UK looks set for hung parliament as polls give narrow lead for Labour Party

The United Kingdom looks set for a hung parliament after forecasts on Thursday's polls showed no clear majority of 326 seats for a single party. Opposition Labour Party is expected to win the ULK elections with a narrow lead over the ruling Conservatives, according to an ICM poll.

But, with more than 45 million registered voters, polling looks tight and queues started to appear across England much before 7am UK time.

Support for the centre-left Labour Party stood at 35 per cent while Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives were backed by 34 per cent, according to the poll commissioned by the Guardian newspaper.

The same polling firm had put both parties on 35 per cent in a poll published yesterday.

Various surveys conducted during the election campaign had consistently shown that no party was likely to win an overall majority.

According to ICM, support for the anti-EU UKIP party stood at 11 per cent with the centrist co-ruling Liberal Democrats on 9 per cent.

Pleading with voters to give him "five more years to secure our economy", Cameron said, "Britain's future is on a knife-edge. It would be a tragedy if we throw away all the hard work of the past five years and go back to square one".

Labour leader Ed Miliband said Britain could not afford another five years of Tory rule and said, "this election is going to be the closest we have ever seen. It is going to go down to the wire." He added "A few votes in a few seats that could define the next five years".

Pubs, schools and community centres were among the 50,000 polling stations which will stay open till 10pm UK time on Thursday (2.30am India time) allowing people to cast their ballot.

The 300 plus councils holding the election in UK will start counting afte4r the polls and results are expected post 10pm UK time on Thursday.