Polling stations have opened this morning in what is being billed as Britain’s most important General Election in a generation.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who gambled his job by triggering the vote, has sought to focus on his pledge to ‘get Brexit done’ throughout the campaign.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, his rival in the race to Number 10, has instead tried to highlight his party’s credentials on the health service and other domestic issues.

The polls have narrowed in the final week of what has largely been a tame campaign – with few gaffes and many stage-managed visits. Yesterday, a final poll from The Telegraph put the Tories on 45%, 12 points ahead of Labour, on 33%.

An exit poll at 10pm this evening will give the clearest indication yet of the expected result, which will not become fully clear until tomorrow.

On Monday Mr Johnson came under fire for his alleged lack of empathy when he pocketed a journalist’s phone when asked to view a photograph of a boy, 4, who was forced to sleep on a hospital floor.

The following day, however, Labour’s campaign was rocked when a member of the shadow cabinet was revealed to have poured scorn on Mr Corbyn’s election chances in a leaked recording.

A terror attack on London Bridge – which echoed a similar incident in the middle of the 2017 election – briefly disrupted the campaign, but quickly turned political as the Tories and Labour exchanged blows over how to deal with such threats.

To read more of our coverage of the 2019 General Election, click here. 

The third General Election in less than five years has been largely dominated by the 2016 vote to leave the European Union – with Labour pledging to give voters another say in a second referendum, while the Tories have vowed to take the UK out of the EU next month.

Voter turnout, however, could play a major role in the election outcome with rain, wind and chilly temperatures forecast for much of the country through much of the day.

In a final plea to voters on the eve of polling day, Mr Johnson warned that the election remained on a ‘knife edge’, but said it represented a chance to ‘end the gridlock’.

He told supporters in each London: ‘Today is our chance to unite as a country and put the uncertainty to bed so people can get on with their lives.’

Mr Corbyn, meanwhile, stressed the ‘very profound’ issues at stake today, labelling the first December election since 1923 a ‘fork in the road’ offering ‘a very clear choice.’

On Tuesday, an ‘MRP’ poll – widely seen as a more accurate forecasting method – suggested the Tories would win a majority of around 28 seats.

Polling stations opened at 7am and will shut at 10pm.

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