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Voters head to the polls in ‘the most important election in a generation’

Parliament
Parliament

Voters will head to the polls today in what is being billed as the most important general election in a generation.

Politicians of all stripes have been frantically criss-crossing the country over the last five weeks making promises and pledges in a bid to win your support.

As campaigning came to a close last night, the two men who would be prime minister on Friday held their final campaign rallies and reiterated their visions for the future of the UK.

Boris Johnson, whose day got off to a bumpy start after he “hid” in a fridge on live TV to avoid a journalist, called on the public to back him to “end the gridlock” at Westminster.

He said: “Enough is enough.

“If we can smash through the parliamentary gridlock, the Government will be able to concentrate on changing the country for the better – strengthening the NHS with £34 billion extra funding and 50,000 extra nurses, supporting schools with £150 million extra every week, keeping people safe with 20,000 more police officers on the streets.

“There’s a wave of investment just waiting to pour into this country, but only if we end the Brexit uncertainty.”

Final opinion polls suggested that the Conservatives remain in front, but Mr Johnson said the election rested on a “knife-edge”.

He said: “We could have another hung parliament with more of the same. Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon are already stitching up deals to block Brexit in their coalition negotiations.

“Their plans would wreck our economy, with more borrowing and higher taxes.”

The Labour leader, who kicked his campaign off in Glasgow yesterday, called on people to “vote for hope” and kick Mr Johnson out of Downing Street.

He said: “We stand at a fork in the road. The choice facing you, the people of this country, is truly historic.

“The establishment doesn’t want Labour to win. They don’t want a Labour government on the side of the people, shaking up how this country is run.

“Boris Johnson won’t just keep everything the same, he will make it worse. He will open our NHS to takeover by American mega corporations and carry on with more cuts.

“That’s why Donald Trump wants Boris Johnson’s Conservatives to win.”

He added: “When Labour wins, the nurse wins, the pensioner wins, the student wins, the office worker wins, the engineer wins. We all win. The future is ours to make together, and it’s time for real change for the many, not the few.”

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was out with SNP candidates in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling and Dunbartonshire yesterday, while Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson was concentrating her efforts in London.

A final constituency-by-constituency poll by YouGov forecast that the Conservatives are on course for a 28-seat majority.

However, it warned that the margin of error – together with the unknown impact of tactical voting – meant a hung parliament is still possible, as is a larger Tory majority.

The pollsters, who have analysed more than 100,000 voter interviews over the past week, calculated the Tories would win 339 seats and Labour 231.

A 28-seat majority would be the best Tory result since Margaret Thatcher’s showing in 1987 – but it is sharply down from the 68-seat victory margin that was being forecast just two weeks ago.

Chris Curtis, YouGov’s political research manager, said: “The margins are extremely tight and small swings in a small number of seats, perhaps from tactical voting and a continuation of Labour’s recent upward trend, means we can’t currently rule out a hung parliament.”