As the last full day of campaigning dawned, the U.K.’s Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, faced with the prospect of a crushing defeat at the hands of the opposition Labour Party , said he was still “fighting hard for every vote”.

Earlier in the day, one of his Cabinet colleagues, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, had told the BBC that the Conservatives should focus on the kind of opposition party they would become, with Labour on its way to getting the “largest majority that this country has ever seen”. On July 2, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman had said the election was “over”.

“What Mel was doing was warning of what a very large Labour majority, unchecked, would mean for people,” Mr. Sunak said on July 3, in an interview with ITV, as the six-week campaign began drawing to a close.

Although the U.K. has had the highest tax burden in 70 years under the Conservative government, the last stretch of the Conservative campaign has focused on warning Britons that Labour as a party of taxation, should not be given such a large majority.

“24 hours to top the tax-raising Labour supermajority,” Mr. Sunak said on X.

Mr. Sunak, the fifth Prime Minister in his party’s 14 year rule, and at risk of losing his own seat in Yorkshire, has been trying to reach out to workers by visiting  warehouses and supermarkets in the last few days of the campaign.

Britons have struggled with a cost of living crisis, high taxes and crumbling public services, including long waits to see doctors in the National Health Service. Immigration and borders are also a politically sensitive issue with the some parties blaming migrants for the drain on public services. Both the major parties have promised checks on migration, with the Conservatives also promising an annual cap on legal migration.

Labour has consistently enjoyed an approximately 20 point lead over the Tories in polling. With support for the Conservative Party is at a low, Mr. Sunak appeared to cut his losses when he  surprised many by calling an election six weeks ago, months ahead of when it was expected.

A July 2 Survation poll predicted just 64 seats for the Tories (down from 365 in 2019), with a record 484 for Labour. The poll is one of several recent surveys that  used a relatively new statistical technique called multi-level regression and post stratification or MRP, which allows for differences in local voting preferences. The Labour party , by some projections, is set to outdo its 1997 landslide victory when, under Tony Blair, it won 418 seats to defeat the John Major Tory government.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer, who is likely to become Britain’s Prime Minister on Friday (July 5), had a hectic day of campaigning planned, that began in Wales, and ended in England, with stops in Scotland en route.

Standing beside the First Minister of Wales, Vaughn Gething, Mr. Starmer talked about the “double benefit” of having two Labour leaders working together. “When we saw what might happen with Tata Steel in the latest development, our first act was to get in touch with each other, within minutes,” he said.

The Labour leader referred to Mr. Sunak allegedly being too busy to take a phone call from the former First Minister Mark Drakeford, following Tata Steel’s announcement in January 2024 that it would be installing an electric arc furnace, to replace its blast furnaces, and move that would reportedly make close to 3,000 jobs redundant.

During his speech, he emphasized Labour’s central campaign theme: ‘change’, as he warned against complacency.

“We have to say over and over again, ‘Change only happens if you vote for it,’” Mr. Starmer said in South Wales, home to Port Talbot steelworks, owned by Tata Steel.

Responding to Mr. Stride and others, Labour Party leader, Mr. Starmer said the Conservatives were attempting to “dissuade” people from voting.

“That is a terrible place for the Tory party to have got to,” said.

It’s not just about Labour and the Conservatives. The Lib Dems (Liberal Democrats) and Scottish National Party (SNP) and others are also in the fray.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey, whose campaign has style has included stunts, from bungee jumping to going down water slides, said on July 3 that coming in at third place would be “nirvana” as it would give his party the chance to ask questions in Parliament each week during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Also in the fray is Reform UK, right of the Conservative Party and led by Nigel Farage, who was the de facto leader of the U.K.’s Brexit movement. Reform is projected to win a handful of seats (up to 7), eating into the Conservative’s vote share. The anti-immigration, nativist party found itself in the middle of a controversy over the weekend, when one of its campaigners was caught on a mic using a racial slur to describe Mr. Sunak, who is the country’s first Asian British and Indian-origin Prime Minister.

This election could also gain significance for another first: the largest share of ethnic minorities in Parliament by some accounts, including several of Indian descent or born in India. Some 20-30 more MPs are likely to be ethnic minorities according to an analysis by British Future, a think tank.

“Britain is closing the gap between the diversity of Parliament and the electorate much faster than anyone thought possible,” said Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future, while he cautioned that better representation does not guarantee inclusion or the right policies.

“But a stronger share of voice does make a difference,” he said.

Controversial UK government plans for deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda cleared their final hurdle on Monday, after a marathon tussle between the upper and lower chambers of parliament lasting late into the night. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his ruling Conservatives have been seeking to push through legislation that will compel judges to regard the east African nation as a safe third country. 

They also want to give decision-makers on asylum applications the power to disregard sections of international and domestic human rights law to get around a UK Supreme Court ruling that sending migrants on a one-way ticket to Kigali was illegal. 

But the government faced a parliamentary battle to do so, with the upper chamber House of Lords, which scrutinises bills, repeatedly sending the proposed legislation back to the lower House of Commons with amendments. 

Peers, who have criticised the bill as inadequate, notably wanted a requirement that Rwanda could not be treated as safe until an independent monitoring body said so. 

They also wanted an exemption for agents, allies and employees of the UK overseas, including Afghans who fought alongside British armed forces, from being removed. 

MPs in the Commons, where the Tories have a majority, voted down every amendment and asked the Lords to think again in a back-and-forth process known as “parliamentary ping pong”.

The unelected upper chamber, where there is no overall majority for any party, dug in their heels. 

But shortly before midnight (2300 GMT) they eventually conceded to the will of elected MPs and agreed to make no further amendments, ending the deadlock and ensuring the bill will now receive royal assent to pass into law. 

Sunak’s government has been under mounting pressure to cut record numbers of asylum seekers crossing the Channel from northern France in small boats, particularly following a promise of a tougher approach to immigration after the UK left the European Union. 

Challenges 

The Rwanda scheme — criticised by UN human rights experts and groups supporting asylum seekers — has been beset by legal challenges since it was first proposed in 2022. 

That year, the first deportees were pulled off a flight at the last minute after an injunction from the European Court of Human Rights. Two years on, no migrants have been sent. 

The National Audit Office, a public spending watchdog, has estimated it will cost 540 million UK pounds ($665 million) to deport the first 300 migrants — nearly 2 million pounds per person. 

Charities have said the scheme is unworkable and, given the small numbers involved, would do little to cut the backlog of asylum claims. 

Other critics say it sets a dangerous precedent of parliament legislating on an issue already deemed illegal by the courts, and will damage the UK’s international standing and moral authority. 

Rwanda — a tiny nation of 13 million people — lays claim to being one of the most stable countries in Africa. But rights groups accuse veteran President Paul Kagame of ruling in a climate of fear, stifling dissent and free speech. 

Sunak announced earlier on Monday that the government was ready and had plans in place for the first flights to take off in 10 to 12 weeks, promising a wave of deportations “come what may” over the summer months. 

The prime minister is banking on the flagship “stop the boats” policy to act as a deterrent and give his beleaguered Tory party an electoral boost as the country prepares to go to the polls later this year.

The Conservatives have consistently trailed the main opposition Labour party in opinion polls and are on course to be dumped out of power after 14 years. 

Sunak’s plans could still be held up by legal challenges, and UN rights experts have suggested that airlines and aviation regulators could fall foul of internationally protected human rights laws if they take part in deportations. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

London:

Controversial new laws in Scotland, which make stirring up hatred against a number of groups including transgender people an offence, were criticised after coming into force Monday.

The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act — passed by Scottish lawmakers in 2021 but only now being rolled out — consolidates existing hate crime legislation while creating the new offence.

Scotland’s devolved government has said it is a response to the recommendations of an independent review into hate crime laws and ensures such protections “are fit for the 21st century”.

Protected characteristics under the new laws include age, disability, race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as gender identity.

But UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said no one should be punished for “stating simple facts on biology”.

“We believe in free speech in this country, and Conservatives will always protect it,” he said in a statement to the Daily Telegraph newspaper.

Author JK Rowling — an opponent of much of the gender identity movement, particularly in Scotland — also hit out at the legislation on free speech and other grounds.

It is “wide open to abuse by activists who wish to silence those of us speaking out about the dangers of eliminating women’s and girls’ single-sex spaces”, Rowling said in a lengthy online criticism.

“I’m currently out of the country, but if what I’ve written here qualifies as an offence under the terms of the new act, I look forward to being arrested when I return to the birthplace of the Scottish Enlightenment,” she wrote.

Rowling has argued the new laws do nothing additional to protect women and girls, particularly as the Scottish government did not include women as one of the protected groups, although it has promised future legislation aimed at tackling misogyny.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell called the omission of women from the legislation an “astonishing exclusion”.

“The big flaw in this bill is it does not protect women against hate,” he told BBC radio.

Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, is among others to voice free speech concerns over the new laws.

However, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf insisted he is “very proud” of the new laws, saying they will help protect against a “rising tide” of hatred.

Scottish police are being trained to enforce the legislation, although it has emerged more than a third of officers have not yet completed a required online course on the laws.

That has concerned critics, but Yousaf insisted he is “very confident in Police Scotland’s ability in order to implement this legislation in the way it should”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)