London, May 06: Party leaders rushed across Britain in a frantic final day of campaigning Wednesday as they battled to win over undecided voters, before what is expected to be the tightest election contest in decades.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, David Cameron of the main opposition Conservatives and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats all acknowledged that Thursday’s election was still up for grabs.
The urgency of the last-minute campaigning was underlined by a poll showing that nearly four in 10 voters were yet to decide who to back.
In the face of surveys giving the Conservatives a lead in the race, Brown said he was “determined” and “resolute” to keep Labour in government for a fourth term.
Brown told a crowd in Bradford during a tour of northern England that a Conservative government would plunge the economy back into recession with their promises of deep cuts.
“Tomorrow is the day for us to stand firm for what everybody knows to be true… I am determined and I am resolute and I am fighting not for me but for Britain’s future,” he said.
Conservative leader Cameron was still campaigning late Wednesday after spending the night talking to fishermen and shift workers in constituencies in northern England that the Tories must win to take back power.
Cameron — who also stopped off for fish and chips during his marathon last trip — said it was his riposte to his opponents’ claim that he was taking victory for granted.
“I don’t want to take anything for granted, it’s a very important election, it’s a close election and I’m fighting for every vote right down to the wire,” he told GMTV.
Clegg made a last dash for votes across England in Eastbourne, Durham and Sheffield.
He told voters that by choosing his party they had a chance to avoid a “stitch-up” by the two main parties.
Two eve-of-election polls showed the Conservatives stretching their lead, but still not winning enough seats to form a government on their own, leading to a hung parliament.
The Opinium survey for the Daily Express paper put Cameron’s party on 35 percent (up two points on a similar poll published in the paper Monday), with Labour down one point on 27 percent and Liberal Democrats down one on 26 percent.
The Populus survey for The Times gave the Conservatives a nine-point lead over Labour.
A ComRes poll for ITV News and The Independent newspaper meanwhile indicated that nearly 40 percent of voters were still undecided.
Labour strategists said the party’s research showed only up to 20 percent of people who intend to vote had still not made up their minds — they also claimed half of those thinking of voting Lib Dem could yet vote differently.
Brown refused to endorse calls from some Labour cabinet ministers that their supporters should vote for the Liberal Democrats for seats which Labour had no chance of winning, to stop the Conservatives from taking power.
“I want every Labour voter to vote Labour. I want that because I want a majority Labour government,” he told BBC radio.
Clegg, whose party’s surprisingly strong performance has made the election so close, dismissed talk of tactical voting as “another sign of Labour’s desperation.”
His party has enjoyed a surge of support on the back of his performance in TV debates, and he is anxious to avoid tactical voting by his own supporters, fearing it could dent his party’s share of the popular vote.
This would damage his negotiating power in the event of a hung parliament, in which he could hold the balance of power.
Amid speculation about horse-trading if no one party wins an overall majority, a Northern Irish party said it was being courted by Brown.
The Ulster Unionist party held nine seats in the last parliament and the extra support of its lawmakers could be crucial in helping a party just short of an overall majority form a government.
Party leader Peter Robinson, also first minister of the British province, released a letter from Brown in which the Labour leader promised to maintain the size of a grant from Westminster to Northern Ireland.
–Agencies