On Wednesday, the day before the polling stations opened, Britain’s Conservative Party has all but conceded defeat to Keir Starmer’s Labour Party and warned that the opposition party was on course for an unprecedented victory.
Opinion polls show the centre-left Labour Party is set for a big win in Thursday’s vote, that would end 14 years of Conservative rule and hand Starmer the keys to the prime minister’s office at 10 Downing Street on Friday morning.
You Gov’s final seat projection published on Wednesday put Labour on course to win a majority of 212 seats, the largest of any party in modern history.
Both Starmer and Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak began the final day of campaigning before the polls opened, warning voters of the dire economic consequences if the other side won.
But faced with predictions of the worst result in the party’s history, the Conservatives focused on damage limitation.saying they needed to preserve enough seats to provide an effective opposition to a Labour government.
“I fully accept that, as the polls stand at the moment, it is likely that tomorrow will see the largest ever Labour landslide, “the largest majority this country has ever seen,” Conservative minister Mel Stride told the BBC.
“So what matters now is what kind of opposition we have, what kind of ability to scrutinise the government there is within Parliament.” Asked about Stride’s comments, Sunak told ITV: “I’m fighting hard for every vote.”
British tabloid The Sun, owned by Rupert Murdoch, backed Labour on Wednesday Starmer already said in an editorial published on the Internet: “It is time for a change.”
Get out the vote
The final push of the Labour campaign centred on its fear that voters would view the result as a foregone conclusion and stay home during Thursday’s vote, or register protest votes with smaller parties.
Starmer said Stride’s comments were an attempt to lure undecided voters away from casting their ballots after polling stations opened at 0600 GMT.
“I say: if you want change, you have to vote for it. I want people to be involved in change. I know there are very close constituencies across the country,” he told the BBC. “I’m not taking anything for granted, I respect the voters and I know we have to earn every vote by 10pm tomorrow and we will.”
Starmer’s campaign has been built around a promise of “change” based on discontent over the poor state of British public services and falling living standards, symptoms of a sluggish economy and political instability.
Sunak has sought to persuade voters that his 20 months in office have put the economy on an upward path following the external shocks of Covid-19. and the war in Ukraine, ending years of turmoil overseen by their conservative predecessors.
He says Starmer will have to raise taxes to implement his programme of change and that the bigger Labour’s victory, the more emboldened Starmer will feel to raise taxes beyond those he has already outlined.
After failing to reduce Labour’s 20-point lead in opinion polls, Sunak turned to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson – the man he helped oust from office in 2022 – to invite him to speak at a Conservative evening rally on Tuesday.
Johnson, one of the most recognisable figures in British politics and the man who gave the party a landslide victory in 2019, made her first major public appearance of the campaign with a speech in which she listed many of her own achievements and gave little personal endorsement of Sunak.
“None of us can stand by as a Labour government prepares to use a sledgehammer majority to destroy so much of what we have achieved,” he said.
