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Boris Johnson in Guiseley, Leeds this morning. PA Images

Boris Johnson avoids interview by going into fridge as final day of campaigning kicks off

A YouGov seat-prediction poll indicated the Tories could win a 28-seat majority tomorrow.

LAST UPDATE | 11 Dec 2019

BORIS JOHNSON STARTED the final day of campaigning with a photo-op that saw him  delivering milk, with the Prime Minister also entered a fridge to avoid a live TV interview.

Both the Conservative leader and Labour’s  Jeremy Corbyn are planning to criss-cross the UK as a fresh poll suggested a hung parliament could still be on the cards.

YouGov’s constituency-by-constituency poll predicts the Conservatives are on course for a 28 seat majority – but the margin of error and unknown impact of tactical voting means a hung parliament is still a possibility.

The pollsters, who have analysed more than 100,000 voter interviews over the past week, predicted the Tories will win 339 seats and Labour 231.

The poll was released last night with Johnson campaigning early this morning in the Conservative-held marginal seat of Pudsey in West Yorkshire, insisting he was “fighting for every vote”. 

“This could not be more critical, it could not be tighter – I just say to everybody the risk is very real that we could tomorrow be going into another hung parliament,” he told reporters.

As Johnson was walking towards one of the milk vans at the photo-op, Good Morning Britain reporter Jonathan Swain attempted to speak to him and asked would he appear on the programme. 

Johnson said he would before walking off towards a storage fridge. 

 Corbyn started his last day of campaigning in Glasgow South West – where Labour is hoping to overturn an SNP majority at the last election of just 60 – with a promise of “real hope” for voters affected by years of austerity.

“They need a UK government that will invest all across the country and give real hope and real security to people,” he said.

“That is the offer that Labour makes and we’ve carried that message all across the country during the last 51 days of this campaign.” 

Last night’s Yougov poll narrowed its predicted Conservative win, more than halving a previous prediction made two weeks ago of a majority of 68 to 28. 

A 28-seat majority would be the best Tory result since Margaret Thatcher’s showing in 1987.

Chris Curtis, YouGov’s political research manager, said: “The margins are extremely tight and small swings in a small number of seats, perhaps from tactical voting and a continuation of Labour’s recent upward trend, means we can’t currently rule out a hung parliament.”

The result will be a worry to Johnson as he prepares for a final blitz across the country as the campaign enters its final full day, with Tory gains off Labour reduced from 44 to 29 since the November 27 findings.

The Tory leader told journalists at an event at JCB’s Cab Manufacturing Centre in Staffordshire yesterday he was “absolutely not” guaranteed victory on Thursday.

“This is a very close fought election and we need every vote,” he said.

Brexit. Prime Minister Boris Johnson drives a Union flag-themed JCB, with the words “Get Brexit Done’ inside the digger bucket, through a fake wall.

Johnson will spend the final day of campaigning in Labour marginals in Yorkshire, the Midlands and Wales, before finishing the day with a rally near London.

While the polls have improved for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, the haul of 231 seats would mean a loss of 31 seats compared to 2017’s outcome – its worst result since the 1980s.

According to YouGov, Labour could be set to make two gains, pulling off a Cabinet minister scalp by taking Chipping Barnet, the constituency currently held by Environment Secretary Theresa Villiers.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is in trouble to the Liberal Democrats in Esher and Walton, while former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith in Chingford and Woodford Green is clinging on by only two points against Labour, the poll result indicates.

Putney could also go red but YouGov continues to predict a tough time for Labour in its heartlands in the North and Midlands.

Veteran MP Dennis Skinner’s Bolsover seat could be taken by the Tories, as could constituencies such as Great Grimsby, a Leave-voting town represented by Labour since the Second World War.

JC. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joins a phone banking session with party activists at the Scottish Labour Party headquarters in Glasgow.

The SNP would win 41 seats – up by six – and the Liberal Democrats 15 if the prediction bears out.

Plaid Cymru would hold onto its four constituencies and the Green Party its one, while Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party would finish the election empty handed,  polling predicts.

YouGov uses multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) to form its predictions – a model that predicted 93% of constituencies correctly in the snap election two years’ ago.

The polling company first models voting preferences based on age, gender, education and previous votes, along with local political circumstances, before applying MRP, a technique which adds local factors and individual characteristics of each of Great Britain’s 632 constituencies to come up with its final result.

The poll results followed a day full of twists and turns on the campaign trail in which:

  • Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth said he was “stitched-up” by a Tory-supporting friend after his comments calling Labour’s election chances “dire” were leaked.
  • Johnson re-emphasised his promise of toughening prison sentences for violent criminals.
  • The PM faced further criticism from the father of Fishmongers’ Hall victim, Jack Merritt, for using his son’s death to “score some points in the election”.
  • Labour’s Corbyn revealed his first act on entering Downing Street would be to allocate emergency funding for more hostel places to help those sleeping on the streets.

Ashworth was recorded saying the situation facing Labour was “abysmal” because voters “can’t stand Corbyn” and think the party has “blocked Brexit”.

He told LBC radio during an evening phone-in on Tuesday that he had been “taking the piss” with his friend.

The senior opposition figure said he thought the recording had been planned and that he’d been “stitched-up like a kipper”.

His leader Corbyn said the health spokesman had his “full support” but refused to commit to keeping him in his top team after the election was over.

Corbyn is expected to tour the Midlands and Yorkshire on Wednesday in a final attempt to deny the Tories an overall majority.

In a hard-hitting interview with Sky News, Dave Merritt – father to 25-year-old son Jack who died alongside Saskia Jones, 23, in the attack by Usman Khan during a prisoner rehabilitation near London Bridge last month – accused Johnson of having “exploited” the tragedy.

Johnson did not back down in the aftermath of the interview, however, instead telling the Daily Telegraph how he would look to extend jail terms for violent criminals.

He told the right-leaning newspaper the justice system “isn’t delivering” and that it was still “too weak” when handling the worst offenders.

Johnson also revealed the six-weeks of living on the road during the campaign had taken its toll more than just politically.

He told a Sun-reading family in marginal seat Darlington: “I am so fat, I must lose weight”.

The Prime Minister also hinted he could propose to girlfriend Carrie, telling the Parker family he was “very happy” with the 31-year-old.

At TheJournal.ie we’ll be liveblogging all night to bring you all the major developments as they happen. Before dawn on Friday we’ll break down exactly what you need to know about the results and the likely consequences for Brexit. Our overnight team will also be bringing you a special early morning edition of our weekly The Explainer podcast on Friday – and if you’re a subscriber to our Brexit newsletter you can expect a bumper edition into your inbox too before your first coffee of the day has cooled.

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    Mute DeeJay
    Favourite DeeJay
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:14 AM

    Plastics are numbered 1-7. It would be more definitive if recycling companies listed the plastic numbers they except. This is never listed on their websites

    118
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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:42 AM

    Don’t know what so hard to understand about filling the green bin. It’s pretty easy. PAPER, PLASTIC, METAL. NO NAPPIES, BATTERIES, OR GARDEN WASTE. How difficult is that to understand.

    47
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    Mute dearg doom
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:51 AM

    @Thomas Maher: It’s not all plastics. How difficult is it to read the whole article?

    67
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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Jan 27th 2017, 10:06 AM

    Dirty nappies and politicians .both changed regularly and for the same reason.

    40
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    Mute Niall O'Reilly
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:40 AM

    Curious about two questions: So I fill my green bin according to the list, but my neighbour throws a couple of batteries into his green bin. Both bins are then tossed into the refuse collection truck. Does this mean that everything else inside the refuse collection truck is contaminated? Also if the used yoghurt container is not washed prior to disposal is it also treated as contaminated?

    97
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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:03 AM

    Ok – I confess my ignorance: What about thin plastic bags or Pringles tubes?

    97
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    Mute Thomas Maher
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:47 AM

    Now think really hard , and ask yourself what are they made from?. If you arrive at the answer paper, plastic or metal. They can go in the…..

    10
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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Jan 27th 2017, 10:33 AM

    @Thomas Maher:
    Except that’s not really true though – only certain types of plastics can be recycled. It appears you’re even more ignorant than me.

    64
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    Mute Stephen Blott
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:11 AM

    @Avina Laaf: Pringles tube is, I think, *not* recyclable. That’s what Google says.

    (Not an expert, but I think it’s because of the bonded metal and paper layers.)

    24
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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:31 AM

    Thanks Stephen :)

    11
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    Mute Avina Laaf
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:34 AM

    Given that worldwide they probably churn out billions of them annually, Pringles should really work on making a tube that’s recyclable.

    47
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    Mute Tony Le Blanc
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    Jan 27th 2017, 2:24 PM

    @Avina Laaf: Now your talking. Bring back milk in glass bottles and the option to buy things which are not sealed in enough packaging to survive a small nuclear blast. Bananas and oranges wrapped in plastic for example. Last time I checked nature had already wrapped these up.

    36
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    Mute Watchful Axe
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    Jan 27th 2017, 4:59 PM

    If in doubt about something, throw it in the ordinary waste bin. I looked on the McKane oven chips bag for recycle symbol, it doesn’t have one, so I throw it in the black bag. Even though most of the other freezer stuff have the recycle symbol.

    7
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    Mute Mrs Doyle
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:19 AM

    They should print this list on the side of the bins. Or send out stickers to existing customers to stick on the bin. That might help

    54
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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:40 AM

    How the f**k do I wash my old newspapers?

    53
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    Mute Gerry McCarthy
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:22 AM

    Last week I observed my binman pick up my food waste bin and empty it into my ordinary rubbish bin before then putting it in the truck. Why do we bother separating our rubbish at all if the binman can’t even be bothered!

    48
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    Mute Michael McGuinness
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:12 AM

    Recycling, most people do their best. But lack of understanding what can and can’t be recycled. I know it causes confusion in our house hold. We do had debates on which is and isn’t. Better marketing of tiems you can Recycle.

    29
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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:47 AM

    Just rub them with a baby wipe

    21
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    Mute The Hype
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:05 AM

    Oh my happy nappy, up on the wheely bin, Shall you join your fallen brothers, when gravity kicks in? Or perhaps you’ll be like blanky and lay under refuse sack, Nappy and blanky in worlds unknown destined to never come back, I miss thee happy Nappy and the words of which you’d speak, O Nappy, my Nappy where are you, of you I am in seek.

    18
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    Mute The Girl
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:53 AM

    Wow! Someone is happy chappy this morning. Got your pipe emptied last night yeah!?

    12
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    Mute Melissa O'Callaghan
    Favourite Melissa O'Callaghan
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:08 AM

    I can sort of understand the nappies in the green bin. Not that I condone it but the weight of nappies is something else. If you are being charged by weight on your grey bin and the reasoning is to reduce consumption then it is unfair, as you really have no choice. I know you could say use non disposal one but the up front cost is huge and there isn’t a culture of using them. You could invest and realise their are a nightmare to use thus wasting money at a time you have less. Maybe look at changing that rather than complaining about contaminating green bins. Sometimes you have to ask why are so many people doing it.

    18
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    Mute Paddy Byrne
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    Jan 27th 2017, 7:43 AM

    @Melissa . Sometimes i have to ask why are so many people like you so idiotic with some of the stuff you come out with. There is no reason to be throwing used nappys into a recycling bin. People who do this are not doing it because they are unaware that it is not recyclable. They are just 100% ignorant.

    159
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    Mute Michael Lynch
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    Jan 27th 2017, 8:43 AM

    And that would be a completely rhetorical question.

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    Mute John Staunton
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    Jan 27th 2017, 10:17 AM

    @Melissa O’Callaghan: I’m trying to figure out why your statement was so unpopular. I used to live in Galway city and I was charged for weight on the black bin only….and it was because of nappies and ashes from the fire that I had to pay more for my bins. I did the right thing but it cost me an extra 100 a year so I’m not surprised what others do.

    9
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    Mute Melissa O'Callaghan
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:02 AM

    Steady Paddy, I had three children in nappies and 2 at the same time and NEVER put nappies in the green bin but if I was strapped for cash then I could understand why people would, (empathy) as nappies fill your bin up in no time and weigh a ton. Families are being penalised. Maybe make environmental nappies cheaper.

    8
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    Mute Colm Ó Liatháin
    Favourite Colm Ó Liatháin
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    Jan 27th 2017, 9:37 AM

    So thats why panda didn’t pick the bin up. I didn’t wash the newspaper’s.

    13
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    Mute Ella Gleeson
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    Jan 27th 2017, 10:53 AM

    Anyone with babies, check out the Cloth Nappy Library. There are actually quite a few people using cloth and it isn’t like it used to be when yer ma was hand rinsing terries. The Cloth Nappy Library even have new born and long term loan pack available at a low cost so that you can try them out before you commit to buying. http://www.clothnappylibrary.ie/

    8
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    Mute Melissa O'Callaghan
    Favourite Melissa O'Callaghan
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:42 AM

    I looked into it, 6 years ago. If they are viable why are the mid wives on the pre baby talks promoting environmental options. It’s just the same as breast feeding, it’s culturally declining (paddy, before you react I fed all my kids!) but people need help, reassuring that’s it’s not more work / difficult. Another example of cutbacks in one area having impacts elsewhere and only when you ask why is this behaviour happening that you can change the outcome and not just blame. One the subject of plastics and films. Why are the packagers allowed to use the unrecoverable plastic? Not why are people recycling badly.

    13
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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Jan 27th 2017, 2:14 PM

    You know, I was considering that babies grow out of nappies. But are there not adult ones for incontinence too? Maybe some older people get confused.

    1
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    Mute Reuben Gray
    Favourite Reuben Gray
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:03 AM

    How is it that in this entire article, it wasn’t mentioned that almost all packaging that’s recyclable has an internationally recognisable recycling symbol on it? Stranger still, one of the main symbols is shown in an image on the article with no explanation of what it is.

    The repak website has the examples on their “For Consumer” section.

    5
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    Mute Sandra Ni Longaigh
    Favourite Sandra Ni Longaigh
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    Jan 27th 2017, 10:00 AM

    Gráinne, the sentences leading up to the list imply that this is a list of things that should NOT go in the green bin. It’s obvious by the nature of the items themselves that they can but can you clarify it in the article please?

    3
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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Feb 23rd 2017, 11:09 PM

    What about dirty books?

    1
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    Mute RJ.Fallon
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    Jan 27th 2017, 11:11 AM

    what about washing powder boxes ?? the symbol is there but someone said they should not be put into the green bin.

    1
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    Mute Marian Cleary
    Favourite Marian Cleary
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    Jan 27th 2017, 5:00 PM

    Any tips on how to get the bins washed?

    1
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