Boris Johnson declares there’s three days to save Brexit amid fears Remainers’ tactical voting may oust him as PM
BORIS Johnson will today declare there are just three days left to save Brexit amid fears that tactical voting may oust him from No 10. The PM begins a final tour of the nation in a frantic push to win over enough Brexiteers to defeat a Remain plot before polling day on Thursday. He is trying […]
BORIS Johnson will today declare there are just three days left to save Brexit amid fears that tactical voting may oust him from No 10.
The PM begins a final tour of the nation in a frantic push to win over enough Brexiteers to defeat a Remain plot before polling day on Thursday.
He is trying to hold off pro-EU campaigners who have mounted an all-out bid to persuade Remainers to join forces in key seats under the banner of “Stop Boris”.
And there were warnings yesterday that an unprecedented one in ten floating voters — three million people — are still to make up their minds.
Sunderland — the symbolic North East city where the Brexit revolution began on the night of the EU referendum — has been picked as the starting point for Mr Johnson’s tour.
There, he will repeat his pledge to invest billions of pounds more in the NHS, schools, infrastructure and the police, saying: “We have just three days to make that a reality.
“Three days to break the deadlock and avoid a hung Parliament, three days to stop the Corbyn-Sturgeon plan for two more referendums, three days to get Brexit done, three days to unleash this country’s potential and move forward with confidence.”
As the election campaign entered its final few days:
- Opinion polls continued to tighten, with one survey by ComRes showing the Tory lead narrowing to only eight points
- Heavy rain and chilly temperatures forecast for Thursday are worrying senior Tories as it may deter some of their older supporters from going to the polls
- Battered by criticism that Mr Johnson has been kept away from voters to avoid PR disasters, Tory campaign chiefs are going to let him loose in the final days to engage with people in pubs and high streets
- Tories also unleashed a major online advertising blitz, including buying the top spot on YouTube, to try to persuade backers to turn out and vote on Thursday.
Mr Johnson’s final tour will take him to all four corners of England and Wales and focus on Labour-held target seats that he must take to win a Commons majority.
Today will be spent in the battlegrounds around the Humber and the North East. In his speech in Sunderland, he will vow: “If I return to Downing Street with a majority, I will work night and day to deliver for you.
FIGHTING REMAINER PLOT
“I will make sure Sunderland’s voice will be heard in the corridors of Westminster and Whitehall like never before.”
One senior Tory on the election trail said: “The campaign has been tightly controlled so far because we didn’t want to give the BBC a headline about Boris getting booed because someone had a go at him.
“That will change in the next few days. We want to generate some energy around Boris, because that’s what he’s good at.”
It comes after the pro-EU Best for Britain group estimated that tactical voting by just 40,700 people in 36 battleground constituencies could prevent a Tory majority.
Another pro-second referendum campaign group, Final Say, also launched an app to advise Remainers which party to vote for in their seats to keep out the Tories.
The PM is even facing a tight race in his own constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, where he is defending a majority of just 5,000.
The Lib Dems were reported to have quietly given up campaigning there to give Labour candidate Ali Milani a free run at Mr Johnson.
But issuing a call for all voters, Remain or Leave, to give him a decisive majority, the PM will also say today: “It’s now been 1,264 days since Sunderland’s roar was heard on the night of 23 June 2016.
“1,264 days in which Parliament should have delivered what you voted for, taken us out of the EU, and addressed all the reasons you voted so decisively for change.
“Instead, we have had 1,264 days of dither and delay, prevarication and procrastination, obfuscation and obstruction.”
WORKING MAJORITY
Pinning the blame on Jeremy Corbyn for voting down Brexit deals four times, he will add: “The Labour Party has let you down most of all.”
Yesterday the PM, accompanied by his new Jack Russell, Dilyn, joined the rest of the Cabinet at the Tories’ call centre in London to hit the phones to floating voters.
A snap was released of Mr Johnson flanked by Chancellor Sajid Javid wearing hands-free earpieces in front of computer screens, before he gave a pep talks to volunteers.
Polling expert Sir John Curtice said the party was on course for a working majority but it was far from in the bag as tactical voting decisions were always made very late.
The Strathclyde University professor added: “The Conservatives are in pole position to win but not so far ahead that that is guaranteed.”
Datapraxis boss Paul Hilder, who projected a tighter Tory victory yesterday, added: “We have never seen as many undecided voters this late in the campaign.
“As many as 80 to 90 constituencies are still up for grabs. A much larger Conservative landslide is still possible — but so is a hung Parliament.”
Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has admitted his crisis-hit Brexit Party might not get a single MP elected.
He fears their vote will be squeezed by the Tories in seats where they have the best chance.
Mr Farage told Sophy Ridge on Sky: “I think there’s a handful in which we’ve got a seriously good chance of winning and I think we will get some in, I genuinely do.”
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On a lighter note, Mr Johnson also claimed there would be a bonking bonanza across Britain if he stayed in No 10 — predicting there would be a post-Brexit baby boom to mirror 2012, the London Olympics year.
He said: “Cupid’s darts will fly once we get Brexit done. Romance will bloom across the whole nation.”
But Boris, 55, batted away talk he might start a family with girlfriend Carrie Symonds, 31, saying: “I am not going to make any demographic projections.”
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