Over the next 24 hours the British people must decide what kind of country they want to live in – and who is best placed to deliver it.
It is a straight choice between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. Voting for any other party is a sideshow – especially Reform UK which will be lucky to return more than a single MP.
Don’t be gulled into thinking your vote doesn’t count. The predicted Labour landslide is not assured.
As our eight-page tactical voting pullout shows, small shifts could yet change the result in more than 130 constituencies. If 130,000 people switched their votes in the right seats, Sir Keir would be denied a majority.
This is not a by-election, where voters can give the ruling party a bloody nose without any consequence. This is serious. It’s about who rules Britain. They must all use the power of their vote wisely. That means not only deciding who you want to be in charge, but also who you don’t.
The Mail believes Britain is an innately conservative nation, marked by love of country, fairness, family, self-reliance, and a strong commitment to equality of opportunity.
Traditionally we have trusted the Tories to further these values over Labour. In nearly 50 years, Tony Blair is the only Labour leader to have won an election – and it was because he ran on a ticket of moderation.
If the polls are accurate, all that is about to change. Sir Keir, a self-declared socialist with a deputy who likes to describe Tories as ‘scum’, is well ahead in the race for No 10.
There is an irrationality, even perversity, about his lead. It is not based on any liking for Sir Keir or his policies, but on a desire to punish the Tories with extreme vengeance for their perceived sins.
This rage is blinding many to their own self-interest. As the great political philosopher Thomas Paine wrote: ‘An avidity to punish is always dangerous… it leads men to stretch, to misinterpret and to misapply.’
On almost every major issue, from migration to the tax burden, Labour would make things worse. When Sir Keir talks of ‘change’ it is a threat, rather than a promise.
Should he win with a ‘supermajority’, he and the gimcrack affiliation of activists, agitators and class warriors behind him could immeasurably damage this country.
This election would grant Labour five years in power. The economic and cultural damage they can do in that time may haunt us for generations.
Here lies the greatest paradox of this most peculiar election. Centre-Right voters are so furious at the Tories for moving to the Left, that they plan to punish the party by helping to elect a socialist as prime minister.
It is a depressing irony that the policy failures for which 2019 Tory voters want to clobber Mr Sunak would all be made worse in the event of a Starmer government.
If you are angry that the Tories are bleeding you dry with the highest taxes in 70 years, the Mail understands. But Sir Keir is certain to increase your burden. Taxing and spending are in Labour’s DNA.
If you seek revenge for the Conservatives allowing immigration to soar, this paper sympathises. But Labour is supremely relaxed about mass immigration, it plans an amnesty for Channel migrants and its big idea for solving the small-boats crisis is to rename a quango.
If you are frustrated by the Government’s reluctance to take full advantage of our hard-won Brexit freedoms, we concur. But electing Sir Keir, an ardent Remainer who plans to snuggle Britain as closely as possible to the EU, is the wrong reaction.
If you are disappointed the Tories have not used their huge majority to slow the march of wokery, we share your pain. But things would surely be worse under Sir Keir, who believes women can have penises and has pledged to dole out government contracts based on racial favouritism.
If you are fed up with strikes paralysing the NHS and the railways, we are too. But handing the keys to No 10 to a party that’s in bed with the unions won’t improve the situation.
And if you are annoyed that they have not prioritised defence spending in an increasingly perilous world, why help propel Sir Keir to power, when he obfuscates on whether he will boost the military budget.
Labour’s overall strategy is simple. Tell the voters as little as possible about its plan if elected and bank on them being so angry at recent Tory failings that it wins by default.
There’s no doubt the voters are angry – about high migration, high taxes, public sector strikes, and our hopelessly inefficient NHS.
Perhaps most of all, they are heartily sick of the constant feuding and division within the Government since the disastrous defenestration of Boris Johnson. How they managed to squander the golden legacy of an 80-seat majority is simply mystifying.
Cast your mind back to that glad morning in December 2019 when Boris was carried into Downing Street on a wave of optimism.
Constituencies that had voted Labour for 100 years shed their chains and rallied to his ‘boosterist’ one-nation message.
There’s no doubt he hit the ground running. Over the previous three years, the British political establishment had been fighting a guerilla war against the people, trying desperately to overturn to EU referendum result.
Within weeks, Boris smashed through the deadlock and secured a Brexit withdrawal agreement.
Remainers still sneer, but far from the economic Armageddon they forecast, we have the highest growth in the G7 group of developed nations.
Then, to paraphrase Harold Macmillan, ‘events’ intervened. The worst pandemic for a century was followed by a major European war and severe energy and inflation crises.
Governments across the world struggled to contain both disasters. Compared with most, the UK fared relatively well. Covid casualty rates compared favourably with the rest of Europe and the vaccine miracle, for which Boris deserves much credit, was key to beating the virus.
Furlough protected millions of families from penury, just as massive energy subsidies kept their lights and heating on during the global price spike. High taxes are the result of having to pay the piper, while long hospital waiting lists are the consequence of shutting down the NHS during Covid.
Throughout this campaign, Labour has parroted accusations that the Tories have ‘crashed’ the economy. Voters should not be deceived. That is demonstrably untrue.
Yes, there was a chaotic interlude in the 44-day reign of Liz Truss. But it is now history. Thanks to Mr Sunak’s careful economic husbandry, inflation has been tamed, growth is returning, wages are rising, interest rates are poised to come down and taxes already have started to fall.
The PM has also forced through the Rwanda Bill – the only credible scheme to deter the small boats – against implacable opposition from Labour, which has no plan.
Although in power for just 18 months, Mr Sunak can be proud of his record. Sir Keir, by contrast, is an entirely unknown quantity having flip-flopped and U-turned with dizzying speed and frequency.
The Mail has this message for disenchanted 2019 Tory voters.
Labour is no longer the centrist party of Tony Blair. It is a blood-red alliance driven by class war and the politics of envy.
It is not too late to deny it a supermajority and five years of unchecked power over our lives.
But to stop the spectre of Starmergeddon, you must vote, and you must vote Conservative. Staying at home or supporting Reform UK in protest at past Tory failings would help sweep Sir Keir into No 10.
Don’t wake up tomorrow morning with that on your conscience.
If Boris can set aside the betrayals and disappointments of the past five years, so can you. This election is about the future of this country, not the past.