The end is in sight: Rishi Sunak turns fire on Reform as spring in his step returns to Tory battle bus for final 48 hours

2 July 2024, 00:01

By Natasha Clark

@NatashaC

The final hours of any election campaign are a blur of take-away croissants, snatched bits of sleep, half-drunk cups of coffee, late nights and early, early starts.

From rallies to stump speeches, business visits to warehouse tours, leaders of all colours are pounding as much pavement as they can before polling day on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to swing as many votes as they can.

In the final days, the polls still look stubborn for the PM, and are barely budging. 

Yet, with up to a third of people still yet to decide, there’s still supposedly all to play for.

And so, LBC boarded the Tory battle bus brigade to see up close what could be the final days of the PM’s time in office, or the beginnings of the most spectacular comeback British politics has ever seen.

Rishi Sunak hoped it would be the latter when we donned our hi-vis jackets to sit down with him for a media huddle in Stoke On Trent at a pharmaceutical warehouse.

In a bid to emulate England’s nail-biting comeback against Slovakia on Sunday, the PM insisted to laughs around the room: “It’s not over 'til it’s over!”

As he batted back questions on the party’s fate, the rise of the far right across Europe and whether he could have done more to combat Reform, there was a quiet acceptance to his demeanour about the week ahead.

He even had a small spring in his step as he bounded on the stage to warn voters they could be seeing 15 years of Starmer if they weren’t careful – and to think about what they wanted.

With the remnants of Gamble Gate behind him and no slip-ups to note, by the end of the day the PM had a genuine smile on his face as he batted cricket balls back from a girls’ team in Nuneaton, which the polls say is on a knife edge.

And that was before The Guardian nearly got whacked by a runaway ball.

The tee-total PM was even grinning as he handed out gin and whisky minis to the travelling media pack - and joked to his staff whether they were getting on it.

Gin expert Ollie gave the PM a glimmer of good news as predicted the Stratford seat wouldn’t swing to the Lib Dems, even as he admitted there was no alcohol-free version of the tipples for the Tory leader.

But he admitted that despite pressing the flesh with the PM in Stratford, he’s still not sure where his own vote is going.Sunak found a bit more luck in the waverers outside of Warwick.

One keen cricketer told me he’d never be voting for Keir Starmer, and his partner said she’d still not made up her mind yet.

Wannabe Tory MPs hope that in the cold light of day, swing voters like these two will look at the choice facing them in the ballot box and decide it’s better the devil they know with the Tories.

They at least hope the warnings over racist and misogynistic candidates and fears over Nigel Farage’s stance on Ukraine will stem the flow of votes to Reform.

In many ways the current electorate – which just five years ago swung to give Boris Johnson a huge 80 seat majority – has never been more volatile.

But those MPs privately know that there’s a high chance they could be out of office for good come the end of the week.

After a long gruelling campaign, beginning in the pouring rain, dogged by gaffes, scandal and a gruelling schedule which has seen many tempers lost, there is now a sense of calm that is settling into the Tory camp.

Not a feeling of giving up, but perhaps at peace with throwing everything they've got at the final few days ahead and trying to enjoy the bumpy ride ahead. For the PM it may be sweet relief that the end, is finally in sight.