Britain’s political party leaders hit the road Thursday in a push for votes, starting their six-week campaign ahead of the July 4 election.
Voters will decide whether, after 14 years, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party will stay in power or lose to the opposition Labour Party.
The Labour Party says Britain needs change.
“We will stop the chaos,” said Labour leader Keir Starmer, front-runner for prime minister. “If [Conservatives] get another five years, they will feel entitled to carry on exactly as they are. Nothing will change.”
Sunak set the election date on Wednesday in a TV announcement. Many people, including other Conservative lawmakers, expected Sunak to announce a fall election.
The prime minister said he was ready to take bold action.
“Uncertain times demand bold action in order to deliver security,” Sunak told the BBC. “That’s what I will bring.”
Opponents say Sunak set an earlier date because of concerns his flagship immigration law will fail.
The law allows deporation to so-called safe third contries of asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain without permission. Britain has detained an unspecified number of migrants for deportation to Rwanda in July.
“If I’m elected, we will get the flights off,” Sunak told radio station LBC on Thursday.
Sunak was set to visit England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the first two days of his campaign.
Sunak has served as prime minister since October 2022. But his center-right party has been in power since 2010.
The Conservative Party has been losing support over the past two years because of economic challenges and ethics scandals.
Public opinion polling from early May had the Conservative Party trailing the Labour Party by 21 percentage points.
“As of now, it looks as if there will be a change of government on July 4,” Tony Travers of the London School of Economics told Agence France-Presse.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
