Labour will hold onto Dewsbury but lose eight other Yorkshire seats in General Election, says major poll as Tory lead shrinks

A major poll released a day before the nation casts its vote on Thursday has predicted the Tories will win a Parliamentary majority of 28 seats at the General Election.
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The second YouGov MRP poll released tonight suggests the Conservatives will win 339 seats in 2019, a rise of 22 from 2017, while Labour will lose 31 and end up with a total of 231.

But it is a drop of 40 seats from a previous YouGov poll in November that predicted the Tories would have a 68-seat majority.

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If the election was held today, the research suggests the Lib Dems would win 15 seats, three more than in 2017, while the SNP would gain six for an overall total of 41.

In Yorkshire, the polling would mean eight seats won by Labour in 2017 would turn blue. As in the previous poll last month, if the YouGov polling holds true Labour will lose Don Valley,

Great Grimsby, Keighley, Wakefield, Colne Valley, Penistone and Stocksbridge, Rother Valley and Scunthorpe, while Sheffield Hallam will be taken by the Liberal Democrats.

Boris Johnson visits The Yorkshire Post's offices in Leeds.Boris Johnson visits The Yorkshire Post's offices in Leeds.
Boris Johnson visits The Yorkshire Post's offices in Leeds.

But unlike in November’s YouGov poll, Jeremy Corbyn’s party would hang onto Dewsbury in West Yorkshire. The figures suggest Labour will hold onto Bradford South by just one per cent of the vote, but lose in Great Grimsby by the same margin.

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According to the poll, Plaid and the Green Party will see no change from four and one seats won in 2017 respectively.

In terms of total seats, 339 would be the Conservative’s best election performance since Margaret Thatcher was leader in 1987.

But if Labour drop to 231 it would mean the party’s worst performance since 1983.

YouGov, whose polling method successfully predicted 2017’s hung Parliament, has interviewed approximately 100,000 people about their voting intentions in the past seven days.

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Chris Curtis of YouGov 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.”

It comes ahead of a frantic final day of campaigning tomorrow (Wednesday), where both Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn will be trying to rally voters in marginal Yorkshire seats.

The Prime Minister will be in West Yorkshire in the morning, while Mr Corbyn is due on the campaign trail in South Yorkshire in the afternoon.

Senior Tory Michael Gove and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage are also due to visit the region over the course of the day.

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Mr Johnson gave another rallying speech to Tory members in a secluded warehouse tonight in which he claimed the UK could be “carbon neutral by 2050 and Corbyn neutral by Christmas”.

Speaking in Greater Manchester, the Tory leader said: “In the next 36 hours the people of this country will make up their mind - and it can be close, it will be close, it will be a tight fight.

“We’ve got to get out there and spread the word about how hard this election could be, about the risks that this country faces. We must get our message across and have 36 hours to do it.”

And Mr Corbyn sought to take further advantage of an increased focus on the NHS caused by the emergence of a picture of four-year-old boy forced to wait on the floor at a major Yorkshire hospital because of a lack of beds.

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He insisted the experience of four-year-old Jack Williment, who was pictured lying on a pile of coats to keep warm while he waited for a bed at Leeds General Infirmary, was a political issue.

Mr Johnson is seeking to remind voters of his main promises on spending and Brexit with one more day of campaigning left ahead of polls opening on Thursday.