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Rishi Sunak pleads with voters not to surrender and hand Labour a supermajority - as just 130,000 votes could stop Keir Starmer

4 months ago 13

By Claire Ellicott Whitehall Editor

Published: 23:52 BST, 1 July 2024 | Updated: 23:56 BST, 1 July 2024

Rishi Sunak will today implore voters to use the power in their hands to deny Sir Keir Starmer a supermajority.

The Prime Minister will say that as few as 130,000 votes could swing the result and decide as many as 100 seats as he insists the election is not a 'foregone conclusion'.

In a speech today – with just 48 hours to go until the election – he will tell voters: 'You have the power to use your vote to prevent an unchecked Labour government.'

He will target former Tory voters who are considering voting Reform, and those who see a Labour win as an inevitability and plan to stay at home.

'If the opinion polls were to be reflected on election day, the UK would be headed for an unaccountable Labour supermajority – meaning higher taxes and uncontrolled migration, and an unchecked Labour party in power for a generation,' he will warn at the Oxfordshire event.

Rishi Sunak will today implore voters to use the power in their hands to deny Sir Keir Starmer a supermajority

'However, independent analysis shows an estimated 130,000 votes could decide upwards of 100 seats. In tight constituency races, just a small number of people lending their vote to the Conservatives would prevent a Labour supermajority.' Last night he urged Tory supporters not to 'surrender to Labour' and to fight for every vote.

An analysis of a YouGov MRP poll for The Times last week showed Labour could lose its projected majority if just 130,000 switch their votes before polling day.

It suggested that, despite Labour being on course for a landslide victory, the party's vote is so narrowly distributed that even a small swing could have dramatic consequences in terms of seats.

Just 34,000 swing voters in key seats could halve Labour's projected 200 majority, while the party would lose its majority if only 132,000 voters in the tightest races opt for the next-placed candidates.

It came as Sir Keir targeted traditionally true Blue seats on the campaign trail yesterday, touring Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. All three seats he visited are forecast to turn red, according to various polls, despite once being considered safe for the Conservatives. Asked yesterday about his choice of campaign stops, Sir Keir said: 'There are no 'no-go' areas.

It came as Sir Keir targeted traditionally true Blue seats on the campaign trail yesterday, touring Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire

'I want to come to places like this, places that we wouldn't normally win, because I think it's important we see the task of earning every vote as one that is across the whole of country.'

At a campaign event in Leicestershire last night, Mr Sunak said: 'We have three days to save Britain from the danger of a Labour government.

'A Labour government that would hike up everyone's taxes by £2,000, would shunt our politics to the Left, and they would change the rules to entrench themselves in power for a decade. We cannot let Britain sleepwalk into this. It is our job, it is our duty to wake people up to that danger. So I say to every Conservative don't surrender to Labour, fight for every vote, fight for our values.'

Earlier he said voting for anyone but the Tories would make the UK a 'soft touch' on immigration. He said Sir Keir was going to cancel the Rwanda flights 'precisely at the time when the rest of Europe is recognising that having a safe alternative to send people is the right approach'.

Sir Keir's predecessor Jeremy Corbyn told the i newspaper that the Labour leader had imposed a 'straitjacket of conformity' on the party and warned him against being overconfident if he wins a big majority. Sir Keir said he wasn't going to apologise for putting Labour 'in a position to win an election'.

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