Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn cast their votes as final pre-election poll puts Tories 11% clear
2 min read
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn have cast their votes in the election as the last poll of the campaign suggests the Tories still enjoy an 11-pont lead over Labour.
The Prime Minister attended Methodist Central Hall in Westminster with his dog Dilyn, rather than Uxbridge, the constituency he is standing in, early on Thursday morning.
Labour’s Mr Corbyn was joined by a very different type of animal, after the sister of an eccentric fringe candidate dressed up as Elmo from Sesame Street to try and disrupt photos of him voting in his Islington seat.
Campaigning is suspended on polling day so they and other party leaders can do little else but wait until 10pm, when voting closes and the exit poll is released.
The last survey of public opinion before polls opened had the Conservatives on 44% and Labour on 33%, while the Liberal Democrats were on 12%.
But pollsters IpsosMORI also suggested more than a quarter of people could still change their mind in the voting booth.
Gideon Skinner, head of political research for the company, said there was still the "potential for more switching".
The PM is predicted to win a majority, but polls have suggested despite a consistent lead for his party there is still a chance of another hung Parliament, as happened in 2017.
He arrived at his polling station near Westminster Abbey at around 8.15am, and posed for pictures with his pet Jack Russell outside.
Shortly after Mr Corbyn was ambushed by Sherrie Smith, whose brother Bobby is a prominent fathers’ rights campaigner.
Amid a scuffle with his security detail as she tried to place her costume head onto people, the Labour leader said: "Hello guys, can we stop the arguments please."
Mr Smith has stood for his own Give Me Back Elmo party against David Cameron in Witney in 2015, and Theresa May in Maidenhead in 2017 – when he scored just three votes.
This time round he is a candidate in Mr Johnson’s constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Meanwhile Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson and her partner Duncan Hames voted at a school in Glasgow.
And Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was joined by her partner Peter Murrell, as well as the SNP's Glasgow East candidate David Linden, in casting their ballots in South Lanarkshire.
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