UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s gamble on calling a general election in an attempt to push through Brexit could have just backfired spectacularly – and all because of a damning front page.

Beneath the headline “Desperate: Picture that shames the Tories”, Britain’s Opposition-supporting Daily Mirror showed an image of a young boy in hospital purportedly forced to lie on the floor because of the perilous state of the health service.

Conservatives leader Mr Johnson, who has only been PM since July is himself desperate – to get more than the 326 seats needed for a majority on election day this Thursday (UK time).

Opinion polls suggest that may be the case, but the polls were wrong in 2017 when then prime minister Theresa May lost her majority. Worryingly for the Tories, its poll numbers have begun to fall and another hung parliament – or even a Labour victory – is now a real possibility.

Since 2017, the Conservatives have only been able to govern with the support of a fractious unionist party from Northern Ireland. Along the way, the Tories – as the Conservatives are also known – have managed to lose further MPs as some anti-Brexit members have left the party.

Despite Mrs May’s drubbing in 2017, Mr Johnson is rolling the election dice again.

Brits are being asked to put him or Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn into No. 10 Downing St – two of the most unpopular leaders in recent times. One former MP quipped voters were faced with an “appalling choice”.

media_camera Boris Johnson (left) will either remain Britain’s Prime Minister on Friday or Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) will be taking up residence in Number 10. Picture: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

Mr Johnson feels his is safest when talking about the UK leaving the European Union (EU) and has relentlessly been hammering home his line that only the Tories can “get Brexit done”. But Monday’s front page has swerved the campaign onto Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), an issue where Labour believe they have the upper hand.

The story claimed Jack Williment, 4, was forced to sleep on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary for more than four hours due of a shortage of beds.

His mum Sarah Williment said she had to cover Jack, who it was feared my have had pneumonia, with coats to keep him warm.

media_camera The UK Daily Mirror front page of a child lying on a hospital floor that is worrying Conservative campaigners.

The context of the image is being debated with claims a bed may well have been available for the child. Despite this, the hospital has apologised and said it was its busiest week since 2016.

Mr Corbyn called the incident a “disgrace”.

However, Mr Johnson’s response was one of the most bizarre moments of the campaign so far.

When a journalist attempted to get him to look at the picture on the front page on his phone, Mr Johnson initially refused to take in the image and then swiped the phone.

The powerful, harrowing @DailyMirror front page that Boris Johnson couldn't bear to look at. Will it now derail his election campaign? pic.twitter.com/Dy3uXGDzlf — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 9, 2019

Tried to show @BorisJohnson the picture of Jack Williment-Barr. The 4-year-old with suspected pneumonia forced to lie on a pile of coats on the floor of a Leeds hospital.



The PM grabbed my phone and put it in his pocket: @itvcalendar | #GE19 pic.twitter.com/hv9mk4xrNJ — Joe Pike (@joepike) December 9, 2019

“You’ve taken my phone and put it in your pocket, Prime Minister,” said ITV reporter Joe Pike at one point.

Mr Johnson then took the phone out of his pocket, agreed it was a “terrible, terrible photo” and gave the mobile back saying: “I’m sorry to have taken your phone. There you go.”

It was another abnormal episode in an abnormal election.

The campaign has also seen two former prime ministers – Labour’s Tony Blair and the Tories’ John Major – tell their respective supporters that it was just fine to vote for another party, if that party supported a second referendum on membership of the EU.

This push to get pro-EU Britons to tactically vote could up-end poll predictions in the UK’s first-past-the-post system where the candidate with the highest number of votes is elected, even if they have a minority of the votes overall.

media_camera British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is hoping to get a working majority on Thursday. (Picture: Ben Stansall – WPA Pool/Getty Images.

media_camera Britain's main opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is determined to make sure that doesn’t happen. Picture: Joe Giddens/PA via AP

LEAST WORST CHOICE FOR PM

The British electorate is traditionally be split along Conservative and Labour lines, now it’s also split on Brexit lines, between those who want to remain in and those who want to leave the EU.

The voters also seem to be split on who would make the best worst choice of PM – bumbling Boris Johnson or hero of the hard left Jeremy Corbyn.

“It’s the only election in modern times in which you wouldn’t trust either of the prime ministerial candidates to mind your children for an hour, let alone run the country,” said former Tory MP Nick Boles in a scathing editorial for the Standard newspaper.

Voters are being asked to choose between a man who is “thoroughly untrustworthy” and another who is “one of the most reviled politicians in British history,” Professor Andrew Dawson, a politics lecturer at Melbourne University, told news.com.au.

Labour is hoping voters will tire of Mr Johnson’s posh boy routine and will embrace their plan for a second EU referendum and radical renationalisation agenda. The Tories are betting that their commitment to Brexit and a dislike of Mr Corbyn whose party has been accused of anti-Semitism and bullying moderate MPs, will see them capture Labour seats along a previously invincible “red wall” of Labour electorates.

Prof Dawson said the dislike the electorate has of Mr Corbyn was actually worked in his favour because when they did see him he exceed their low estimations.

In contrast Mr Johnson’s larrikin likability has been on the slide.

“Mr Johnson has been very poor. Whenever he meets the general public it’s almost as if they are alien beings to him.

“It’s confirmed the stereotype of him as elitist Etonian boy and that doesn’t go down well. He’s also not very good at detail so he’s fumbled and blundered.”

media_camera Larrikin Boris Johnson, who never let a prank go to waste, has been missing during the election. Picture: AP Photo/Lee Medcalf

media_camera Johnson has fumbled at times. Picture: Ben Stansall – WPA Pool/Getty Images

Both party leaders have net approval ratings in minus figures. But fewer people disapprove of Mr Johnson than his rival. He can afford to fall in popularity; however Mr Corbyn has a mountain to climb to only be as mildly disliked as the Tory leader.

media_camera Former Prime Minster Tony Blair has urged people to vote tactically to ensure a second referendum on leaving the EU. Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

IS IT THE 2017 ELECTION TAKE TWO?

Prof Dawson said Conservatives had learned lessons from the 2017 poll debacle.

“It was clear to me that the Conservatives misread the situation. They felt these working class voters were anti-immigrant and in fact while they are anti-immigration – in that immigration can undercut the price of labour. But they weren’t anti-immigrant and they feel very sensitive about being labelled xenophobic.

“They haven’t done that this time, I haven’t seen then place the race card,” he said.

For the Tories it was still an election all about the EU though.

“Mr Johnson big message is ‘get Brexit done’ and he is tapping into Britain’s ‘Brexithaustion’ you might call it.

“The Labour Party have been desperate to push the agenda to the NHS because Labour is seen as the natural government of the health service. But what opinion polls suggest is they haven’t managed to do that and Brexit is still a key issue.”

On that issue Labour is woolly with the party sitting on a fence, promising only a second referendum and Mr Corbyn saying he wouldn’t campaign during a future vote.

media_camera The Labour Party has been plagued by claims of anti-Semitism. Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP

media_camera The Welsh town of Wrexham has been Labour held for decades. A new poll suggests it could go to the Conservatives. Picture: Paul Ellis/AFP

‘RED WALL’ UP FOR GRABS

The Conservatives hope that will see frustrated Labour voters head their way and nab them a swath of seats in a “red wall’ of safe opposition electorates that stretches through England’s northern through cities like Manchester and Sheffield and into Wales. Indeed, one stunning poll in the North Wales former mining town of Wrexham suggested the Tories would romp home in the electorate that has been held by Labour since 1935.

Wrexham, constituency voting intention:



CON: 44% (-)

LAB: 29% (-20)

PC: 10% (+5)

BREX: 9% (+9)

LDEM: 6% (+3)

GRN: 2% (-)



via @Survation, 27 - 30 Nov

Chgs. w/ GE2017 — Britain Elects (@britainelects) December 7, 2019

The Tories hope that will make up for expected losses in remain voting London and Scotland.

Prof Dawson said the “red wall” would be unlikely to collapse in its entirety.

“I don’t think, like the Berlin Wall, it will all come tumbling down, but the opinion polls suggest there will be huge holes knocked in it.

“You have to be cautious with the polls. The voter volatility in this election is unlike any other,” he said. There’s also the factor of holding the poll in mid winter that could push turnout down.

Asked how he thought Britons would vote, Prof Dawson said he would sit this prediction out.

“There’s absolutely there no way you’ll find a bookmakers putting a bet at this election.”

Originally published as Front page that could derail UK election