LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain’s parliamentary election (all times local):
2:35 a.m.
Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage says the anti-EU party has a big role to play in politics if the Conservatives fail to get a strong majority ahead of Brexit talks.
Farage was instrumental in getting Britain to hold a referendum on European Union membership. He stepped down as UKIP leader after last year’s victory for the “leave” side.
UKIP’s vote has collapsed in the election, with former supporters going to both Labour and the Conservatives. The party looks unlikely to win any seats in the House of Commons.
Farage told ITV he fears the Labour Party could form a coalition government and hold a second referendum on EU membership. He says in that case “the role of UKIP maybe just beginning.”
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1:25 a.m.
More than three hours after polls closed in Britain’s election, the first seat has changed hands, with Labour winning a constituency from the Scottish National Party.
Labour, the main opposition party, took Rutherglen and Hamilton West from the pro-independence SNP.
Of the other 20-plus seats that have declared, all stayed with the parties that held them before the election.
An exit poll suggests Labour is on course for a stronger-than-expected result, and Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives could lose their majority in Parliament.
That result would be a shock, overturning a big Conservative lead at the start of the campaign.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said that “whatever the final result, we have already changed the face of British politics.”
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11:40 p.m.
The northern English city of Newcastle has claimed victory in the race to be the first to declare a result in Britain’s general election.
An electoral officer announced that Labour had won the seat of Newcastle Central just before 11 p.m. (2200GMT) Thursday, less than an hour after polls closed. That was six minutes ahead of the rival northern England seat of Houghton and Sunderland South, which declared first in 2015. That seat also went to Labour.
The two cities take the contest to declare first seriously, practicing rapid ballot-counting and rushing ballot boxes from polling stations to the count center.
Sunderland uses schoolchildren to run with the boxes, while Newcastle relies on sports students.
Ballots are being counted in an early election called by Prime Minister Theresa May, with an exit poll projecting she may lose her majority in Parliament.
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11:10 p.m.
One of Britain’s leading political figures says the exit poll projections following Britain’s election, if accurate, would make it very difficult for a new government to be formed.
Former Treasury chief George Osborne, who now edits the Evening Standard newspaper, told ITV the exit poll would be “completely catastrophic” for the Conservative Party and Prime Minister Theresa May if it turns out to be accurate.
May called a snap election in hope of increasing the Conservatives’ majority in Parliament and strengthening Britain’s hand in EU exit talks.
Osborne said Thursday it would be hard for any party to put together a governing coalition if the poll is accurate.
“It’s difficult to see if these numbers were right how they would put together the coalition to remain in office, but equally it’s quite difficult to see how Labour would put together a coalition,” he said.
Osborne, a prominent Conservative stalwart, did not seek re-election to Parliament, choosing instead to focus on journalism.
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10:40 p.m.
Britain’s election exit poll says the Scottish National Party could lose almost half its seats in Parliament.
It forecasts the SNP will get 34 of Scotland’s 59 seats, down from the 56 the pro-independence party won in the 2015 election. The pollsters caution that there is a lot of uncertainty around the forecast.
The result comes as the Conservatives, once all-but-extinct in Scotland, make a comeback there.
A big loss could complicate the SNP’s plans to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence as Britain prepares to leave the European Union.
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10:35 p.m.
The former communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron says the exit poll result will rock the Conservative Party.
Craig Oliver told Sky News Thursday night that if the poll is accurate “there will be deep and lasting shock” in party headquarters as Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call an early election seems to have backfired.
“It was the biggest gamble a politician has taken for a long time and if that exit poll is right, it’s failed,” he said.
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10:30 p.m.
Senior Labour Party adviser Emily Thornberry says that if the election exit poll is correct then Prime Minister Theresa May should consider resigning.
“If it’s true, these are great results,” she said. “If this is right, I think she should consider her position. I think she should go. She has manifestly failed.”
Thornberry said May was guilty of showing “great hubris” when she called the snap election.
“She was 20 points ahead and thought she could do whatever she wanted with the country and we said, ‘no’ and we meant it.”
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10:20 p.m.
Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire says it is “too early to tell” if the exit poll showing the Conservative Party may not get a majority in Parliament will be accurate.
“We have to wait for some hard data,” he said Thursday night, suggesting there seemed to be strong Conservative support in key marginal areas.
He defended Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to call an early election and predicted “a long night” before results are clear.
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10:15 p.m.
The pound has fallen sharply after exit polls for Britain’s election forecast that the Conservatives would not get a majority of the seats in the House of Commons.
The pound lost more than 2 cents against the dollar within seconds of the exit poll result, falling from $1.2955 to $1.2752 late Thursday.
Some investors worry that the lack of a majority for the Conservatives, which are widely expected to top the poll, would weaken the next government’s hand in the upcoming negotiations to leave the European Union.
A big majority would provide political certainty for the next five years, giving Prime Minister Theresa May a freer hand in the Brexit negotiations to make the compromises necessary for a deal. She would, the reasoning goes, be able resist calls from some in her party who are prepared to see Britain leave without any sort of trade deal that would provide business easy and cheap access to the EU single market.
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10 p.m.
An exit poll projects that Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party will win the biggest share of seats in Britain’s election but could fall short of a majority in Parliament.
The survey predicts the Conservatives will get 314 seats and the Labour Party 266.
It projects 34 for the Scottish National Party and 14 for the Liberal Democrats.
Based on interviews with voters leaving polling stations across the country, the poll is conducted for a consortium of U.K. broadcasters and regarded as a reliable, though not exact, indicator of the likely result.
If confirmed the result will be a disaster for May, who called a snap election in the hope of increasing her majority.
Polling stations across Britain closed at 10 p.m. (2100GMT) and ballots are being counted, with results due early Friday.
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8:40 p.m.
Amid intermittent rain across the country, Britons have been voting in an election in which security has dominated the final days of the campaign.
Experts say Thursday’s blustery weather will likely not keep participation down. A high voter turnout was seen as the best hope of the Labour Party to erode the Conservative majority.
The London Bridge attack and the Manchester concert bombing brought security to the forefront. One woman who voted near the site of Saturday’s attack in London said the Brexit vote is not what’s in “the hearts and minds of Londoners.”
But the terror threat was far from the only issue. One voter, 68-year-old Mike Peacroft, said that at his age, he’s interested in pensions and health care.
Voters are choosing all 650 members of the House of Commons after Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election, three years ahead of schedule, at a time when her party was well ahead in the polls.
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3:45 p.m.
Police have briefly closed off an area of London near Charing Cross station after a suspicious package was found.
The Metropolitan Police said Thursday the incident was not related to terrorism. The package turned out not to be a threat.
There have been increased security patrols throughout London since the attack on London Bridge Saturday night, and security has been stepped up in the run-up to the election.
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2 p.m.
So what is Elmo doing at Prime Minister Theresa May’s polling station?
The country’s leader was photobombed by a person dressed as the Sesame Street character as she cast her ballot with her husband Philip on the outskirts of Maidenhead, her constituency.
The Elmo costume was worn by the mother of Bobby Smith, a fathers’ rights protester, who has used the character to highlight his custody dispute.
Smith, 34, a truck driver, adopted the character as the figurehead of his campaign because by combining the first two letters of his two daughters’ first names he could spell Elmo.
His case was featured on the website of the campaigning group, Fathers4Justice.
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10:15 a.m.
Many voters are thinking about security as they cast ballots in Britain’s general election just days after three extremists killed eight people at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market.
Polls opened nationwide at 7 a.m. to select lawmakers for the House of Commons. The vote was supposed to be dominated by Britain’s pending departure from the European Union, but voters are anxiously aware of the threat the country faces from international terrorism following attacks in London and Manchester.
Voter Rachel Sheard, who cast her ballot at a polling station in Borough High Street, says that while the EU was supposed to be at center stage, “I don’t think that’s in the hearts and minds of Londoners at the minute, (not) nearly as much as the security is.”
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7 a.m.
Polling stations have opened across Britain in an election to choose a new government.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (0600GMT to 2100GMT) Thursday as voters choose 650 lawmakers for the House of Commons.
Prime Minister Theresa May called the snap election in hopes of increasing the Conservative Party’s slim majority in Parliament, and strengthening her hand in European Union exit talks.
The campaign did not go to plan. May was criticized for lackluster campaigning and two deadly attacks turned the election into a debate about national security.
May says the Conservatives will build a “stronger, fairer and more prosperous Britain,” while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says he would govern “for the many, not the few.”
Polls suggest Labour has narrowed the Conservatives’ lead.
