BORIS: WE MUST FIGHT FOR EVERY SINGLE VOTE

As PM wins snap poll after final TV debate, he tells Mail: We face starkest choice in decades

BRITAIN faces its starkest choice in decades at next week’s election, Boris Johnson says today.

in an interview with the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister warns that Britain risks sleepwalking into a coalition government led by ‘the most extreme Left-wing candidate produced by the Labour Party in a century’.

But he promises that a Tory victory would instead usher in a ‘golden decade of prosperity and growth’.

Mr Johnson last night took on Jeremy Corbyn in a live TV debate in which he urged voters to give the ‘nightmare’ of the Labour leader and Nicola sturgeon taking power a miss. A snap YouGov poll judged him the winner by 52 per cent to 48 – the same margin as in the 2016 EU referendum.

in his Mail interview he dismisses surveys suggesting he is on course for a majority, saying nothing is certain after his party’s late collapse in 2017. A Panelbase poll last night suggested

the Tory lead had extended to nine points – up one point in a week. It put the Conservatives on 43, Labour on 34 and the Liberal Democrats on 13.

An Ipsos MORI poll for the London Evening Standard put the Tories on 44 per cent, 12 points ahead of Labour on 32 per cent.

Mr Johnson says: ‘We’ve gotta make sure that we push it right the way to the end, because we saw what happened in 2017. There are only two mathematical possibilities.

‘Either we get a working majority and get Brexit done and unleash the potential of the country, or we have a coalition in which Jeremy Corbyn, the most extreme Left-wing candidate produced by the Labour Party in a century, will be propped up by Nicola Sturgeon.

‘That was the lesson of 2017 and we cannot take anything for granted, you know, we are fighting for every vote. I really urge people to think of the choice that faces us on Thursday because it is very, very stark indeed.’

The warning came as the two leaders clashed in the last head-to-head debate of the campaign – a moment seen as the last chance for Mr Corbyn to change the course of the election.

In the bruising hour-long BBC debate the Prime Minister claimed a coalition government led by Mr Corbyn and Scottish National Party leader Mrs Sturgeon would ‘take this country back decades’.

He repeatedly mocked the Labour leader for refusing to take a side on Brexit, saying: ‘It is a failure of leadership not to have a position.’

The snap YouGov poll on the debate also found 55 per cent of the public thought that Mr Johnson was the more likeable of the two men – with only 36 per cent choosing Mr Corbyn.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Johnson:

Gives a ‘cast-iron guarantee’ to fix the social care crisis by the end of the next parliament and praises the Mail’s campaign on the scandal;

Vows to recreate the ‘incredible surge of excitement’ of the 2012 Olympics by backing a World Cup bid;

Pledges to bring back the ‘ancient liberty’ of selling fresh produce by traditional imperial measurements;

Hits back at the BBC’s

Andrew Neil by saying questions over his trustworthiness ‘make my blood boil’;

Says his new philosophy of ‘boosterism’ will heal Britain’s divisions by bringing opportunity to left-behind areas.

In the interview, Mr Johnson rejects Remainer claims that Brexit has divided the country, saying the referendum has ‘illuminated problems that we can now solve’.

He claims ‘the Sun will come out’ once Britain has finally left the EU, with a £150billion ‘wave of investment’ at hand. ‘I think (there) will be a golden decade of prosperity and growth, we can get Brexit done and unleash the potential of this country, we can move forward,’ he says.

‘We can do things in a way that we haven’t been able to do before – we will shrug off the incubus of Brexit that’s been on the back of the British body politic.

‘We will dispel the fog of doubt and trepidation that has enveloped us for the last three-and-a-half years. The sun will come out – it will – and we will be able to, we will be able to do things that we haven’t done before.

‘We will be able to bring our nation together.’

Mr Johnson was yesterday fighting media battles on two fronts after aides confirmed he would not subject himself to an interview by Mr Neil.

The veteran broadcaster hit out angrily, saying he had planned a half-hour interview focused almost entirely on whether Mr Johnson could be trusted.

Aides accused the BBC of ‘losing the plot’ over the issue and predicted the row ‘will not cost us a single vote’.

Mr Johnson was locked in another row with Channel 4 after the broadcaster wrongly accused him of making a racist comment.

The broadcaster tweeted a clip of the Prime Minister with subtitles claiming he had called for control over immigration for ‘people of colour’.

However, Mr Johnson actually said ‘people of talent’ and Channel 4 News was forced to delete the footage and issue a humiliating apology.

The move came a week after the station incurred No10’s ire by replacing Mr Johnson with a melting ice sculpture in a debate on climate change.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith posted a picture online yesterday of a decomposing rat sent to his campaign office. His Chingford seat in north- east London, which he has held for 22 years, is a key Labour target.

‘Dispel the fog of doubt’