LONDON, May 25, (AP): Britain’s lawmakers left Parliament on Friday for the last time before an election is held in six weeks. Some will never return. About 120 of the 650 members of Parliament are stepping down, and they and those who lose their seats on July 4 face an abrupt readjustment to life outside politics.
After a flurry of last-minute legislation, Parliament was prorogued, or formally suspended, in a ceremony featuring hat-doffing, lords in ermine-trimmed robes and commands in Norman French.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s surprise decision to call a summer election with his Conservatives trailing in opinion polls means that some key pieces of legislation had to be abandoned -- including his flagship plan to ban tobacco sales to future generations.
On the second full day of campaigning, Sunak and his main opponent, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, have already covered hundreds of miles (kilometers) crisscrossing the U.K. on carefully stage-managed visits to businesses and communities. Sunak visited Northern Ireland -- making a stop at the Belfast shipyard where the doomed Titanic was built - and central England on Friday, while Starmer was in Scotland and northwest England.
Labour is the strong favorite to win the election after moving from the left toward the political center under Starmer, its leader since 2020.