Pastor Abraham’s congregation, said that contrary to what those unfamiliar with the place might think, Tilbury has plenty of self-esteem. “I’ve experienced it; people from the outside might see it as an area you wouldn’t want to be in, but I don’t want to put anything down. You have to embrace where you come from. If you don’t put some positivity into your town, then who will?”

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The Green party’s co-leader Jonathan Bartley is not standing for election, but he has cast his vote. He went to a polling station in Streatham with his daughter, who is voting for the first time.

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The Lib Dem leader, Tim Farron, has braved the rain in Cumbria to cast his vote in Kendal.

Farron arrives to vote at Stonecross Manor hotel in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency where he has been MP since 2005.
Farron arrives to vote at Stonecross Manor hotel in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency where he has been MP since 2005. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Updated

Daisy and Bella
Daisy and Bella Photograph: Naomi Westcott/GuardianWitness

Guardian readers have been sending in photos of their dogs at polling stations.

Naomi Westcott, 29, voted at 7am at a “fairly busy” polling station in Melbourn, South Cambridgeshire with Daisy and Bella.

You can can share your polling day stories and photos here.
Golden girl

Isla the Goldendoodle joining us to cast our vote in the early hours


Whatever the weather

Storm braves the hacking rain to encourage people to vote

Windswept

Waiting for me to vote for our Havant mp.

Don’t fret though if you don’t have a dog. There is an alternative:

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Here’s the Ukip leader, Paul Nuttall, leaving a polling station in Congleton.

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The Sun’s front page assault on Jeremy Corbyn and its warning to readers not to chuck Britain in the “Cor-bin” has prompted a “bin the Sun” backlash.

Some have taken to Twitter to urge their followers to buy up copies of the paper and then chuck them out (in paper recycling bins).

Some included the Daily Mail too.

Unlike Corbyn, Theresa May said little to reporters as she cast her vote, remaining fairly tight-lipped as she has throughout the campaign.

She greeted the press only with a “hello”, according to PA.

Meanwhile, the fathers’ rights protester Bobby Smith, from Stevenage, demonstrated outside the polling station accompanied by his mother, Sheila Doyle-Smith, 59, who was dressed as Elmo. Smith stood against David Cameron in 2015.

Theresa May and her husband Philip vote at their local polling station in Sonning, Berkshire
Theresa May and her husband Philip vote at their local polling station in Sonning, Berkshire Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Updated

Corbyn greeted reporters as he arrived at Pakeman primary school in Holloway, north London, to cast his vote, PA reports.

He smiled, waved and spoke to voters, before telling of his pride in Labour’s campaign when he emerged from the polling station.

He told the press gathered outside: “Thank you very much, all of you, for coming here today. It’s a day of our democracy. I’ve just voted. I’m very proud of our campaign. Thank you very much.”

Britain’s Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn gestures after voting in the general election
Corbyn outside the polling station. Photograph: Frank Augstein/AP

Updated

Find out when your constituency’s results are scheduled to come in according to the Press Association schedule:

From Brenda in Bristol to Tim Farron’s spaniel, a new Guardian video relives the weird, wonderful and straight out awkward moments of the 2017 general election.

Glumbuckets, mugwumps and Greg Knight: the best (and worst) moments of the election

Jeremy Corbyn votes

Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his vote at the Pakeman Primary School polling station in Islington
Corbyn outside the polling station at Pakeman primary school. Photograph: James Gourley/Rex/Shutterstock

Jeremy Corbyn has cast his vote at a school in Holloway, north London.

Unlike the prime minister, Corbyn came without a polling card, spouse or leopard-print shoes.

Updated

Parents have been in touch to tell us it’s never too early to teach children about democracy.

Flying the flag

After a good talk about the importance of democracy I was really proud to take my son Jacob to the Polling Station morning.

Now he's playing in our lovely local park.

With great (democratic) power comes great responsibility

It's the parents duty to teach their kids that how to love this Country, its traditions and how to fulfil all the responsibilities being a citizen. Outside The Mill, Coppermill Lane polling station before casting the vote and dropping my daughter at nearby school

Mummy’s little helper

(Very) young people enjoying Mummy's democratic right

Starting early

Ruth Weir, 36, took her children to vote in West Bergholt, Colchester, saying it’s “good to get my children interested in politics from a young age!”

At the polling station in West Bergholt
At the polling station in West Bergholt Photograph: Ruth Weir/GuardianWitness

Updated

There’s been a lot of commentary over the course of this election on the role of Facebook advertising in the campaign. Facebook also has this feature for polling day, prompting users to compare the major party positions across a range of issues.

This unit is appearing in Facebook news feed
This unit is appearing in Facebook news feed Photograph: Facebook

If a Facebook user clicks on the link, they get a pop-up allowing them to read and share short party statements. The unit states that the order the parties and issues are displayed in is randomised.

Facebook’s party comparison widget
Facebook’s party comparison widget Photograph: Facebook

It is the parties themselves who have written the text, not Facebook, and you can find all of their answers on their own Facebook pages, under a tab labelled ‘Issues’

The ‘Issues’ tab on Labour’s Facebook page
The ‘Issues’ tab on Labour’s Facebook page Photograph: Facebook

Plaid Cymru and the SNP don’t appear in these screenshots, which were taken in England, but both parties have the ‘Issues’ tab on their Facebook pages, suggesting they appear if Facebook thinks you are in a constituency in Wales or Scotland.

The social media giant is also encouraging users to share the fact that they have voted today with their friends.

Updated

Are they lucky leopard print shoes she’s wearing?

Updated

PM votes

Theresa and Phillip May have voted at a polling station in Sonning, Berkshire.

The prime minister turned up clutching a polling card (you don’t need one to vote).

Theresa May arrives with her husband Philip to cast her vote.
Theresa May arrives with her husband Philip to cast her vote.
Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Armed police, the fathers’ rights activist Bobby Smith, and a person in a furry suit were there to greet her.

Bobby Smith and a person wearing a costume of the Muppet character Elmo outside the polling station.
Bobby Smith and a person wearing a costume of the Muppet character Elmo outside the polling station. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP

Updated

More party leaders have been posing at polling stations.

Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist party, has cast her vote at Brookeborough primary school in County Fermanagh.

Arlene Foster at Brookeborough Primary School, County Fermanagh, to cast her vote
Foster outside the polling station. Photograph: Brian Lawless/PA

And in Edinburgh, the Scottish Labour leader, Kezia Dugdale, waved for the cameras at a polling station at Wilson memorial church.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale with local councillor Joan Griffiths (right) outside the polling station at Wilson Memorial Church in Edinburgh
Dugdale, left, and the local councillor Joan Griffiths outside the polling station. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

Updated

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has cast her vote in Glasgow. Bizarrely, the Spanish newspaper El País has been quick to tweet footage of the moment.

Updated

Guardian readers have sent a flurry of their photos from polling stations this morning:

Queuing early

Second in the Town Hall at 7am in E15, with a steady stream of pre-work voters after me. Good weather hopefully equals a good turnout, especially for young people.

More dogs at polling stations

Queuing in Roath
Queuing in Roath Photograph: Anonymous/GuardianWitness

An NHS doctor, who would like to remain anonymous, said there were eight people queuing at a polling station in Roath, Cardiff, this morning.

“I was eager to get in early ahead of a long (normal) day of working in the operating theatre and attending to outpatients this evening,” she said.

“I cast two proxy votes for young people and I’m glad they bothered to sort it out.”

Engaging with the ‘youth’ vote

My polling station in Bristol East appears to be trying a new approach to engage with the youth vote

Updated

Early bird voters in Northern Ireland face heavy showers, possibly hail and thunder as they head to polling stations this morning.

The bad weather is expected to moderate later today with drier conditions. More than 1 million voters are eligible to cast their ballot in the region. There are 109 candidates standing for 18 Westminster seats.

There are 619 polling stations with a total of 1,380 ballot boxes, which will be transported to seven count centres across Northern Ireland. Few of the current seats are expected to change hands with the exception perhaps of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, where Sinn Féin’s Michelle Gildernew is expected to mount a serious challenge to the sitting Ulster Unionist MP, Tom Elliott.

Regardless of the outcome of the general election, political fallout talks will resume on Monday in Belfast between the main parties aimed at restoring power-sharing devolved government.

A voter arrives at the polling station in St Nicolas Parish Hall, Belfast
A voter arrives in the rain at the polling station in St Nicolas Parish Hall, Belfast Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA

Updated

We would like you to show us polling day where you are – share your pictures and stories and we will add the best to the live blog.

Please don’t take photos or videos inside the polling booth as this could be a breach of the law. However before you go in, or after you come out, is great. Though you may want to tell us who you’re voting for, we won’t be able to publish these till after polling closes at 10pm. If there are any issues at polling stations, we would like to hear about these too.

Updated

If you could vote for a favourite polling station, the White Horse Inn pub in Priors Dean, Hampshire, would take some beating.

A general view of a polling station at the White Horse Inn in Priors Dean, Hampshire, also known as the ‘Pub with no name’
The polling station at the White Horse Inn, also known as the pub with no name. Photograph: Andrew Matthews/PA

Updated

Forgive me father for I have voted ...

Nuns from Tyburn Convent leave a polling station at St John’s Parish Hall, central London
Nuns from Tyburn Convent leave a polling station at St John’s Parish Hall, central London Photograph: Isabel Infantes/PA

Polling day queues

The first voters queue at the polling station in Sacred Heart church in Wimbledon
The first voters queue at the polling station in Sacred Heart church in Wimbledon. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock

There have already been reports of queuing at polling stations, particularly in London.

But not just London; this was a polling station in Kidderminster.

Updated

Kevan Jones, who is hoping to regain his seat in Durham, is the first candidate to post a picture of a dog going to the polls. He won’t be the last.

Updated

The Green party gets the self-deprecating humour award for the campaign after someone placed a grand on the party to win the most seats.

Updated

The general election in the UK has been granted the honour of its own Google doodle.

Google doodle
Google doodle Photograph: Google

Labour has been winning, at least in terms of internet searches, according to Google Trends. It says 51% of searches have related to the Labour party, compared to just 21% for the Tories.

And in the last week Jeremy Corbyn has been the most searched leader, except in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack on 4 June, when he was briefly overtaken by searches for Theresa May.

Updated

Matthew Weaver is now picking up the live blog to spot politicians heading determinedly through the drizzle to polling stations.

I’ll be back with Andrew Sparrow for the live results blog later.

And if you’d like the Snap briefing emailed to you first thing Friday – a confusing concept for the all-nighters, but it’ll be before 7am – do sign up here.

Polls open

It’s 7am: polling stations have opened and voting is ON.

A reminder if you’re joining us in the comments below: please don’t tell us how you voted.

Election law (specifically section 66A of the Representation of the People Act 1983) makes it an offence to publish before the polls close at 10pm:

any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election where that statement is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information given by voters after they have voted.

So I’m afraid moderators will have to delete any posts that could count as the Guardian publishing that information.

Other comments are, of course, welcome. Or find me on Twitter: @Claire_Phipps.

The Snap: your election briefing

It’s been the least snappy of snap elections but we’re here: polling day. I’m Claire Phipps with the catchup you need to brave the morning. This live blog will steer you through the coming hours of insistently cheerful politicians exiting polling stations; Andrew Sparrow and I will be on board through the night as possibly less cheerful politicians insist everything is going precisely as they expected.

What’s happening?

The polls open at 7am – organised postal voters aside – with bolstered security in the wake of attacks on Manchester and London. In the capital, Scotland Yard says: “Every borough will have a specific, dedicated policing operation.”

There will also very likely be rain. Conventional punditry would tell you that means lower turnout and bad news for Labour because young people are more prone to dissolving. But a Guardian fact-check for the 2012 local elections found that to be a myth (the rain = low turnout line; further studies are needed on young people’s solubility).

It will also be quieter. Politicians have made their final pitches. Newspapers have flung out their final panic-poster front pages. Broadcasting rules means TV and radio will be almost politics-free. (You can still get your fill on this live blog.)

Britain’s Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party Theresa May attends an election campaign rally in Solihull, June 8, 2017. REUTERS/Ben Stansall/Pool
Theresa May: so long, Solihull. Photograph: Reuters

Theresa May – who made more than half of her campaign stops in Labour-held seats, Guardian analysis shows, although not necessarily meeting many non-Tories while there – decided at the start of this seven-week audition that this was to be the Brexit election and on the eve of the election, she was sticking to that. “Fiercely patriotic” former Labour or Ukip voters should, she said, swing Conservative to “fulfil the promise of Brexit together”.

Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, decided at the start that this was not to be the Brexit election and on the eve of the election, he was sticking to that. With Britain’s departure from the EU all over bar the two years of protracted squabbling, Labour wants voters’ focus to be on public services. At a final rally in Islington’s Union Chapel, Corbyn hailed victory – which might be a move to No 10 or something else:

Hope that it does not have to be like this. That inequities can be tackled. That austerity can be ended. That you can stand up to the elites and the cynics … This is the new mainstream, and we have staked it out and made it our own, together.

07/06/2017 Jeremy Corbyn Leader of the Labour Party .Speaking to supporters at a rally at the Union Chapel Islington London. Photo SEAN SMITH
Seeing red: Jeremy Corbyn’s rally at the Union Chapel. Photograph: Sean Smith for the Guardian

It wasn’t all hope and change, though, with shadow chancellor John McDonnell accusing the Tories, in an interview with the Guardian, of running a campaign that was the “exact reflection” of Zac Goldsmith’s London mayoral bid, widely denounced as damaging and divisive:

It is lie after lie and lie, and by the time you’ve corrected it, it’s gone round the world.

And what of the Lib Dems, with their pro-remain campaign remaining firmly in the 10%-or-below polling numbers? Think tactically, urged Tim Farron:

If you support Labour in a seat where only the Liberal Democrats can beat the Conservatives, I need you to lend us your vote.

The Lib Dems have their eye on St Albans and Vauxhall, as well as gains in Scotland where – with just one seat won in 2015, as with Labour and the Conservatives – the only way is up (as long as you don’t consider the other way).

Conversely, for the SNP, which took 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats two years ago, things can only get lesser. Despite topping every opinion poll, the party could find itself a winner with a dozen fewer seats, with even Westminster leader Angus Robertson’s Moray thought to be teetering.

At a glance:

And to plan your night ahead:

Poll position

Deep breath.

An inundation of last-minute opinion polls agree on one thing: a Tory lead on vote share. At the squeaky end of the range is Survation, pegging the Conservatives on 41.3% and Labour on 40.4%. A good hollering distance away are ICM, which predicts a 12-point Tory lead (46% to 34%), and BMG, which makes it 13 (46% v 33%).

The inbetweeners are Kantar TNS (five points), YouGov and Opinium (both seven), Panelbase (eight) and ComRes (10). All Tory leads, in case you were wondering. And all have the Lib Dems doodling on between 7% and 10%.

On Scottish Westminster voting intention, BMG for the Herald pins it at the SNP on 42%, Conservatives on 27% and Labour on 21%. Survation mixes it up a bit with the SNP on 39%, Labour leapfrogging to 29% and the Tories on 26%.

General Election 2017First Minister and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon during an event at the Malmaison Hotel in Edinburgh while on the last day of campaigning for the General Election. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday June 7, 2017. See PA story ELECTION Main. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
Snap election: Nicola Sturgeon in Edinburgh. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

We might get an Ipsos Mori poll today. Other than that, we wait for the exit poll, coordinated for the BBC, ITV and Sky News by Professor John Curtice, at the bong of 10pm. (For the nitty-gritty of how that poll is put together, check here.)

And then we’re off …

Diary

  • 7am: polls open.
  • VOTE!
  • 10pm: polls close.

Read these

On Buzzfeed, Jim Waterson and Emily Dugan report that the Conservatives are making use of a loophole that means anti-Corbyn ads targeted at constituencies can be funded by national spending (budget: up to £19m) rather than local limits (as low as £12,000):

‘If it’s promoting the national party and national policies, then regardless of whether it mentions the constituency name or not, it’s national spend,’ an Electoral Commission spokesperson told BuzzFeed News, adding that the situation is different if it talks ‘about a candidate’s views and a candidate’s policies’.

The end result is that Conservative paid-for Facebook ads that only appear to voters in a single targeted constituency and look remarkably like localised adverts can be legally counted as national spending. In one example from Westminster North, obtained by BuzzFeed News, the advert repeatedly mentions ‘your constituency’, features the words ‘Westminster North’ in the graphic, and emphasises that local voters in the constituency could determine who gets into Downing Street.

Annabelle Dickson and Tom McTague, at Politico, say the Labour leader might have a secret weapon of his own:

‘If we are to believe what the polls are telling us, the group that has swung to Labour the most is actually the group most likely to be Tory – wealthy older voters in the southeast and southwest,’ said pollster Andrew Cooper…

This demographic is likely to have children or grandchildren who are hoping to go to university, making Labour’s promise to scrap tuition fees particularly attractive. They are also likely to have parents in or approaching retirement, who face the prospect of losing a big chunk of their inheritance under Theresa May’s ‘dementia tax’ plan to pay for social care from the proceeds of people’s homes when they die.

Revelation of the day

With Sunderland’s traditional helter-skelter to declare three (usually) safe Labour seats, and with three women – Bridget Phillipson, Julie Elliott and Sharon Hodgson – as the party’s candidates there, there is likely to be a moment tonight when the House of Commons is 100% female.

The day in a tweet

And another thing

Would you like to wake up on Friday morning with an election catchup in your inbox? Then sign up here. And once the election is (finally) over, why not sign up for the Guardian morning briefing; you can read the latest edition here.

And one last thing

Unlike many news organisations, the Guardian hasn’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. Here’s how you can support it.

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