- Election race heats up, with no easy landslide victory on horizon
As the early U.K. general election on June 8 gets closer, the gap between the Conservative Party and Labor Party continues to narrow. Only a few weeks ago was Conservative party leader and Prime Minister Theresa May confident of a landslide victory when polls indicated a 24 point lead for the Tories ahead of Labor. Although May previously insisted since the EU referendum on refraining from holding a general election until 2020, the possibility of a landslide victory could have played a pivotal role in changing her mind in calling for early elections in June. If Labor support continues and polls results are replicated on Election Day, the Conservative Party could well have a much smaller majority than anticipated.
The Survation poll for ITV’s Good Morning Britain puts May’s Conservatives at 43 percent, unchanged from a week ago but Labor saw a three-point increase to 37 percent. The Lib Dems are on 8 percent, UKIP on 4 percent and the Greens are at just one percent. According to the prediction website Electoral Calculus, this poll would give the Tories a majority of 40 with 345 seats up by 14, while Labor would be down seven seats to 225 and the Lib Dems down from five seats to three.
However, there will be further polls to watch closely ahead of the general election. According to the YouGov poll, 20 percent of voters are still undecided. Consequently, TV debates could play an important role for these swing voters over the next few days.
On Monday night Sky News and Channel Four hosted both May and Corbyn in the “Battle for Number 10” interviewed by veteran journalist Jeremy Paxman. Both leaders were cornered by hard questions both by Paxman and the audience. Corbyn insisted he would not "soften" Britain's foreign policy if he becomes Prime Minister. One audience member claimed Corbyn had "openly supported the IRA in the past" by attending a commemoration for eight IRA members killed by the SAS. Corbyn responded that the commemoration was for a period of silence for "everyone who died in Northern Ireland" at the 1987 event.
"The contribution I made to that meeting was to call for a peace and dialogue process in Northern Ireland,” he said.
May was also questioned about her “U-turns” in insisting for months on not having a general election until 2020 and then changing her mind and calling for early elections in June. The recent step back from the social care cap was also considered a U-turn. Paxman said the people in Brussels would think she was a "blowhard who collapses at the first sign of gunfire.” Some found those remarks too hard and were shocked, while some in the audience applauded. One way or another, the recent TV debates will be very important for undecided voters to see how much the leaders are prepared to deviate from their election promises and party slogans.
