London — Britons began voting on Thursday in an election called by Prime Minister Theresa May to strengthen her hand in looming Brexit talks, with her personal authority at stake after a campaign that saw her lead in opinion polls contract. Polling stations opened at 6am GMT amid tight security nationwide after two Islamist attacks killed 30 people in Manchester and London in less than two weeks, thrusting the issue of how to counter militant violence to the top of the agenda in the closing stages of the campaign. A flurry of opinion polls on Wednesday gave May’s Conservatives a lead ranging between one and 12 percentage points over the main opposition Labour Party, suggesting she would increase her majority — but not win the landslide foreseen when she called the election seven weeks ago. Headline rates for sterling, hit two-week highs in morning trade in London after the latest polls. But market bets on how volatile the pound will be over the next 24 hours surged to their highest ...
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