Will Boris, Brexit survive the test?

ELECTION DAY Pollsters say UK is heading for a hung parliament with gap between main rival parties narrowing

LONDON: British PM Boris Johnson played the milkman on Wednesday morning, promising surprised residents in west Yorkshire that he not only delivers milk, but will also deliver Brexit if he wins the majority in Thursday’s election described as most crucial in a generation.

Guiseley resident Debbie Monaghan opened the door and was surprised to find Johnson in blue overalls with a crate of milk. Debbie asked him, “So nice to meet you prime minister, what are you doing so early?”

To which Johnson repeated his main election message that besides delivering milk, he would “get Brexit done” and deliver 20,000 new police officers.

Elsewhere in Scotland, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was making similar last-day pitches before the UK goes to the polls for the third time in four years in an atmosphere marked by allegations of lies, blurred party loyalties and deep anxieties about the future spawned by the 2016 vote to leave the EU.

Opinion polls released on Wednesday suggested the country was heading for another hung parliament, with the gap between the Conservative and Labour parties narrowing and neither assured of a clear majority in the 650-member House of Lords.

The significance of Thursday’s election after three years of Brexit talks and inconclusive debates in Westminster is often mentioned in superlatives.

The Guardian said in its editorial: “Britain has not faced a more critical election in decades than the one it faces on Thursday. The country’s future direction, its place in the world and even its territorial integrity are all at stake, primarily because this is a decisive election for Brexit.”

Former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair asking voters to vote against their own party candidates is one of several incongruities thrown up by the election that will determine the shape and form of Brexit by the deadline of January 31, if at all it happens.

The fault-line between the two main contenders, Conservatives and Labour, is this: the former wants a majority to be able to deliver Brexit by the deadline, while the latter wants to renegotiate it and hold another referendum, with the option to remain in the EU.

Thursday’s poll marked by concerted efforts at tactical voting will test the charisma-driven popularity of Johnson and the ideological appeal of Corbyn; an unlikely duo at the top of a country deeply divided over Brexit.