Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn traded the first blows of the election battle at a fiery PMQs session today.
Mr Johnson insisted the Tories are the real party of the NHS as he faced off against the Labour leader for the last time before Parliament dissolves for the campaign.
He dismissed claims from Mr Corbyn that the government is preparing to ‘sell out’ the health service in a trade deal with the US.
Mr Johnson said the NHS was receiving ‘unrivalled and unprecedented sums of taxpayers money’ under the Conservatives. Mr Corbyn was ‘out of his mind’ to try to stop the public and private sectors cooperating to provide better care, he insisted.
The clashes come as Tory and Labour strategists finalise their plans for a ‘mega tough’ and incredibly volatile struggle, where local factors are expected to play a pivotal role.
They are set to target ‘Workington Man’ – older, white, non-graduate male voters living in swing seats in the North of England.
Experts have warned that Mr Johnson’s strident call to ‘get Brexit done’ and blueprint for a loose, Canada-style relationship with the EU could lose his party at least 20 seats to the unashamedly pro-Remain Lib Dems and SNP.
Key battlegrounds will include Cheltenham in Gloucestershire and Stirling north of the border.
To offset the anticipated losses the Conservatives must make significant progress against Labour – probably requiring at least 50 gains to get Mr Johnson the working majority that he craves.
Mr Johnson sought to rally his troops for the pre- Christmas showdown by attacking Jeremy Corbyn at a brutal PMQs session in the Commons
A graphic showing where the vote will be won and lost throughout the country in the snap poll taking place on December 12
Boris Johnson (left in Downing Street last night) is facing off with Jeremy Corbyn (right leaving his London home this morning) in the Commons later
The campaign is getting under way after MPs finally backed a Government Bill for a poll on Thursday, December 12, after weeks of dither and delay by opposition parties.
Mr Johnson said a ‘revitalised’ House of Commons would let Britain leave the EU in the new year.
Jeremy Corbyn, who backed an election just 24 hours after refusing to do so, said Labour would kick out the ‘reckless’ Conservatives and deliver a socialist Britain.
The Prime Minister told MPs the election – the first in December since 1923 – would deliver Brexit after months of ‘unrelenting parliamentary obstructionism’.
He later addressed Tory backbenchers, giving what one claimed was a ‘King Henry V to Agincourt-type speech’.
He told them the campaign would be ‘mega-tough’, and urged them to pull out all the stops for victory.
Conservative MP Robert Halfon said: ‘He said forget about the polls, forget about everything you read, this is going to be an incredibly tough election.
‘No one wants to do an election in December, it’s going to be mega-tough and it’s going to be one of the toughest elections we could ever do.’
The election breakthrough came after the Liberal Democrats and SNP broke ranks with Labour and backed an early poll in which they hope to benefit from Mr Corbyn’s unpopularity with voters.
But election experts yesterday warned a 2019 vote – the third General Election in four years – was likely to be the most unpredictable thanks to the prevalence of smaller parties.
One said the election could result in a House of Commons with as many as 100 MPs from neither the Conservatives nor Labour, making it even harder for either of the main parties to win a majority – opening the door to a hung Parliament and yet further delay over Brexit.
The study by Onward, a Right-leaning think-tank, said today’s swing voter was no longer ‘Worcester Woman’ – seen as a key figure in Tony Blair’s victory in 1997 – but ‘Workington Man’ – named after the town in Cumbria.
He is said to be a typically older, white, non-graduate voter living in rugby league towns in the North. This voter has lived in his home for more than ten years as either a council tenant or owner occupier. He favours security over freedom, thinks the economy and national culture is moving away from his views, and voted Leave.
He works in a skilled manual trade or in a lower managerial role and is likely to live in a town or rural area rather than a city. He is more supportive than most people of a strong leader who does not have to bother with Parliament.
Workington Man wants government to prioritise apprenticeships rather than cut the cost of student loans and thinks it should promote a shared sense of national identity over a diversity of identities.
Jo Swinson’s (left) Liberal Democrats will target Remain-leaning seats in London and the South West and Nicola Sturgeon
The likely manifestos for Boris Johnson’s Tories and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party for the upcoming December 12 election
He is more likely than the rest of the population to think crime is a major issue facing the country and twice as likely to think immigration is a major issue.
He is particularly sceptical about the benefits of globalisation and thinks we have a special responsibility to protect local institutions such as pubs and post offices from closure.
Onward said without the support of Workington Man, a party cannot win a majority. The Labour-held constituency in which these characteristics are most common among voters is the Cumbrian town of Workington, making it the ultimate bellwether seat in the next election.
Workington is a long-standing Labour seat held by Sue Hayman, which voted Leave and has a 4,000 majority.
Will Tanner, director of Onward, said: ‘This election will be the most volatile in living memory and no party should be complacent. But it is clear that the Conservatives’ path to victory runs through working-class rugby league towns like Workington, Warrington and Wigan, which usually do not give them a second thought – as well as the party’s leafy heartlands in the South of England.’
Workington, Warrington and Wigan, which usually do not give them a second thought – as well as the party’s leafy heartlands in the South of England.’
The seven towns that were founding members of rugby’s Super League – Castleford, Halifax, Oldham, St Helens, Warrington, Wigan, Workington – have returned only one Tory MP in every ten elections since 1918 and currently have a median Labour majority of 13,273.
Mr Johnson had previously sought to get an election through a provision in the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act that allows an early poll only if it is backed by two thirds of MPs.
This effectively gave Labour a veto but the backing of the minor parties allowed Mr Johnson to sidestep Mr Corbyn and bring in legislation for an early election that required only a simple majority in the Commons.
Sensing defeat, the Labour leader yesterday performed a U-turn and told his MPs he was now backing an election less than 24 hours after ordering them to block one.
Mr Corbyn last night said Labour would launch ‘the most ambitious and radical campaign for real change that our country has ever seen’.
But veteran Labour MP Barry Sheerman said it was ‘sheer madness’ to hold an early election.
Fellow Labour MP Kevan Jones said: ‘I will not be backing an election under any circumstances – it’s playing right into Boris Johnson’s hands.’ Another Labour MP said: ‘It is mad that we are backing this. We are going to get stuffed.’
Labour MPs made a last-ditch attempt to wreck the election bid by trying to extend the vote to EU nationals and 16- and 17-year-olds. Downing Street insisted there was not enough time to register millions of new voters.
In a significant intervention that could boost his hopes of succeeding John Bercow, deputy Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle ruled that the amendments should not be debated.
Downing Street is confident that Mr Johnson can return a ‘workable’ majority in December, despite being foiled in his ‘do or die’ pledge to take Britain out of the EU by October 31.
Senior Tories point to a run of opinion polls giving the Conservatives a double-digit lead. Polling also suggested that Mr Corbyn is the most unpopular opposition leader of all time.
But polling expert Sir John Curtice has warned that Britain could be on course for another hung parliament, in what could be the most unpredictable election of modern times.
Writing in the Times today, Sir John said at least 20 Tory seats are at risk from the SNP and Lib Dems.
He pointed out that the Lib Dems had ‘revived’ in the polls at around 18 per cent, and SNP support in Scotland was similar to 2017 levels.
‘That means Mr Johnson probably has to accept that he is likely to lose at least 20 seats to the Lib Dems and SNP, and maybe rather more than that,’ Sir John wrote.
‘The Conservatives will have to gain some seats from Labour simply to match the 318 seats Theresa May won last time.
‘However, if the substantial net swing from Labour to Conservative in the present polls were to be realised at the ballot box, there are nearly 50 Labour seats that could fall into the Tory column. Winning those would more than compensate for losses elsewhere.’
Sir John said those targeet constituencies were ‘disproportionately located in the north of England and the Midlands’. In those areas around 55 per cent of voters supported Leave in 2016, higher than the 52 per cent across the country as a whole.
Meanwhile, research has found the Conservatives would achieve a majority of 44 if no strategic voting took place – but anti-Brexit voters could scupper this.
A study by the Best for Britain campaign found if 30 per cent of Remain backers voted in this way they could swing the election and secure a Remain majority of four to deliver a Labour-backed second referendum.
If 40 per cent of pro-Remain voters worked tactically they could return a majority of 36 and a leadership strongly reflecting their Brexit views, according to the research from the group campaigning to stay in the EU.
The research was based on seat-by-seat analysis of 46,000 people over September and October, using a similar technique to one that gave a rare but accurate prediction that Donald Trump would become US president in 2016.
Backed by Lib Dem MP Sir Vince Cable, exiled Tory Dominic Grieve and Labour’s Anna McMorrin, the campaign is encouraging voters to visit getvoting.org to learn how to vote tactically.
Tactical voting could worry Mr Johnson closer to home. He won his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in 2017 with 50 per cent of votes against Labour’s 40 per cent.
With rumours circulating that he may stand elsewhere, there is a chance that Labour or the Lib Dems may seize it from him.
But Best for Britain polling suggests an overwhelming majority of pro-Remain voters would need to vote tactically to edge the PM out.
Pollster Lewis Baston provided the PM with some optimism. ‘My own view is that it will be quite hard in that seat to persuade people that Lib Dems or Labour are out of the running and therefore it’s quite a tough ask,’ he said.
‘I think prime ministers often get a bit of a bump in their own seat anyway so it’s a tough one.’
Brexit strategist Dominic Cummings was at work in Downing Street today as the election battle gears up
Labour MPs ‘don’t want to back Jeremy Corbyn as PM’ as former leadership hopeful Owen Smith QUITS and more than 100 of his own troops REFUSE to get behind snap election
Jeremy Corbyn faces a huge battle to keep Labour together during the snap election today amid claims some of his own MPs don’t want to see him as PM.
The veteran left-winger insists he is ‘ready’ for the dramatic pre-Christmas contest, describing it as a ‘once in a generation chance for change’.
But the scale of infighting within the party was underlined last night when more than 100 of his own MPs ignored his orders to back holding a snap election.
Meanwhile, former leadership contender Owen Smith has announced he will not be standing in his Pontypridd constituency, citing ‘political and personal reasons’.
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured with the shadow cabinet yesterday) faces a huge battle to keep Labour together during the snap election today amid claims some of his own MPs don’t want to see him as PM
Former leadership contender Owen Smith has announced he will not be standing in his Pontypridd constituency, citing ‘political and personal reasons’
Labour MPs have ridiculed Mr Corbyn and his aides for believing they are on the ‘brink of a brave new socialist dawn’, despite grim polls for the party and him personally.
One told MailOnline: ‘They think it is going to happen, he will be walking into No10. A lot of Labour MPs don’t even want that.’
Labour was effectively dragged kicking and screaming into backing an election last night.
For weeks the shadow cabinet and backbenchers had been holding back Mr Corbyn and his closest allies, who were desperate for a poll that is widely seen as the 70-year-old’s last chance for power.
But despite voting down a motion to call an election on Monday, Labour was outflanked when it became clear Boris Johnson had secured Liberal Democrat and SNP support for a Bill triggering a ballot in December.