Sunak's Party Set for Historic Loss in UK Elections

This year, the Fourth of July is Election Day in the UK—and it's expected to be Rishi Sunak's last day as prime minister, with polls suggesting his Conservative Party faces a loss of historic proportions. The party held 349 of the 650 seats in Parliament when Sunak called the election in May, but it's expected to lose hundreds of them today—possibly including Sunak's own seat in North Yorkshire.

• Sunak loss would be a first: The loss would make Sunak the first sitting British leader to lose his own constituency. Sources tell the Guardian that Sunak told associates on Tuesday that he thought the vote in Richmond and Northallerton, which he won with 63% of the vote in 2019, would be too close to call. Sources say Sunak has spoken about returning to work in financial services and might also spend more time in California, where he has a home.

• Pollsters predict huge losses for Conservatives: In its "last call" poll carried out earlier this week, polling agency Survation predicted that the Labour Party, led by Sir Keir Starmer, would win 475 seats, even more than the party did in its landslide victory under Tony Blair in 1997, the Telegraph reports. The pollsters predicted that the Conservative Party would win just 64 seats, only slightly ahead of the Liberal Democrats, who took just 11 seats in 2019. The far-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage, could win 13 seats, according to Survation.
• Photo ID: For the first time in a British general election, voters will be required to show photo ID, the AP reports. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who introduced the requirement in a 2022 law, was turned away from a polling place in local elections in May after he forgot his ID.

• Count Binface: The Washington Post looks at some of the quirkier elements of the election—including Count Binface, an "intergalactic space lord" standing as a joke candidate in Sunak's constituency. Binface, who will be on stage in his trash can helmet alongside Sunak when vote totals are read out, has a manifesto that talks about closing down stores that play Christmas music before December, as well as for the hand dryer in the men's urinals at the Crown & Treaty in Uxbridge to be moved to "a more sensible position."

(More British elections stories.)