UK election: Novelist Jeffrey Archer urges voters to back Boris Johnson

Best selling novelist Jeffrey Archer has urged British voters to back Boris Johnson in the most important UK election in a generation.

Jeffrey Archer, whose books have sold more than 300 million copies, said the Labour Party had “frightening policies” and had been hijacked by extremists.

Best selling novelist Jeffrey Archer has urged British voters to back Boris Johnson in the most important UK election in a generation, declaring British Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn “absolutely nowhere near up to the job”.

“This is not the time to take a risk,” he told The Australian ahead of a critical general election where polls point to a growing likelihood of a hung parliament and Labour government with a massive tax and nationalisation agenda.

Lord Archer, whose books have sold more than 300 million copies, said the Labour Party had “frightening policies” and had been hijacked by extremists. “Remember Corbyn only got 15 per cent of the parliamentary vote when he stood for leadership,” he said.

The leaders of Britain's two main political parties, Boris Johnson, left, and Jeremy Corbyn. Picture: AP

A Conservative victory on Thursday would almost certainly see the UK leave the before January 31st, more than 3.5 years since 52 per cent of voters elected to leave the European Union in a June 2016 poll with record turnout.

Archer, who voted remain, played down negative repercussions. “As long we can keep the ability to trade The Europeans will want to trade with us; as if there will suddenly be no BMWs, no French wine – ridiculous – of course Europe will want our markets,” he said.

Lord Archer pushed back against former Conservative Prime Minister John Major’s call for voters to back newly ex-Conservative MPs, who left or were purged from the party during fractious negotiations over a withdrawal agreement with EU.

“I think Corbyn is a bigger danger to this country and therefore he was wrong but he is very decent man, he said.

Labour could “walk in” the next election, he said, if it chose a more centrist leader, citing Keir Starmer and Hillary Benn as possibly successors to Corbyn.

“Corbyn will be gone by lunch time and might not even make lunch. Then you’ll see hypocrisy you’ve never seen before, people leaping up and down saying we wanted to get rid of him etc,” he explained.

“If the Labour Party had a half decent leader this time we’d be in real trouble,” he told The Australian, suggesting the British electorate had moved to the left on economic matters as a result of rising inequality. “You do feel something has gone wrong with a national as powerful and important as is when so many people are sleeping in the street. Inequality has caused many people to leave to the left,” he said.

Archer has written more than 15 novels, was a Conservative member of parliament in the early 1970s, ahead of an unsuccessful London mayoral bid.

“Boris Johnson is a very good campaigner, I would have voted for Michael Gove myself,” he added, referring to the rival Conservative leader and former minister in the Cameron and May governments.

“The Conservatives can be very proud of the fact they have been fiscally disciplined that hey have stored enough nuts for the winter, but clearly the nuts will be thrown out to every squirrel if Corbyn is elected,” he said.