Rishi Sunak has insisted predictions of a Tory defeat are “not going to stop me” after the likelihood of his return to Downing Street was put at less than “lightning striking twice in the same place” by a polling expert.
Asked during a BBC Breakfast interview whether he accepted the analysis by elections guru Professor Sir John Curtice, the Prime Minister said: “That’s his view.
“That’s not going to stop me from working as hard as I can over these final few days to talk to as many people as possible about the choice,” Mr Sunak said, from a supermarket in Oxfordshire.
“I was up at 4 this morning talking to workers at a distribution facility. I’m here talking to you. I’ll be out till the last moment of this campaign, because I think it’s a really important choice for the country.”
Mr Sunak kicked off a final push for votes on the last two days of the campaign with an early-morning visit to an Ocado packing plant in Bedfordshire and a stop at a Morrisons near Witney – the former Oxfordshire seat of Lord David Cameron where the Tories won with a 15,200 majority in 2019.
In a last-ditch attempt to rally wavering Conservative voters, the Tory leader will claim in a speech later on Tuesday that just 130,000 voters could prevent a Labour “supermajority”.
He denied his switch from talking about his policy plans to warnings about a landslide for Sir Keir Starmer was the language of defeat.
“No, I’m very much still talking to people about our plan,” he said.
“My point is, if the polls are to believed and Labour win a big majority, they will be unchecked and unaccountable to people, and that will give them license to put up everyone’s taxes and make us a soft touch on migration when it comes to the entire European continent.”
Mr Sunak also defended the Tory campaign, despite it having failed to narrow the opinion poll gap with Labour.
Asked if he had got the campaign wrong, after it was hit by debacles including his early D-Day departure and the gambling row, the Prime Minister said: “No, actually. Everywhere I’ve been going, people are waking up to the dangers of what a Labour government would mean for them, particularly when it comes to taxes.”
He said that under the Tories, things are “undeniably” better than they were a few years ago.
The worst moment of his premiership was failing to reduce NHS waiting lists, he said.
You name it, Labour will tax it.
— Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) July 1, 2024
With persistently dire poll ratings, the Tory strategy has shifted towards preventing bleeding votes to Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats and saving as many MPs as possible to form an effective opposition.
Health minister Maria Caulfield claimed “the polls starting to narrow as people are really thinking about the implications should they have a Labour government after Thursday”.
She told GB News: “If they did get what’s called a supermajority, it does mean there is absolutely no scrutiny of them.”
In a plea to would-be Reform voters, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said the issues they are concerned about, including immigration and wanting politicians to “stand up for British values”, “we’re concerned about as well”.
She told Times Radio: “My message to them is if you want people who can actually be in government, who can actually tackle the things that you’re worried about, then actually the Conservatives can do that.”
Meanwhile, Sir Keir said a big Labour majority would be “better for the country”.
The Labour leader will hammer home his get-out-the-vote message on a whistlestop campaign tour to Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire on Tuesday.
In an interview with The Times, he said he needed a “strong mandate” to reform the planning system and improve the economy.
Asked if he was saying the bigger a majority the better, he told the newspaper: “Better for the country. Because it means we can roll up our sleeves and get on with the change we need.”
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is continuing his action-packed campaign tour to the South West of England where he will call on voters to “end the sewage scandal”.
