General election UK live news: Starmer’s Labour likely to win with largest majority in history says Tory minister Mel Stride

Mel Stride has said he will fight “tooth and nail” until 10pm on polling day to warn about “what is coming down the track with the Labour government”.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said he and his Conservative colleagues have been working to “land the message” about what they claim will be higher taxes and raided pension pots.

Asked why he has been such a prominent figure in the Tory campaign while others, such as party chairman Richard Holden, have been “basically unseen”, he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I care deeply about my country. I’m very concerned about what’s going to happen tomorrow in the General Election.

“I have personally, as many of my colleagues have, fought tooth and nail over this six-week period to land our message about what is coming down the track with the Labour government, and I will do that right the way through to when the polls close at 10 o’clock tomorrow.”

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Mel Stride has effectively conceded defeat for the Conservatives in the General Election.

Asked whether he agrees with Boris Johnson, that it is not “too late”, or Suella Braverman, that it is effectively “over,” the Work and Pensions Secretary told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “What I’m saying is very clear, which is that all the polls are pointing to one very clear conclusion tomorrow: a Labour government with a huge, huge majority.

“But what I’m also saying – and this is where I agree with Boris – is that it is not too late to make sure that we have an opposition in there, Conservative MPs who are able to hold that government to account.”

A serving Conservative minister has suggested he may not vote for the party after it wheeled out Boris Johnson to give an 11th-hour speech to activists.

Rail minister Huw Merriman said he had refused to support Mr Johnson “when the wheels of public and Parliamentary tolerance finally fell off” and that he was unsure how the former PM’s return to frontline Tory politics would affect his vote.

Minutes after Mr Johnson’s speech, Mr Merriman wrote on X: “Given my refusal to support this man and to then welcome a change from his leadership when the wheels of public and Parliamentary tolerance finally fell off, I’m not sure how this pitches for my vote.”

Mel Stride has issued a warning about an “untrammelled Labour Party” in power, telling voters they would “regret” such a situation.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said that if about 130,000 people in about 100 seats who might be considering voting Reform or Liberal Democrat instead gave their vote to the Tories, it would help to give parliament a more robust opposition.

“I’m really worried about an untrammelled Labour Party in power and that really needs to be checked, and people will regret it if we don’t have that, I think,” Mr Stride told LBC.

Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden has criticised the “show of unity” said to be displayed within the Conservative Party when former prime minister Boris Johnson appeared at a rally on Tuesday night.

Mr McFadden told Times Radio: “The show of unity, I’ve had boiled eggs that have lasted longer than this show of unity.

“Almost before he (Mr Johnson) was finished speaking, we had Suella Braverman in The Telegraph saying that it had all been a terrible mess.

“I think maybe that is the Conservatives’ problem, is that it is all quite late for Boris to now be throwing his weight behind a prime minister, when, I think – to borrow a phrase from Northern Ireland – even the dogs in the street know there’s not a lot of love lost there.”

Mel Stride has said Labour is heading for an “extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before”.

The Work and Pensions Secretary told GB News that the vote would be about how Parliament is going to operate and whether the UK has an effective opposition.

“If you look at the polls, it is pretty clear that Labour at this stage are heading for an extraordinary landslide on a scale that has probably never, ever been seen in this country before,” he said.