‘To elect Labour now, as this country stands at an historic juncture, would be unthinkable folly’

This has been an election campaign like no other. Voters will go to the polls tomorrow to elect a government for the second time in two years in circumstances significantly different from those of 2015, when David Cameron won the first Tory majority for 25 years.

The country is at a crossroads. Ahead lies Brexit and the opportunity to negotiate a better future. Of more immediate concern are questions of security arising from the terrorist attacks in Manchester and London. Decisions to be taken in the next 18 months will be critical to this country’s economic wellbeing and, conceivably, to its social cohesion. It is a time, therefore, for stability, not for taking a reckless gamble.

Electing a Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn and his coterie of hard-left allies would be such a gamble at any time. To elect Labour now, as this country stands at an historic juncture, would be unthinkable folly. Labour is hopelessly divided over Brexit, its leader stands accused of being a terrorist sympathiser and it’s no exaggeration to suggest the party’s tax-and-spend plans for the economy would bankrupt Britain.

The only point on which most Labour MPS are united is that their leader is unfit to run the party, let alone the country. True, the Conservative campaign has not been flawless and Mrs May will doubtless have learnt from the experience.

But the fundamentals of this election have not changed since the day it was called. Mrs May chose to go to the country to strengthen her hand in the forthcoming Brexit talks and for the next two years this is all that matters. In less than a fortnight, negotiations will begin over the terms for the UK’S departure; the idea that these would be in the hands of Mr Corbyn and the shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell does not bear thinking about.

Nor does the prospect of our police and security services being run by Diane Abbott. Even if Mrs May is facing questions over her record in the Home Office in the light of the recent terror attacks, matters would be infinitely worse under Labour.

The election offers the starkest choice in many years between a Conservative Party largely wedded to prudent economics and a socialist Labour Party offering a fantasy land of state control, free service provision and higher benefits, all financed by a cohort of better-off taxpayers and big business without any sense of how this might disincentivise earners and cause revenues to plunge.

Mr Corbyn is judged to have campaigned well but he was held in such low esteem that he had nowhere to go but up. His hapless performances at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons belied the fact that he is a more proficient stump campaigner than people knew. It is, after all, the way he won the party leadership. He has portrayed himself as an avuncular figure exploiting the vulnerabilities many in society feel by promising them a future he cannot deliver.

Of course Labour’s prospectus has appealed to some groups of voters, not least the young; but it does not amount to a credible programme for government. Moreover, the decision the country has to make tomorrow is not which party ran the best campaign but which is best equipped to run the country at a critical point in its history.

What has been disappointing has been the reluctance of the Conservatives to map out a low tax, business-friendly, small state future for Britain outside the European Union, a direction that will need to be taken if the country is to be competitive in the post-brexit world. This issue has hardly featured during the campaign, which has also neglected to address how to tackle the country’s £1.7 trillion debt – a debt that Labour’s spending policies would make infinitely worse.

But the immediate challenge is Brexit. Doubtless some Conservative supporters who voted Remain see this as the chance to keep Britain in the EU or obtain a second referendum on the eventual deal. They may be contemplating voting Lib Dem or not voting at all.

This is emphatically not a risk worth taking. While Labour continues to trail in the polls, it could conceivably end up in a coalition with the Lib Dems and the SNP, putting Mr Corbyn into No 10. Moreover, anyone thinking of staying at home should also consider how exercising their right to vote is a powerful message to the terrorists that the democratic process will not be disrupted by their activities. A good turnout at the polls is important.

It has been a long campaign and voters may be weary of hearing the refrain “strong and stable leadership”. But this is the central issue. Tomorrow’s election is principally about who the country trusts to handle the Brexit talks. A Corbyn premiership would be a calamity. Britain’s long-term interests require a convincing Conservative victory.