The Conservative Party has entered the final day of election campaigning warning of a Labour landslide “the like of which we have never seen before”.
Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, suggested Labour could secure a victory that surpasses both Tony Blair’s in 1997 and the Conservative Party’s performance in 1931.
The Conservative Party’s victory at the 1931 election, winning 470 seats, remains the record for the largest share of the total seats in parliament (76.4 per cent) won by any single party.
Stride told GB News: “I think it is fairly clear from the polls, they have been consistent for some time now, that we are likely tomorrow to be heading to an extraordinary landslide on the part of the Labour Party.
“Not just 1997, not even 1931, but something probably the like of which we have never ever seen before. And I think that does legitimately throw up questions about scrutiny and opposition going forward.”
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Stride went on to suggest that the Conservatives will have “plenty of time” to think about how best to “reconstruct” if the party loses the election on Thursday.
The key Sunak ally said: “If the polls are correct and we do end up with a very large majority for a Labour government then we will have plenty of time to [think] … about how we reconstruct our party, reposition it and get it back into the position that it should be as the natural party of government.”
Speaking to GB News, he added: “But that is going to be a longer term thing and a long term set of discussions I think.”
Stride’s comments came as the election campaign entered its final day, with party leaders making one last push to win over wavering voters.
Tuesday evening saw a surprise appearance by Boris Johnson at a Conservative campaign event, although the 2019 election winner did not appear on stage with the prime minister.
However, he did claim that his former chancellor had asked him to address Tory activists. “When Rishi asked me to come and help of course I couldn’t say no. We’re all here because we love our country”, he said.
Asked why Boris Johnson had not been deployed earlier in the campaign, instead of on the penultimate day, Stride told GB News: “I have no idea as to why the timing was what it was but I think it is very clear why it has happened which is that he – Theresa May has been out, David Cameron has been out, Rishi Sunak obviously leading us into this election – wants to see a Conservative government.
He added: “This is about what is going to happen tomorrow, it is about whether we want to see a country that is going to have lower taxes going forward or it is going to be a country under Keir Starmer that is going to see taxes rising very considerably.
“And it is also about how parliament is going to operate and whether we are going to have an effective opposition or not because if you look at the polls it is pretty clear that Labour at this stage are heading for an extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before.”
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