Boris Johnson bribes voters with crates of milk, orange juice

Election British style: British PM Johnson and crates of orange

Election British style: British PM Johnson and crates of orange juice and milk

Johnson delivering a crate of milk to a home in Guiseley West Yorkshire

On the eve of the British parliamentary election, photographs show Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivering crates of milk and orange juice to some homes in Yorkshire.

Metro.co.uk published photos of the Prime minister delivering milk to a house in Guiseley, near Leeds in West Yorkshire. Two bottles of milk already outside the property were removed beforeJohnson arrived.

Boris reportedly knocked on the door, which was opened by civil servant Debbie Monaghan, 40, who said: ‘Look who’s here.’ She called to her husband Mark, 40, and said: ‘So nice to meet you, Prime Minister. What are you doing up so early?’

“Mr Johnson said he was delivering milk, orange juice, washing up liquid and other things before reiterating campaign pledges”, metro.co,uk reported.

Election British style: British PM Johnson and crates of orange

Mr Monaghan, who works for Northern Powergrid, said: ‘It’s a surprise. It’s very early, I assume he’s travelled a long way but I’m going to vote Conservative so I’m quite pleased.’

The delivery of milk and orange juice was part of the efforts by the Conservatives to win mostly undecided voters as polls now indicate that the election may produce a hung parliament.

Though opinion polls have consistently shown Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party in the lead, surveys suggest the margin may be narrowing before Thursday’s contest.

A closely watched poll released late Tuesday showed his Conservative party’s lead over the main opposition Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn had narrowed.

The YouGov study said the Tories were on course for a 28-seat majority in the 650-seat House of Commons under Britain’s first-past-the-post system. On November 27, it forecast a 68-seat majority.

“The margin of error here could put the final number of Conservative seats from 311 to 367,” YouGov said.

The lower end of that range would leave Britain with another hung parliament, where the biggest party does not have a majority, and the very real possibility of Brexit being delayed for years or even cancelled in a second referendum.

All the parties are nervous about the verdict of a volatile electorate weary after years of wrangling over Brexit, and increasingly willing to abandon long-held party loyalties.

All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election, which is being held more than two years early in a bid to break the political impasse over Brexit.

Johnson has tried to focus on the potential of an uncertain result and a divided Parliament, which would endanger his plan to lead the U.K. out of the European Union on Jan. 31. He started his day before dawn, helping load milk and orange juice bottles onto a delivery vehicle in northern England.

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“This could not be more critical, it could not be tighter — I just say to everybody the risk is very real that we could tomorrow be going into another hung Parliament,” he said. ”That’s more drift, more dither, more delay, more paralysis for this country.”

The main opposition Labor Party said polls showed that momentum was moving in its direction. The party has tried to shift attention from Brexit and onto its plans to reverse years of public spending cuts by the Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, 70, is a passionate campaigner who confounded pollsters by coming within a whisker of winning the last election in 2017.

He has vowed to implement a radically left-wing programme to overhaul public services that have been hit by a decade of austerity caused by the global financial meltdown of 2008-09.

Corbyn, who like Johnson is criss-crossing the country in a frantic bid for last-minute votes, told the undecided that they could vote for “hope” on Thursday.

“We will put money in your pocket because you deserve it. The richest and big business will pay for it,” he said.

Corbyn’s proposal for Brexit is for Labour to strike a more EU-friendly agreement with Brussels, then put it up to a fresh referendum that includes the option of staying in the bloc.

He has spent much of the campaign attacking the Conservatives over its plans for the taxpayer-funded National Healthcare System (NHS).

Labour accused Johnson of abandoning the principle of free treatment for all by opening up the NHS to “Big Pharma” in a post-Brexit trade deal with US President Donald Trump.

Both Johnson and Trump deny the claims.

Polling suggests Corbyn stands almost no chance of winning the election outright and would need smaller opposition support to become first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010.

These include the pro-EU Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Liberal Democrats, which has promised to cancel Brexit altogether.

But SNP support for a Labour coalition government could come at the cost of a promise to back a second referendum on Scottish independence.

The YouGov poll said the SNP was gaining momentum and on course to win 41 seats. But it projected just 15 seats for the Liberal Democrats.

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