UK election: Britain may end up with another hung parliament
At least 15 former Labour MPs have launched an ad blitz on the eve of the UK election urging people to vote against their former party.
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Former Labour MPs have launched an advertising blitz on the eve of the UK election, warning people not to vote for their former party.
The group has placed adverts in newspapers across the country warning voters “Jeremy Corbyn: not fit to be Prime Minister”.
They accused the hard-left party boss of having sided with Britain’s political enemies “from the IRA to Russia”.
And they warn Mr Corbyn’s failure to stamp out the anti-Jew racism in his own party makes him unfit to lead Britain.
The group of MPs are all part of the new anti-extremism group called Mainstream.
Two more former MPs – Jim Dowd and Tom Levitt – are the latest MPs to sign up to it.
The advert states: “Everyone wants a safer, fairer society. But in this election the Labour Party is set to deliver the opposite.
“We were all lifelong Labour voters and all former Labour MPs. We are voting for different parties at this election, but we have all come to the difficult decision not to vote Labour.”
POLL SHOWS RISK OF HUNG PARLIAMENT
Britain is at risk of electing another chaotic hung parliament, according to a major new poll delivered ahead of Thursday’s election.
The comprehensive survey of 100,000 people for The Times of London/YouGov MRP poll released Tuesday has halved its expectations for a Tory majority from 68 seats to 28.
And in its range of possible outcomes, Prime Minister Boris Johnson falls short of the parliamentary majority he needs to get Brexit done.
The MRP poll – which was one of the few to correctly predict Theresa May would lose her majority in the last UK election – will likely set Conservative hearts racing as the campaign enters its final days.
YouGov director of research Anthony Wells said the margin of error with the poll and other factors like voter turnout meant they could not guarantee Mr Johnson would get a majority.
“Based on the model we cannot rule out a hung parliament,” he said.
YouGov is now predicting that the Conservatives are on course to win 339 seats, Labour 231, the Liberal Democrats 15 and the Scottish Nationalist Party 41.
But on their range of outcomes, the Tories could win only 311 seats – five less than they won in 2017.
This outcome could see Jeremy Corbyn or a compromise PM boot Mr Johnson out of Downing St via a deal by pro-Europe parties to force a second referendum on Brexit.
YouGov has modelled Brits’ voting preferences based on their age, gender, education and other factors.
Its multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) model is then applied to the demographic make-up of every single electorate in Great Britain to deliver a result.
The poll will now propel Mr Johnson’s last-dash tour of the UK with planned events in Wales, the Midlands and London all in one day on Wednesday.
He has had some good luck in the last 24 hours with Labour’s health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth caught on tape suggesting his boss Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to national security.
But the poll also shows how far Labour has come since the election campaign started and that it does not need to win seats in order to form government.
LABOUR MP ATTACKS CORBYN ON LEAKED TAPE
Jeremy Corbyn has been left humiliated after his health spokesman Jonathan Ashworth was caught on tape saying that civil servants might have to “safeguard” the nation’s security if his Marxist boss wins the election.
With fears about Mr Corbyn’s links to terrorist groups already in the mind of voters, a senior Labour MP saying government officials might need to clamp down on national security will give the Tories a huge boost days out from the opening of polls.
“I don’t know, on the security stuff,” Mr Ashworth said on the leaked tape.
“I worked in No. 10, I think the machine will pretty quickly move to safeguard security, I mean the civil service machine.”
Mr Ashworth is also caught on tape saying that Labour has no chance of winning the election because voters hate the current Labour leader, despite the polls tightening.
“But it’s not going to happen … I’ve been going round these national places, it’s dire for Labour.
“It’s abysmal out there. They can’t stand Corbyn and they think Labour’s blocked Brexit.”
The Labour health spokesman later went on the BBC to say he was with a Tory MP when the conversation was recorded and claimed he was only kidding.
But Mr Corbyn – who may still win Thursday’s election with the help of the Scottish Nationalists – was not pleased and would not promise that Mr Ashworth would stay a part of his team.
“I will announce my ministers (if I win the election) on Friday,” Mr Corbyn said.
Mr Johnson leapt on the tape and said Labour’s own team knew their leader was a security risk.
“This country would be led by a Hamas-backing, IRA supporting, anti-Semitism condoning appeaser of the Kremlin – which is what he is, look at the record,” Mr Johnson said.
“But if you doubt me, listen to what his health spokesman said today, Jon Ashworth.
“He revealed that he thinks his own leader is a security risk and I think it couldn’t be clearer than that.”
Break the gridlock. Get Brexit done. 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/o4EqkTIqSc
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 10, 2019
It came as Mr Johnson drove a huge Union Jack-donned tractor through a wall labelled “gridlock”, in his latest made-for-social media election stunt.
The PM took the tractor at full speed through a huge foam wall to the cheers of supporters in the “red wall” of Labour leave seats.
TORY MEMO CITES FEAR CORBYN COULD WIN
Tories in the UK fear that just 40,000 tactical votes against Mr Johnson at this week’s election could see Mr Corbyn rise to power.
The Telegraph reports that an internal memo circulated at the weekend warned conservatives against being complacent about a win.
It stated that just 40,000 votes in key seats could hand Mr Corbyn a shot at Downing Street.
The document reminded its members that just 12 extra seats won by other parties, like the Liberal Democrats or the SNP, would result in a hung parliament.
It says that the chances of Mr Johnson being voted out have been “seriously underestimated”.
“(It would take) ass little as a one-to-two per cent movement in the current vote in a handful of seats,” the memo states. “Voters’ high expectations of a Conservative victory leave open the possibility they may use their vote to make a statement, wrongly believing that doing so will not change the outcome.”
“The reality is that Jeremy Corbyn is much closer to becoming Prime Minister than many voters realise,” the memo said. “Jeremy Corbyn and his Lib Dem, nationalist and Green allies need only 12 more seats than last time to make Jeremy Corbyn prime minister and continue the chaos of a hung parliament. We’ll be stuck in this limbo, this first circle of hell, for the foreseeable future.”
Conservatives remain 11 percentage points ahead of Labour in a poll of polls on Monday.
That would see Boris Johnson’s party set for a 46-seat majority.
However, another poll by ComRes for Remain United claims the Tory lead has shrunk to seven per cent.
This would only give the party a two-seat majority.
JOHNSON’S LOVE ACTUALLY BID TO WIN OVER VOTERS
Boris Johnson has channelled the famous cue cards Christmas scene from the film Love Actually in a funny last-minute bid to woo voters
The clip, which has been viewed more than 1 million times, rips off the moment when Andrew Lincoln, playing Mark, declares his love for his mate’s partner Juliet, played by Keira Knightley.
Like Mark’s desperate plea to Juliet, Johnson asks voters to support him on Thursday’s vote to “get Brexit done.”
The two-minute clip has been meticulously done to recreate the moment from one of the most popular British Christmas films in the past 20 years.
“We’ll have Brexit done, with any luck by next year,” the sign Mr Johnson holds up says.
It follows the same script where the woman answering the door tells her partner its carol singers, while Mr Johnson, 55, has a retro boom box playing Silent Night on a dark UK street.
He also shows a picture of a shaggy dog, saying that’s what he will look like by the time Brexit is finally done if Labour wins the election.
The joke was a nod to his wild hairstyle, which has slightly come under some control since he started dating girlfriend Carrie Symonds, 31.
Hugh Grant, who played the Prime Minister in the romantic comedy, has been campaigning against Mr Johnson on the streets of London.
There have already been comparisons between his door knocking to another scene in the film.
Mr Grant, a Labour supporter, said he was impressed by the clip, but did not share the views of its content.
“I thought it was well done, clearly high production values the Conservative Party have a lot of money, maybe that’s where all the roubles went but I did notice one of the cards he didn’t hold up was … because of Christmas you tell the truth,” he said on BBC radio last night.
“I just wonder if the spin doctors at the Tory Party thought that was a card that wouldn’t look too great in Boris Johnson’s hands.”
Love Actually has been a theme during the election campaign.
Some voters joked that Mr Johnson could channel Grant’s Prime Minister during a meeting with Mr Trump last week.
stephen.drill@news.co.uk