British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched the election campaign on Tuesday ahead of Thursday’s vote. He urged voters “not to do something they will regret” and warned against giving the opposition Labour an “overwhelming majority”.
All pre-election opinion polls have indicated a strong mandate for the Labour Party, causing the Conservative Party, led by incumbent Rishi Sunak, to step back and warn voters against “Labour without borders” led by Sir Keir Starmer.
Both main party leaders are using the final two days of campaigning to visit as many parts of the United Kingdom as possible, especially where they hope there are still some undecided voters they can sway.
“Once you make this decision on Thursday, there’s no going back. Don’t do something you’ll regret,” Rishi Sunak posted on X, laying out his main message: that a Labour-led government would raise taxes for everyone in the country.
Once you take this decision on Thursday, there is no looking back.
Don’t do something you’ll regret.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 2, 2024
The 44-year-old British Indian leader said, “You have 48 hours to rein in a Labour majority that will raise your taxes.” He added: “Stop the supermajority. Vote Conservative on July 4.” Speaking to the BBC, he said: “My point is that if the polls are to be believed and Labour gets a big majority, they will run amok and will not be accountable to the people and that will give them a licence to tax everybody and we will be soft on immigration when it comes to the whole of the European continent.
“I don’t want people to sleepwalk into this. That’s why I’m working very hard for every vote. I want to stay in office so I can cut people’s taxes, protect their pensions and secure our borders.” It comes after BBC polling expert Sir John Curtice declared that Rishi Sunak’s chances of remaining prime minister on Friday were greater than lightning striking twice in the same place.
Rishi Sunak said: “That is their view, it won’t stop me working as hard as I possibly can in these last few days. I will stay out until the very last moment of this campaign.”
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer, 61, has been keen to stress that “every vote counts” to prevent any possibility of dissension among voters who might feel the election was rigged in his party’s favour.
He said, “If we come to serve the country we have tough challenges in terms of legacy, almost everything is broken, nothing is working, nothing is better than it was 14 years ago. For this we need a strong mandate.”
In an interview with The Times, the Labour leader attempted to present Tory warnings about a “Labour supermajority” as a silver lining as he stressed the need for a strong mandate to “profoundly change” the country so that people have “more money in their pockets”.
Keir Starmer, who is expected to arrive at 10 Downing Street by Friday evening, insisted the bigger majority meant “we can roll up our sleeves and make the changes we need.”
The Labour Party has described its vision as focused on greater growth through major planning reforms and skills improvements, and has rejected plans to raise taxes across all sectors.
“The most important thing is growing the economy and creating wealth. I think that’s been the weakness for the last 13 years. You can talk about public services, but you can’t do that if your economy isn’t working. You can’t grow your economy if you haven’t addressed the challenges of planning and infrastructure,” Keir Starmer stressed.
Both party leaders will use the final hours of campaigning to drive home their respective messages before voting stations open across the country at 7am local time on Thursday. After polls close at 10pm local time, Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will anxiously await the results from the UK parliament’s 650 constituencies – 326 are needed for a majority. Meanwhile, the traditional election night exit poll at 10pm will give them and the country a glimpse of what to expect at a national level.
If opinion polls are to be believed, the incumbent Tories could win between 53 and 150 seats, while Labour is predicted to win by a landslide. Some polls even suggest the margin of victory could be greater than Tony Blair’s defeat of John Major in 1997, when he won a 179-seat majority and a total of 418 seats, the most seats Labour has ever won.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)