The general election is “not over until the final whistle blows” Rishi Sunak has declared as he held his last rally before the polls open.
The prime minister attempted to drum up support among activists for the final time by warning once more about the “danger” a Labour government would pose to the country.
He told supporters: “We only have a day left to save Britain from the danger of a Labour government – a Labour government that might have a supermajority to hike up everyone’s taxes by thousands of pounds, to shift our politics to the left, to make sure we do absolutely nothing to clamp down on illegal migration, to reverse the cost saving net zero plans that we’ve put in place, to tax the state pension for the first time in our country’s history.
“And to rig the rules so that they stay in power for a decade.”
Mr Sunak added: “We need to wake people up to this danger. It is our job, it is our duty, to make sure that Britain does not sleepwalk into this.
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“Many people may want to say the result of this election is a foregone conclusion, but I believe in my bones that it is not. And I think you do too.”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer struck a decidedly more optimistic tone at his final campaign event in the West Midlands.
He told supporters “two different futures” were on the ballot box and that voters faced a “real choice – a choice to continue with the chaos and the division and the failure we’ve seen for 14 long years, or tomorrow to turn the page and start to rebuild our country.”
The Labour leader also told reporters on board his campaign plane that he felt “confident” as the opening of the polls drew closer – and that “four and a half years of work” changing the party from Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership had been “vindicated”.
“This has not been an easy gig,” he said.
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“When I took over the Labour Party, the optimists said it’ll take 10 years to fix this party and get it back. The pessimists said: ‘You’re never going to fix the party. It’s never going to be a government again.’
“We had a three-part strategy. We stuck to it. And here we are the day before the election in a reasonably good position going into the opening of the polls at 7am tomorrow morning.
“So I’m pleased, I’m confident in the hard work that we’ve done – and we’re ready for what comes next.”
The two men were speaking just hours after YouGov’s final poll for Sky News predicted a wipeout for the Conservatives.
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The MRP poll – which draws from large amounts of data and aims to predict which party will win in every single parliamentary seat – found that Labour is on course for a landslide victory on Thursday, with a majority of 212 seats.
The result will give Sir Keir the biggest majority for any single party since 1832, while Rishi Sunak’s party will be reduced to just 102 seats, down from the 365 they won in 2019 under Boris Johnson.
Some of the biggest names in Conservative politics would lose their seats under the YouGov projection, including 16 of the 26 cabinet ministers still standing, including Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor.
A total of 650 parliamentary constituencies are being contested in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland tomorrow, with polling stations open from 7am until 10pm.