BORIS Johnson started off his final day of campaigning by hiding in a fridge to avoid Piers Morgan.
It almost certainly wasn’t the end to the General Election the Prime Minister and his team had been hoping for, but the footage of him avoiding an interview with Good Morning Britain host soon went viral.
The Tory boss has been criticised for not putting himself forward for scrutiny over the last few weeks. He avoided an interview with BBC bruiser Andrew Neil, despite all other party leaders subjecting themselves to his scrutiny
He also refused to take part in Channel 4’s leaders debate on climate change. The broadcaster replaced him with an ice sculpture.
Johnson also refused to go on BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show, again, the only party leader to do so.
Yesterday morning, the Prime Minister was approached by Good Morning Britain’s Jonathan Swain during a campaign visit to a milk delivery company in Yorkshire.
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In the exchange, which was broadcast live on ITV, the reporter asked: “Would you come on Good Morning Britain, Prime Minister?”
Johnson’s press secretary, Rob Oxley, could be heard mouthing “oh for f**k's sake” in response, drawing “ooohs” from Morgan and co-host Susanna Reid in the studio.
Pressed by Swain, Johnson then “I’ll be with you in a second” before then walking off into the fridge.
One onlooker could be heard saying: “It’s a bunker.”
According to reports, the Tories insisted Oxley’s cursing was “a general expression of frustration and was not aimed at the journalist”.
The fridge brouhaha came as a new YouGov poll suggested the Tories could still fail to secure a majority.
The detailed, data heavy MRP poll, predicted the Tories would win 339 seats, Labour 231, the SNP 41 and the Lib Dems 15.
That would give Johnson an overall majority of 28.
But YouGov’s Anthony Wells said the margin of error meant the final number of Tory seats could be between 311 to 367.
Wells said: “This means that we absolutely cannot rule out the 2019 election producing a hung parliament – nor can we rule out a larger Conservative majority.”
Jeremy Corbyn was on a whistle-stop tour of the UK. Starting in Glasgow, he moved to the north of England, to Labour’s so-called red wall, the leave voting, working class seats who have traditionally backed the party of the left.
At a rally of supporters in Middlesbrough, he insisted Labour could still win.
“Of course we are going to do it – no problem at all,” he said.
“We are campaigning all over the country with thousands of people on the streets campaigning, carrying a message of hope.”
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Meanwhile, LibDem leader Jo Swinson was in London and Surrey where her party hope to pick up seats, including the Esher and Walton constituency, where polls have suggested Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab might be vulnerable.
Swinson said the polls showed it was still “absolutely possible” to deny the Tories an overall majority through tactical voting.
“We know from past elections that very often voters who vote tactically come to that conclusion in the final hours before they cast their vote,” she said.
Meanwhile, according to the Electoral Commission’s publication of donations above £7500, the Tories were given more than £3 million in the fourth week of the election campaign.
Labour took in just £727,000.
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