Britain votes in 'most important' Brexit election today
Britain went to the polls on Thursday, with the future of Brexit hanging in the balance, in a snap pre-Christmas election aimed at drawing a line under years of political gridlock and bitter division.
More than 4,000 polling venues across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — including a windmill, some pubs and a chip shop — opened their doors for a poll described as the most important in a generation.
A decisive victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson would most likely end Britain's 46-year involvement in the European Union next month, setting Britain on course to chart a new future based on closer ties with the United States and even China.
But a win for the pro-EU opposition could still reverse the Brexit process and give Britain its most leftist government in decades led by veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn, committed to re-nationalisation and massive public sector spending.
"For them. Vote Labour," the pro-Corbyn Daily Mirror said on its front page, showing pictures of the homeless sleeping on the street and nurses in understaffed hospitals.
"Save Brexit. Save Britain," the pro-Johnson Sun newspaper countered on its own front page.
Johnson himself said the election was on a "knife edge" with the polls indicating him in the lead, but possibly by a margin too small to form his own government.