What to expect on polling day on Thursday

Here is your guide to what to expect as the General Election campaign comes to a close and voters hit the booths on Thursday.

Ballots will begin to be cast as voters choose a new government, with opinion polls predicting a Labour landslide and a Tory washout.

Parties will be rallying to their respective causes as they attempt to get people out to the polls.

Millions of people across the UK will cast their vote between 7am and 10pm on Thursday, with opinion polls suggesting Labour is on course to secure a large majority in the House of Commons and form a new government with Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister.

An exit poll, published shortly after 10pm on Thursday, will provide the first indication of how the election has gone on a national level.

These take place at polling stations across the country, with tens of thousands of people asked to privately fill in a replica ballot as they leave, to get an indication of how they voted.

The first of the 650 seats are likely to declare their results from 11.30pm, and counting will continue into the early hours of the morning.

Thousands of electoral staff, candidates, party staff and journalists will be up all night as the results roll in.

For the past six weeks, party leaders have travelled to every corner of the UK to try and convince voters they deserve that all important ‘X’ by their candidate’s name, and come Friday morning they will find out if they have done enough.