Labour entered the election with a large lead over the Conservatives in opinion polls, and the potential scale of the party's victory was a topic of discussion during the campaign period.

[10][11] The economy, healthcare, education, infrastructure development, environment, housing, energy, immigration, and standards in public office were main campaign topics.

[66][67][68] On 22 May 2024, following much speculation through the day (including being asked about it by Stephen Flynn at Prime Minister's Questions),[69][70][71] Sunak officially announced the election would be held on 4 July with the dissolution of the Parliament on 30 May.

The Conservative Party, which won a majority at the 2019 general election, included pledges in its manifesto to remove the 15-year limit on voting for British citizens living abroad, and to introduce a voter identification requirement in Great Britain.

[96] A projection by psephologists Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher of how the 2017 votes would have translated to seats under the 2018 boundaries suggested the changes would have been beneficial to the Conservatives and detrimental to Labour.

Had the 2019 general election occurred with the new boundaries in effect, the Scottish Liberal Democrats would have only won two seats (Edinburgh West and Orkney and Shetland), instead of the four they did win that year, as the expanded electorates in the other two would overcome their slender majorities.

[117] Labour entered the election with a large lead over the Conservatives in opinion polls, and the potential scale of the party's victory was a topic of discussion during the campaign period.

[138] However, Farage later announced on 3 June that, contrary to his statement earlier in the campaign, he would stand for Parliament in Clacton, and that he had resumed leadership of Reform UK, taking over from Richard Tice, who remained the party's chairman.

[157] The SNPs Màiri McAllan claimed that only the SNP offered Scotland a route back into the European Union, making Pro-Europeanism part of the party's campaign.

[162] On 31 May, the Conservatives announced new "pride in places" pledges, including new rules to tackle anti-social behaviour, rolling out the hot-spot policing programme to more areas, and more town regeneration projects.

[139] A YouGov poll conducted on the same day put Labour on course for the party's biggest election victory in history, beating Tony Blair's 1997 landslide.

Labour's countryside protection plan would also include the planting new national forests, taskforces for tree-planting and flood resilience, new river pathways, and a commitment to revive nature.

[210] On 13 June, Starmer released the Labour Party manifesto Change, which focused on economic growth, planning system reforms, infrastructure, clean energy, healthcare, education, childcare, crime, and strengthening workers' rights.

[211][212] It pledged a new publicly owned energy company (Great British Energy) and National Wealth Fund, a ''Green Prosperity Plan", rebuilding the NHS and reducing patient waiting times, free breakfast clubs in primary schools, investing in green infrastructure, innovation, training and skills across the UK to boost economic growth, and renationalisation of the railway network (Great British Railways).

[214] The manifesto also pledged to give votes to 16-year olds, reform the House of Lords, and to tax private schools, with money generated going into improving state education.

Swinney said a vote for his party would "intensify" the pressure to secure a second Scottish independence referendum, with other pledges in the SNP manifesto including boosting NHS funding, scrapping the two-child limit on benefits, calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, scrapping the Trident defence programme, re-joining the European Union, transitioning to a green economy attracting more foreign migrants,[236] tackling drug deaths and devolving broadcasting powers.

[240] David TC Davies, the Secretary of State for Wales, told a BBC interview the polls were "clearly pointing at a large Labour majority", but added that he believed there was "no great optimism" from voters.

[260][261] Labour pledged to put failing water companies who do not meet ''high environmental standards'' under special measures, give regulators new powers to block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute waterways, and criminal charges against persistent law breakers.

[262] On 24 June, Labour focused on NHS dentistry and health, and also pledged to hold a knife crime summit every year and halve incidents within a decade.

[278][279] On 27 June, an undercover Channel 4 journalist secretly recorded members of Farage's campaign team using offensive racial, Islamophobic and homophobic language, also suggesting refugees should be used as "target practice".

[312] Key topics were the cost of living crisis, the National Health Service (NHS), young people, education, immigration and tax policy.

[318] An STV debate hosted by Colin Mackay took place on 3 June, which included Douglas Ross, Anas Sarwar, John Swinney and Alex Cole-Hamilton.

A BBC debate hosted by Mishal Husain took place on 7 June, which included Nigel Farage, Carla Denyer, Rhun ap Iorwerth, Daisy Cooper, Stephen Flynn, Angela Rayner and Penny Mordaunt.

[321][322] After the seven-way debate, a snap poll found that viewers considered Farage had won, followed by Rayner, but that Flynn, Denyer and Cooper scored best on doing a good job.

[353] MPs who stood down at the election included the former prime minister Theresa May, the former cabinet ministers Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock, Ben Wallace, Nadhim Zahawi, Kwasi Kwarteng, and Michael Gove, the long-serving Labour MPs Harriet Harman and Margaret Beckett, and the former Green Party leader and co-leader Caroline Lucas, who was the first – and until this election the only – Green Party MP.

Discussion around the campaign was focused on the prospect of a change in government, as Labour maintained significant leads in opinion polling over the Conservatives, with one in five voters voting tactically.

An exit poll conducted by Ipsos for the BBC, ITV, and Sky News was published at the end of voting at 22:00, predicting the number of seats for each party.

[403][404] Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire was the last seat to declare, due to multiple recounts after the election, with Angus MacDonald winning for the Liberal Democrats on the afternoon of 6 July.

As Starmer's government was elected with the lowest share of the vote of any majority party on record, journalist Fraser Nelson described Labour's electoral success as a "Potemkin landslide".

He and his family deserve the very best of our understanding, as they make the huge transition to their new lives behind this door, and as he grapples with this most demanding of jobs in an increasingly unstable world.Starmer succeeded Sunak as prime minister, ending 14 years of the Conservatives in government.