Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak cast their votes in historic general election

The main UK party leaders have cast their ballots in this year's historic general election as the country heads to the polls.

UK Labour leader Keir Starmer voted at a polling station in north London while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak voted in North Yorkshire on Thursday morning.

Starmer made the short journey from his home in Kentish Town to the polling place in Willingham Close TRA Hall to vote in the Holborn and St Pancras constituency.

He arrived hand-in-hand with his wife Victoria while being flanked by police protection officers.

A crowd of people gathered to watch the Labour leader enter the polling station alongside dozens of media outlets, with Starmer greeting supporters lining the route into the hall.

A woman could be heard shouting "free Palestine" as he entered the hall. He left through a back door out of sight of reporters.

Conservative leader Sunak made the short journey from his grade II-listed manor house to vote at Kirby Sigston Village Hall in his Richmond constituency.

He arrived with his wife, Akshata Murty, in a Range Rover and walked hand-in-hand into the polling station.

The PM said "morning" and waved to reporters as he entered the village hall, surrounded by rolling fields, with a dairy farmer next door turning out his cattle.

SNP leader and First Minister John Swinney cast his vote at Burrelton Village Hall in Blairgowrie, Perthshire.

He arrived with his 13-year-old son, Matthew, greeting journalists on his way in.

Swinney also met his candidate Dave Doogan who is running in the Angus and Perthshire Glens constituency.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey and his wife, Emily, visited a polling station in Surbiton, South West London, to vote.

He said "good morning everybody" to the assembled media and waved to the cameras. As the pair prepared to enter Surbiton Hill Methodist Church, a voter left the polling station and wished the UK Lib Dem chief "good luck".

Polling stations across the UK are open from 7am to 10pm with millions of voters finally having their say - after weeks of campaigning - on who should form the next government.

Opinion polls suggest Starmer's Labour is on course for a big majority in the House of Commons and that Sunak's Conservatives face a crushing defeat.

Surveys indicate a tighter race in Scotland between Labour and the SNP, with Swinney claiming ahead of polls opening that the contest is "on a knife-edge".

In England, the Liberal Democrats hope to make a serious charge for second place as they bid to flip dozens of Tory seats.

It is the first General Election where voters will need to show photographic ID before they can receive their ballot paper following a law change in 2022.

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