UK elections: Parties make last pitches on final campaign day

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Photo: IANS)


Ahead of Thursday’s general election in the UK, party leaders are set for a frantic day of campaigning as they criss-cross the country to promote key messages.

Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn will say that opposition offers a “vote for hope”, while Boris Johnson will say the Tories were the only party who can “get Brexit done”.

Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson will also call on people to back her candidates to stop the UK leaving the EU.

Polls in the UK will open at 07.00 GMT on Thursday and close at 22:00.

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon is also expected to be making her final pitch to voters, as the six-week campaign enters its critical final hours.

In terms of the polls, the Conservatives retain a solid lead over Labour, according to the BBC’s opinion poll tracker. A poll produced by YouGov released on Tuesday evening suggests the Conservatives are on course for a small majority of around 28.

Labour is hoping for a late swing in its favour, as happened in the 2017 general election, while the Tories are warning about the possibility of a hung Parliament, amid concerns about voter complacency.

Both party leaders will be hoping to put a rocky few days behind them, as they embark on the traditional election-eve tour of target seats.

Last month, Labour planned to renegotiate the deal agreed between the current Conservative government and the European Union, and then put it to another vote, with remaining in the EU is the other option.

The Brexit issue is threatening to hurt Labour in its traditional working-class heartlands, which mostly voted to leave the EU.

Johnson came under fire for alleged racism in his previous news articles and also for not releasing a report into Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum, which he dismissed as “Bermuda Triangle stuff”.

Johnson wants to win a majority in December 12 general election so that he can get the Brexit deal, agreed with the EU, into law and take the UK out of the bloc on January 31 and begin talks with Brussels on a permanent trading relationship.

Johnson is hopeful that the December 12 election will break the long impasse over Brexit and give his party a majority so he can extricate Britain from the European Union.

The two candidates are at extreme poles from their family background to culture to their political ideologies.