Politicians are targeting the ‘undecideds’ in the final three days of campaigning before Thursday’s general election and despite the Tory poll lead everything is still to play for.
Political parties will be blitzing voters in a frantic final push to win their support with polling firm YouGov stating that 13% of the population have yet to make their minds up.
It is an unprecedented number, according to Prospect magazine who say “as many as 80-90 constituencies are still up for grabs” meaning a hung parliament is still possible, as too a Conservative landslide.
Recent polls show Labour has made some ground and cut into the Tory lead but the same polls show Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are still set to win an overall majority of 38 seats, according to Prospect, which is ten seats fewer than their 48 seat prediction two weeks ago.
Sky News election analyst professor Will Jennings said “If the pattern of the 2017 campaign is repeated, then undecided voters (who are more likely to be women) will tend to break for Labour.”
Tories target Red Wall
The so-called Red Wall will continue to be a key battleground as Labour try desperately to hold onto seats in their post-industrial strongholds stretching from Wales and across the Midlands into the north of England.
Brexit has transformed the traditional political landscape and Johnson is in Sunderland today, at the beginning of a northern tour of Leave backing constituencies.
“He’ll play up much of the People versus Parliament rhetoric that we expected this election to have, but which has been surprisingly absent so far,” writes the Daily Telegraph’s Front Bench editor Daniel Capurro.
‘The great betrayal’
Johnson’s speech will label Brexit as the “great betrayal, orchestrated from Islington by politicians who sneer at your values and ignore your votes.”
It is a direct attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn given his constituency is Islington and could set the tone for a fiery end to the election campaign which began with Corbyn asking voters to decide “whose side are you on?”
Johnson unveiled the Tories new three tier immigration policy at the weekend, in a further bid to win support from Leave supporters in Red Wall constituencies .
Labour government’s first 100 days
Labour have hit back with shadow chancellor John McDonnell today promising his party will end austerity in February and repeatedly attacking Johnson for being untrustworthy.
In his speech in London’s Waterloo, McDonnell set out the plans for a Labour government’s first 100 days that would kick-start a green revolution and transform public services with a huge boost in spending and the re-nationalisation of key utilities.
He said Labour must tackle the climate crisis and the devastation caused by a decade of Tory austerity: “There is a twin emergency in this country. These next few days are going to be key in addressing them.”
‘Johnson has betrayed unionists’
On Johnson, he said: “I agree with [DUP leader} Arlene Foster – you won’t hear those words very often – you can’t trust him. We have a prime minister who cannot be trusted.”
Foster- whose party’s ten MPs kept Theresa May’s government in power – said Johnson had betrayed unionists in Northern Ireland with a deal that puts a border down the Irish Sea. The prime minister had broken the promise he had made to them at their party conference last year, Foster told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
