Reuters: Britain’s Conservative Party all-but conceded election defeat to Keir Starmer’s Labour on Wednesday, a day before polling stations even opened, and warned that the opposition party was on course for a record-breaking victory.
Opinion polls show the centre-left Labour Party is set for a big win in Thursday’s vote that would end 14 years of Conservative government and hand Starmer the keys to the prime minister’s Number 10 Downing Street office on Friday morning.
You Gov’s final seat projection published on Wednesday put Labour on track to win a majority of 212 seats, the largest of any party in modern history.
Both Starmer and Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak kicked off the last day of campaigning before polls open warning voters of dire economic consequences if the other man wins.
But, facing predictions of the worst result in the party’s history, the Conservatives turned their focus to damage limitation, saying they needed to hang on to enough seats to provide an effective opposition to a Labour government.
“I totally accept that where the polls are at the moment means that tomorrow is likely to see the largest Labour landslide majority, the largest majority that this country has ever seen,” Conservative minister Mel Stride told the BBC.
“What therefore matters now is what kind of opposition do we have, what kind of ability to scrutinise government is there within parliament.”
Asked about Stride’s comments, Sunak told ITV: “I’m fighting hard for every vote”.
Rupert Murdoch-owned British tabloid newspaper The Sun endorsed Labour and Starmer on Wednesday, saying in an editorial published online: “It’s time for a change.”
“The insurmountable problem faced by the (Conservatives) is that – over the course of 14 often chaotic years – they have become a divided rabble, more interested in fighting themselves than running the country,” the newspaper, which has backed the Conservatives at every election since 2010, said.
