General election – live: Sunak ‘fears losing own seat’ as poll predicts bigger Labour landslide than 1997

The Techne survey puts Labour on course for a 272-seat majority:

Labour is ready for government and being in opposition has been “the least productive nine years of my life”, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

The Labour leader said on the flight to his final campaign stop: “I’m confident that we’ll be ready. I’m not going to pretend it’s not going to be difficult… ready for government, nothing is going to be easy, almost everything is in a pretty poor state, but we have to be ready for it and I’m confident we will be.

“So while we have not been getting ahead of ourselves, genuinely, we have been preparing hard on the basis that this needs to be hitting the ground running on day one, which is what we intend to do.”

Asked whether he was nervous before polling day, Sir Keir told reporters: “I’m quite pleased to have this opportunity.

“I can’t tell you how frustrating opposition is, it’s been the least productive nine years of my life.

“Being in opposition, voting and losing for nine years, is not doing what I came into politics to do.”

He said he had drawn inspiration from sitting in the same seat as England manager Gareth Southgate on his flights to and from Scotland.

“It’s fantastic to be sitting in his seat,” he said.

“I didn’t realise until we were on it earlier that it was the England team plane, so it’s fantastic to sit in it. I do draw inspiration.

“But just as every time – you may have noticed a football theme to the campaign – every time we have come out the tunnel onto the pitch, this is a boyhood dream.”

Nigel Farage led crowds in a chant of “we want our country back” as he said the election was the “tip of the iceberg” for Reform.

The crowd booed when the Reform UK leader referenced Rishi Sunak, referring to him as “slippery Rishi”.

He said the Conservatives had promised lower taxes and reduced immigration in the last four manifestos, “so why the hell should we believe them on the fifth?”

He added: “For all of us that voted Brexit, for everybody that helped (the Conservatives) win that 80-seat majority under Boris Johnson in 2019 they have betrayed our trust and they deserve to lose the election.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who drove off in a pink cadillac convertible with his deputy Daisy Cooper after his last election campaign stop, said “it looks really good for us” in the fight to oust Tories in the “blue wall”, with Labour and Green supporters prepared to vote tactically.

He also said the Tories’ decision to bring Boris Johnson into their campaign was “a bit weird”.

“I think the Conservatives’ desperate tactics are a bit weird, reminding people of the failures – the failures of Boris Johnson, the failures of Liz Truss, of Rishi Sunak,” he said.

For his ‘one last push’ of the election campaign, the prime minister made an excruciating TV sofa appearance alongside Britain’s most-tattooed mum – but that wasn’t even the worst of it, says Ryan Coogan. Then, he was asked to name his favourite meal…

Rishi Sunak has confided to members of his inner circle that he fears losing his seat, The Guardian has reported.

The prime minister, who would be the first sitting leader of the country to lose his seat, told confidants before a Conservative rally on Tuesday that he thought the vote in Richmond and Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was too close to call.

A source said: “He is genuinely fearful of a defeat in Richmond: the risk that it could be tight has hit him hard. He’s rattled – he can’t quite believe it’s coming so close.”

Another source added: “He’s taken so much friendly fire from his own side I’m amazed he’s had the strength to keep going.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has compared himself to controversial influencer Andrew Tate, saying “young men feel emasculated”.

He lamented young men being unable to “tell jokes that might offend the Germans” during the Euros as he compared his appeal to that of Tate, the divisive social media influencer awaiting trial in Romania on charges of human trafficking and rape.

“I think Andrew Tate’s built a huge following amongst these people, despite a lot of imperfections — serious imperfections,” Mr Farage said.

“I think a lot of young men feel emasculated.

“I mean, look at the football. You know, they’re told go to Germany, please don’t drink more than two pints of beer — you what? Don’t chant at the football matches – you what? Oh, don’t tell jokes that might offend the Germans, I mean, come on.

“We are trying to stop young men being young men – that’s why Tate’s got the following he’s got, so what I’m doing is maybe a part of a similar phenomenon.”

Sir Keir Starmer is following New Labour’s ideas — but sticking to instructions step by step rather than being inspired by a vision of hope and excitement, writes John Rentoul: