U.K. elections 2024: Faced with prospect of defeat, Rishi Sunak says ‘fighting hard for every vote’

As the last full day of campaigning  dawned, the U.K.’s Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, faced with the prospect of a crushing defeat at the hands of the opposition Labour Party , said he was still “fighting hard for every vote”.

As the last full day of campaigning dawned, the U.K.’s Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, faced with the prospect of a crushing defeat at the hands of the opposition Labour Party , said he was still “fighting hard for every vote”.

Earlier in the day, one of his Cabinet colleagues, Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride, had told the BBC that the Conservatives should focus on the kind of opposition party they would become, with Labour on its way to getting the “largest majority that this country has ever seen”. On July 2, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman had said the election was “over”.

“What Mel was doing was warning of what a very large Labour majority, unchecked, would mean for people,” Mr. Sunak said on July 3, in an interview with ITV, as the six-week campaign began drawing to a close.

Although the U.K. has had the highest tax burden in 70 years under the Conservative government, the last stretch of the Conservative campaign has focused on warning Britons that Labour as a party of taxation, should not be given such a large majority.

“24 hours to top the tax-raising Labour supermajority,” Mr. Sunak said on X.

Mr. Sunak, the fifth Prime Minister in his party’s 14 year rule, and at risk of losing his own seat in Yorkshire, has been trying to reach out to workers by visiting  warehouses and supermarkets in the last few days of the campaign.

Britons have struggled with a cost of living crisis, high taxes and crumbling public services, including long waits to see doctors in the National Health Service. Immigration and borders are also a politically sensitive issue with the some parties blaming migrants for the drain on public services. Both the major parties have promised checks on migration, with the Conservatives also promising an annual cap on legal migration.