Torie party leaders predict Labour win as Starmer warns against lowering voter turnout

A very close friend of Rishi Sunak's in the cabinet said that Labour is on track to get "the largest majority any party has ever achieved."

The work and pensions secretary, Mel Stride, said it was "doubtful" that the polls were wrong and that her party would lose the election on Thursday.

Stride's words came as Sunak, Keir Starmer, and other candidates started their last day of campaigning before people go to the polls. In answer, Starmer said that the Conservatives were trying to keep people from voting.

During the six-week campaign, Labour has kept a 20-point lead over the Conservatives in the polls, which suggests it is on track for a majority victory.

Stride tried to warn against giving Labour "untrammeled" power.

He backed Sunak's bid for Tory leadership and has often been asked to speak out for the government on TV and radio.

He said on BBC Radio 4's Today show, "I have accepted that where the polls are at the moment—and it seems very unlikely that they are very, very wrong because they have been consistently in the same place for some time—that tomorrow we are very likely to have [with Labour] the largest majority that any party has ever achieved."

He also said, "If you look at the polls, it is pretty clear that Labour is heading for an extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never been seen in this country before."

He said the opposition in parliament would be more vigorous if about 130,000 people in about 100 close areas thinking about choosing Reform or Liberal Democrat backed the Tories. As Stride told LBC, "I am worried about an unchecked Labour party in power. That must be checked, and people will regret it if we do not have that."

Suella Braverman, who used to be home secretary and could be a candidate for Tory leadership if Sunak steps down, wrote in the Telegraph that the election was "over" and that the Tories should no longer be trying to win. She called for a "sparingly honest post-match analysis."

"Now, getting enough people to vote against them on Thursday," she wrote. "One needs to see the writing on the wall: it is over, and we need to get ready for the truth and defeat of opposition."

Starmer said that Stride and Braverman's comments were an attempt to keep people from voting so they would not lose as many votes.

At an event in Wales, the Labour leader told reporters, "You can see what the Tories are up to." "They are trying to get people not to exercise their democratic right to vote, which means they do not want people to vote." The Tory party has come to the wrong place. With 24 hours to go, a party that used to be admired now says, "There is nothing positive about this; everything is negative." This is a strategy to get people not to vote.

Braverman said that the Tories' lousy poll numbers were due to a split in the party caused by Nigel Farage's Reform UK becoming more popular.

She said, "It is interesting that Labour's vote share has not grown much in the last few weeks, but our vote is going away from both the left and the right." The critics will use Boris Johnson. Liz [Truss], Rwanda, and, I will be honest, even I will all be bad for our "centrist" choice.

"The truth is a bit different: we are losing many votes to Reform." Why? We have been in charge for 14 years and have not done anything to cut immigration, raise taxes, or deal with the net-zero and woke policies.

Boris Johnson showed up at a gathering on Tuesday night to give the Conservative Party a late boost.

He said, "I have had boiled eggs that have lasted longer than this show of unity." Pat McFadden is the national campaign leader for Labour.

"Almost before he [Johnson] was done talking, Suella Braverman in the Telegraph said it was all a terrible mess," McFadden told. "Boris is throwing his weight behind a prime minister way too late. To borrow a phrase from Northern Ireland, I think even the dogs in the street know little love is lost there."

A Salvation MRP poll with data on individual seats said it was "99% certain" that Starmer would win more seats than his party in Tony Blair's victory. In 1997, Labour took over 418 seats.

The poll of 34,558 people said that the Commons leader, Penny Mordaunt, in Portsmouth North, the defense secretary, Grant Shapps, in Welwyn Hatfield, and the party chair, Richard Holden, in Basildon and Billericay could all lose their seats to Labour.

It also said that the governor, Jeremy Hunt, would lose in Godalming, and Ash and Gillian Keegan would lose in Chichester to the Liberal Democrats.