UK election campaign enters final rounds with Brexit on line

Britain’s general election campaign enters its frenetic final stages on Monday, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn desperately seeking votes ahead of Thursday’s crucial poll.

Johnson is hoping to regain the Conservative majority lost by his predecessor Theresa May in the last election, just two years ago, while Corbyn is aiming to upset the odds and usher in the first Labour government for nine years.

Hanging over the election is the issue of Britain’s departure from the European Union, which will be thrown into doubt altogether should Johnson fail to achieve a majority.

Johnson said on Monday he would try to find a way to honour his promise to oppose Heathrow airport expansion by lying down in front of bulldozers but that it might be difficult for him.

The British parliament has approved an expansion plan for Heathrow, including building the first full-length new runway in the London area for 70 years, but the plans are being challenged in the courts.

Before he won the top job, Johnson opposed Heathrow expansion and promised to lie down before bulldozers to stop it.

“On Heathrow, it’s a private sector project which is still to satisfy its strict legal obligations on air quality and noise pollution,” Johnson told LBC radio.

“I don’t see much sign of any bulldozers yet... I would have to find some way of honouring that promise.

“It might be technically difficult to achieve... Let’s wait and see when the bulldozers arrive.”

Asked about a HS2, a proposed high-speed rail project to improve links from London to central and northern England, Johnson said the cost would be more than 100 billion pounds ($128 billion).

“If you come in with a project that’s north than a hundred billion probably, you’ve got to ask yourself, it’s only responsible to the taxpayer, to ask whether it’s being sensibly spent and whether that funding is being prioritised right,” Johnson said. The previous estimate was between 81 and 88 billion pounds.

“Looking at the way these things go, it probably will come on at north of a hunded billion but at the moment you’re right it’s eighty eight and that’s a lot of money and there will be serious questions about whether that is... right.”

The prime minister said on Sunday that the impact of Thursday’s vote would be “felt for decades.”

The high stakes and ideological divisions between Johnson and veteran leftist Corbyn have led to a fractious and personal campaign, with Johnson repeatedly facing questions over his trustworthiness and the Labour leader on the backfoot over anti-Semitism within his party.

The pair traded barbs over Brexit in Friday’s final TV debate, but also on other key election themes such as the health service, austerity and terrorism.

A Conservative majority would almost certainly confirm Britain’s departure from the European Union, but any other result could lead to a second referendum and the 2016 result being overturned.

The Labour leader is proposing to negotiate a softer form of Brexit if he becomes prime minister to put up against remaining in the bloc in the vote.

Johnson is due to visit Brexit-backing Sunderland, northeast England, on Monday in a final push to lure traditional Labour voters to his side.

“The Labour party has let you down most of all,” he was expected to say, according to extracts released by his party.

“Under Jeremy Corbyn, they promised to honour the result of the referendum − before voting against Brexit every chance they had. They won their seats on a false prospectus and then stuck two fingers up to the public.”

Corbyn’s main attack line has been to accuse Johnson of opening up Britain’s cherished National Health Service (NHS) to US businesses as part of a post-Brexit trade deal with President Donald Trump.

Labour’s would-be finance minister John McDonnell will on Monday lay out the early priorities of any future Labour government, including an end to austerity, investment in a “Green Industrial Revolution” and nationalisation of key utilities.

Agence France-Presse