THE UNITED Kingdom goes to the polls today in the most closely-fought election in decades, with campaigning by the major party leaders continuing right up to the end – but the final result is still in doubt.
More than 40 million people have the opportunity to vote in polling stations, which opened at 7am and will close at 10pm – though exit polls due shortly after 10pm will give a guide to the shape of the next British government.
Highlighting the extraordinary volatility of this campaign, nearly four in 10 voters polled have said they have not finally made up their minds; or that they could change the selections they have made as they fill in the ballot paper.
The role that could be played afterwards by Northern Irish parties was highlighted by a letter from prime minister and Labour leader Gordon Brown to the Democratic Unionist Party in which Mr Brown is understood to have guaranteed the North’s block grant from the treasury.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, Owen Paterson, moved to downplay a remark by his shadow cabinet colleague, Ken Clarke, who said: “In the end you can always do a deal with an Ulsterman, but it’s not the way to run a modern sophisticated society.”
In his final campaign words,Gordon Brown told party supporters to ignore calls from some of his own cabinet team to support Liberal Democrat candidates in places where Labour cannot win.
Despite conflicting polling figures, which put either the Conservatives or Labour with the most seats, neither Mr Brown, nor Mr Cameron are expected to get more than 326 seats – the number needed for a majority in the House of Commons.
“People will judge us also on the number of votes we have as well as the number of seats,” said Mr Brown, who is acutely aware Labour must finish ahead of the Liberal Democrats in the popular vote share.
A poll published today by the London Times/Populus reports that the Conservatives are on 37 per cent; Labour on 28 per cent and the Liberal Democrats on 27 per cent, but a TNS/BRMB poll has the Conservatives on 33 per cent, the Liberals second on 29 per cent and Labour on 27 per cent.
Both results would leave the UK facing a hung parliament and, perhaps, require days of negotiation to form a coalition before the new House of Commons meets for the first time on May 18th.
The challenge facing the next government was underlined by the European Commission’s spring economic forecast, which warned that the UK’s deficit next year could be the worst in the EU.
Calling for sharp spending cuts and tax rises, EU commissioner Olli Rehn said a “convincing, ambitious programme of fiscal consolidation” is “the first and foremost challenge of the new government”.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urged voters to reject Labour and Conservative calls to ignore his candidates if they want a stable government. Neither party will concede electoral reform, until they are forced to do so by the electorate.
“I would love to think that the excitement of the campaign would force the two old parties to realise the game is up. But every time in the past when there has been a demand to do something different, they’ve closed ranks and stopped any move to do anything different. They have got no interest in change,” Mr Clegg said, as he returned to Sheffield for a final rally.
Meanwhile, Mr Brown said the three TV leaders debates, which greatly benefited the Liberal Democrat leader and spurred public interest in the campaign, had prevented detailed debates about policy.
“The novelty of television debates clouded the need for policy to be debated. I feel we have not yet discussed sufficiently the risks to the economy in the future and the need for jobs to be secure,” he said.
Mr Cameron adopted a different tone, attacking Mr Brown, but praising voters: “I think one of Brown’s problems is he does treat them like fools. He sort of thinks: ‘Well, they won’t notice the 10p tax or they won’t see a national insurance increase – they’ll think it’s something to do with pensions.’ They see through that stuff,” Mr Cameron said.