UK election: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn make final pitches
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn are making their final pitches in the race to lead the UK out of a Brexit deadlock.
World
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Boris Johnson has implored his supporters to keep knocking on doors until 9am today when the UK election polls close to secure “every last vote” to get a majority.
The British Prime Minister gave his rallying cry on the final day of campaigning, saying there would be 150 billion pounds ($AU287 billion) of investment waiting when he gets Brexit done.
Mr Johnson, whose lead again narrowed in polls overnight, needs 322 seats to get a majority and there remains a chance of a hung parliament, which would kill Brexit.
Voters will battle snow to get to the polls in some areas in the first election in December since 1923 in a country without compulsory voting.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn quoted a Chilean poet in his final campaign speech as he vowed to increase corporation taxes to 26 per cent to pay for his spending promises on the National Health Service (NHS), schools and free broadband for all.
Mr Johnson, 55, said Mr Corbyn’s plans were unaffordable, adding he wanted to have a “final sprint to a golden future” while he would invest in the NHS and cut the cost of living.
But a new poll from Opinium showed the Conservatives down one point to 45 and Labour up two points to 33 with 10 per cent of voters to decide on election day.
Another poll put Mr Johnson’s lead at just six points, with the Conservatives on 41 per cent to Labour’s 36 per cent in the Savanta ComRes survey.
And there were concerns the Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, could stop the Conservatives taking 16 seats.
Mr Johnson said: “We need to find every vote we can … we know we can’t trust polls.
“Let’s make sure we don’t waste a minute, let’s talk to everyone of our friends, let’s talk to everyone up and down the country, we reach out to everyone of our neighbours and let’s make sure our we give children and our grandchildren the future they deserve.”
In a rally in an Olympic venue in Stratford East London, Mr Johnson was his usual confident, charismatic persona as he warned of Labour’s planned tax and spend increases.
“All Labour governments end in economic disaster, if these guys get in it would start with an economic disaster,” he said.
“Now is the time for this amazing country to come together and to remember what it is capable of achieving.
“Let’s be carbon neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas.”
The day ended better than it started for Mr Johnson who hid in a fridge when he was hijacked by a TV crew for Piers Morgan’s Good Morning Britain program.
He had refused to go on to the show, which has been a trap for some politicians during the campaign, with one of his aides dropping a four-letter word which went live on air.
The Conservatives have been hammering their “Get Brexit done” while Labour has ran an almost exclusive campaign on protecting the NHS.
Labour has set aside most of the discussion about its policies including nationalising major companies and increasing taxes.
Their arguments have been winning some weight because government cuts overall since the Global Financial Crisis have hit wages across the country and the emotions that British people attach to the NHS.
However, Mr Corbyn’s unpopularity has been a significant hit on Labour’s chances with many suggesting he would be replaced even if Labour got in on a minority government ticket.
He refused to say whether he would resign if Labour lost, saying he was confident of victory despite a “relentless media assault”.
Mr Corbyn, 70, quoted Chilean poet Victor Jara, a singer whose fingers were cut off in a 1973 coup there.
“My guitar is not for the rich, no, nothing like that, my song is of the ladder we are building to reach the stars,” he said to applause from the Labour crowd.
Meanwhile, Kensington in west London is one of the key marginals, with Labour holding it by only 20 votes.
On Portobello Road – where the Hugh Grant-Julia Roberts hit film Notting Hill was filmed – voters were still divided.
Josh Marks, 23, was leaning Lib Dem. He’s anti-Brexit and anti-Boris, but he cannot bring himself to vote Labour due to its anti-Semitism crisis.
“I’m from a Jewish family. How could Corbyn’s anti-Semitic stuff not sway me? But Boris has said a lot of offensive things too,” he said.
Notting Hill mum Chloe, 39, said she was a lifelong Conservative voter who is now willing to back Jeremy Corbyn to stop Brexit.
“I don’t like Boris, don’t like his style of leadership and the only way I think we can stop a hard Brexit is voting Labour,” she said.
Ian McAllister, 67, wants the Tory candidate Felicity Buchan to take the seat and worries that tactical voters will lead to a socialist “nightmare”.
“Corbyn is a nightmare, that’s what he is. And I am concerned that people around here are going to allow him to take power,” Mr McAllister said.
“Leaving under Boris’s deal will be much better for this country, for people in this area, than a Corbyn Government. I just hope common sense kicks in.”