Enda Brady: UK correspondent on the polls opening in the UK election

Voting booths are opening in the UK, where it's predicted the 14-year Tory rule will come to an end.

Keir Starmer's Labour party is expected to cruise to an easy victory over Rishi Sunak's Conservatives.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says data predicts Labour will win in the biggest victory since 1836.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Indebrady, a UK correspondence with us Inda.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello, Hello, hey, glorious, say it is here? What's it?
I'm on my way, I'm on my way. It's a
glorious morning here. The sun is shining. It's the best
day we've had in ages. And it's really important that
there is good weather because that will increase turnout, which
hovers about forty percent. Can you believe it? Six out
of ten people in the UK don't normally vote. Let's

(00:24):
see if that changes today.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah, jeez, I mean, honestly, that is really really low,
especially given the stakes at the moment. List So are
we are we absolutely sure? How sure are we can
believe the polls, given the history with Poles, that Labor
is going to get the biggest majority since eighteen thirty six?

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I think something's going to be very very wrong. If
these polls, and there have been about twenty five of
them now at this stage, and Paul after poll, they're
all pointing in one direction and it's getting worse for
the Conservatives. I mean that the latest one, the final one,
is giving Labor not just the super majority, the big
majority any political party will have had in this country

(01:03):
since eighteen thirty six. That was what the poll before
we went to bed last night said. So that will
put Labor on four hundred and thirty two seats. If
it's correct, it would reduce the Conservative Party to a
rump of one hundred and two that's three times smaller
than what they've been for the last five years. And
basically Keir Starmer could do whatever he wants. That's the

(01:25):
Conservative argument is to stop this super majority, as they're
calling it. So look, we'll see what happens. It's a
huge day ahead. They've been voting now for forty eight minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Do you reckon Rishie's going to hold onto his seat.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I don't think he is. I've heard whispers that privately
he's been telling very close friends that he fears he's
going to lose his seat. I thought it was really
interesting where he ended up last night, in the last
hours of campaigning. He went back to Southampton where he
grew up, and he was knocking on neighbors doors. I
think after six weeks of probably not having doors open

(02:00):
to him or not being made very welcome in some places,
and a campaign that has lurched from problem to disaster
to catastrophe, a lot of it is own making. His
critics would say, especially the D Day decision to bail
out at halftime, I thought it was really interesting that
he went back home to somewhere where at least people
might remember him with fond memories. So I think he

(02:21):
may well lose his seat. There are sixteen cabinet members
predicted to lose their seats if these poles of poles
are correct.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Now is the reason that Boris Johnson didn't shake Rishie's
hand because he hates him that much?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yes, in a nutshell, so we were told at the
very outset that Johnson would be a massive campaign asset,
and he is in much the same way as when
the circus comes to town, everyone sticks their head out
the door and goes, oh, look, wow, the clowns are
in Johnston. You know, really divides people. He's a very
very divisive man. Some people feel that he has it

(02:57):
in him to come back and be a leader again.
He thinks. So. He certainly blamed Sunac for his demise.
My understanding is that in the two years that almost
that Sunac has been Prime Minister, there have been the
sum total of two text messages exchanged between them, one
of which came the other night from Suonac to Johnson

(03:18):
asking him if he would come to this campaign event
and would he speak, And Johnson turned up and he
did not shake Sunac's hand. So you see it all
the time. Politicians all over the world welcome my friend
to the stage. They shake hands, they embraced, there's a hug,
maybe a kiss if it's a lady. Johnson did not
shake Sunac's hand. The other night he spoke and ranted

(03:40):
mostly about not giving what he called starmergeddon. This is
the phrase that Johnson has caught coined that if there
is a super majority for labor and kir starmer, it
will be starmergeddon. So it wasn't much an endorsement of Sunac.
It was more about let's stop labor. So look, fascinating times.
I'm going to be working straight true now for probably

(04:00):
the next three days without sleep. So have a lovely weekend.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Make sure you get your votion though, Indo, you are
going to fit that in.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
I'm on my web right now. I'm going to go
for a little jog. I'm going to jog down there.
You've got to bring photo Ideah, you've just reminded me
it's a new thing here. Normally you turn up and
they go, oh, you're missus Smith, and you we know
you and you live on that road and we take
your name off the street. Whatever. The whole new system
as of forty nine minutes ago. You got to bring
voter ID, So I'm going to go put a driver's

(04:31):
license in my pocket and stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I've done a little civil duty there. Inda, Thank you
very much and enjoy the next three days without sleep.
That's into Brady, our UK correspondent.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
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