Jeers for May but polls show her still ahead
Print Edition
BRITISH politicians raced around the country yesterday, the final day of campaigning for a parliamentary election that will define the approach to leaving the European Union but has been overshadowed by two militant attacks in as many weeks.
Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip were greeted with jeers of “Vote Labour” as they visited a London meat market.
Later in the morning she enjoyed a warmer reception 110 kilometers away at a bowls club in Southampton, while Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the opposition Labour Party, started the day in the Scottish city of Glasgow.
May unexpectedly called the June 8 election seven weeks ago, seeking to boost her parliamentary majority ahead of the start of Brexit negotiations and to win more time to deal with the impact of the EU divorce.
But the campaign has seen a number of unexpected twists, including the deadliest militant attack in Britain since 2005 and the shrinking of May’s once commanding lead of over 20 percentage points in opinion polls.
Attacks by Islamist militants in Manchester and London threw the spotlight on security, while May was forced to backtrack on a social care policy pledge.
“Give me your backing in the polling station tomorrow to battle for Britain in Brussels,” May said. “Get those negotiations wrong and the consequences will be dire.”
May has repeatedly said only she can deliver the right deal for Britain and that opponents would lead its US$2.5 trillion economy to ruin in the negotiations with the EU.
Pollsters expect May to win a majority.
But if she fails to beat handsomely the 12-seat majority her predecessor David Cameron won in 2015, her electoral gamble will have failed and her authority will be undermined both inside her Conservative Party and at talks with the 27 other EU leaders.
When May stunned political opponents and financial markets by calling the snap election, her poll ratings indicated she could be on course to win a landslide majority on a par with the 1983 majority of 144 won by Margaret Thatcher.
But May’s poll lead has shrunk over the past three weeks. Latest polls put her party anywhere between 12 to 1 point ahead. One projection said she would win a majority of 64 seats.
The first handful of seat results are then expected to be announced by 2300 GMT tonight, with the vast majority of the 650 consituencies due to announce results between 0200 GMT and 0500 GMT on Friday morning.
The last week of campaigning has been held in the shadow of an attack by three Islamist militants who on Saturday drove a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before attacking revellers in bars and restaurants with knives, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens.
British police hunting for a missing Frenchman found a body in the river, which could lift the toll to eight.
Security has dominated the final weeks of campaigning.
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