Red alert for Boris Johnson on eve of British election

Britain is at a crossroads in the knife-edge election that could see it lurch to the far left or finally exit the EU.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds his dog Dilyn as he leaves after voting in London on Thursday. Picture: AP

Britain is at a crossroads in the knife-edge general election that could see the country lurch to the far left under Jeremy Corbyn or finally exit the EU under Boris Johnson.

Right to the final moments of the campaign, Mr Johnson was urging Brexit supporters, including those leaning to the Brexit Party, to ­coalesce under the Conservatives to counter the anti-Tory tactical voting activists. “It is the national duty to find every vote to save our country from disaster,” the PM said.

Just 40,000 of the 46 million registered voters, and 40 of the 650 seats across the nation, will determine who holds the keys to 10 Downing Street.

Labour was buoyed in the final hours, with Mr Corbyn believing his Marxist £450bn Christmas giveaway, raiding workers earning more than £80,000 and small businesses as well as huge tax hikes to introduce a four-day week, had swayed enough for a “red revolution’’. “We’re going to win this thing,” he said.

On the hustings, Labour shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald led renditions of It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas: “The prettiest sight to see, will be Jeremy by the tree …’’

In his final campaign-trail hours, Mr Johnson was seen balancing on a brick front fence in Essex, hammering a party sign to ‘’Get Brexit Done’’. He then went to the Copperbox arena, the East London site of one of his greatest triumphs as mayor of London, the 2012 Olympics, where he delivered his final rallying cry: “Give me a majority and I will finish what we started, what you instructed us to do, 3½ years ago.

“A great future is there within our grasp, but I need your vote.’’

He added: “Just imagine how wonderful it will be to settle down to a turkey dinner this Christmas with Brexit decided. And how awful it would be if Corbyn and (Scottish Nationalist leader Nicola) Sturgeon were in Downing Street advancing their plans for two more referendums.’’

The pound is expected to endure a rocky ride as various bellwether seat results are announced throughout the day. An exit poll is expected to be announced at 9am on Friday (AEDT).

The radically different policies and party leaders’ personalities have split the country across the generations and along rural-versus-urban lines. While the Brexit paralysis in a hung parliament was the spark for the election, the parlous state of the National Health Service became the headline issue.

Mr Johnson was accused of ducking questions, the latest when he retreated to a refrigerated van to avoid a television interviewer, and voters are wary of his honesty. Mr Corbyn has been heavily criticised for his oversight of a party that is anti-Semitic and his personal lifelong backing for the IRA and terrorist organisations.

Pollsters said Mr Johnson’s Conservatives were ahead before the vote opened but the variables were so great, including more than 10 per cent undecided and the extent to which tactical voting would swing key seats, that the lead could translate into a Tory majority or a hung parliament.

For majority government, the Tories have to win Labour Leave seats in north Wales and the Midlands, as well as holding some outer-London seats under threat from the Liberal Democrats.

The Conservatives are pledging £3bn ($5.68bn) a year in public services compared with Labour’s £83bn and lower borrowings.

The key difference in policies, apart from the stark ideological choice, is on tax. Mr Johnson has promised the Tories will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or National Insurance, but Labour has vowed to increase tax for people earning more than £80,000, increase corporation tax, tax private schools and introduce new dividend taxes.

Labour says it will immediately embark on renationalisation of mail, rail, energy, water and broadband, and unleash a £450bn “investment program’’ and a “Green Industrial Revolution’’. There will be free bus trips, free dental, free internet, a four-day week, a minimum wage of £10 an hour, free prescriptions, free care for older people, no tuition fees and free lifelong education to reskill.

Meanwhile, in the last hours of campaigning, EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier in a leaked conversation refuted Mr Johnson’s hopes of getting a Brexit trade deal completed within 11 months. Such a time scale, he says, is “unrealistic’’.