LONDON — After a seven-week election campaign that veered from the boredom of staged soundbites to the trauma of two deadly attacks, Britain’s political leaders asked voters Wednesday to choose: Who is best to keep the U.K. safe and lead it out of the European Union?
Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn crisscrossed the country on the final day of campaigning, trying to woo voters with rival plans for Brexit, building a fairer society and combating a terrorist threat made all too immediate by attacks in Manchester and London.
May promised to crack down on extremism if she wins Thursday’s vote — even if that means watering down human rights legislation.
“We are seeing the terrorist threat changing, we are seeing it evolve and we need to respond to that,” May said.
Corbyn argued that the real danger comes from Conservative cuts to police budgets.
“We won’t defeat terrorists by ripping up our basic rights and our democracy,” he said.
Polls will be open today from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with all 650 seats in the House of Commons up for grabs. A party needs to win 326 seats to form a majority government.
May called the snap election — three years early — in a bid to boost the Conservative majority in Parliament, which she says will strengthen Britain’s hand in divorce talks with the European Union.
“Get those negotiations wrong and the consequences will be dire,” she warned Wednesday.
Brexit negotiations will take up much of the incoming government’s time over the next two years. But it has taken a back seat in the election — initially to debates about how to narrow the gap between rich and poor, then by the attacks in Manchester and London.
