What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Jeremy Corbyn announced he was bringing a "message of hope" as he spoke to hundreds of supporters on the eve of the election in the north east.

The Labour leader touched down in the marginal seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, which fell to the Tories last time round, on a whistlestop tour of the United Kingdom hoping to convince voters there to come back to the party.

Mr Corbyn, who seemed in good spirits, told those gathered in the cold: "I've not come here to deliver milk - or to hide in a fridge," with a dig at the Prime Minister who went on a milkround in the marginal seat of Guiseley, in Yorkshire and hid from cameras in a fridge.

Instead the Labour leader declared: "I've come here with a message of hope."

(Image: Getty Images) (Image: Ian Cooper / Teesside Live)

Mr Corbyn arrived from Glasgow, where he kicked off the final day of campaigning, to a crowd warmed up by Shadow Transport Secretary Andy McDonald who sang his own version of It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas including the lines "Johnson's got to go".

While Laura Pidcock, who has a fight on her hands in North West Durham, told supporters to go out and campaign telling them that every conversation over the next few hours will count.

She said: “Every single conversation you have had will absolutely be worth it.

"There are people right now who do not know who they are going to vote for and it our job to have a conversation with every single one of those people who do not know who they are going to vote for and tell them that a better society is possible.”

(Image: Ian Cooper / Teesside Live)

Labour Party chair Ian Lavery had a more direct challenge to undecided voters telling them it was time to ask themselves "which side are you on?".

He told activists: "When you knock on people's doors in communities up and down the country when they say they don't know ask them are they prepared to see people in the foreseeable future kids in poverty, kids going to school with holes in their shoes, kids going to school without the right attire in these freezing cold conditions, not even having food in their bellies, 4.1m kids in poverty, lots of them in areas like this?

"We cannot allow this to continue."

A smiling Mr Corbyn told activists: “I am utterly determined we go flat out between now and 10pm tomorrow evening to get everyone to vote, and hopefully vote Labour and recognise in our manifesto there is hope, there is something positive.”

He urged them to do all they could in these crucial last hours.

Mr Corbyn told campaigners: “Please do absolutely everything you can to win in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, and all the other marginal constituencies.

"It is our chance tomorrow to elect a government that will be for the many not the few.”

(Image: Getty Images)

After his brief stop in the north east the Labour leader is travelling across country to the East Midlands ahead of a visit to Bedford and a final rally in London before a home crowd.

Labour have an uphill fight to win over undecided voters after the latest polling showed Boris Johnson on track to win a 28-seat majority.

Speaking after the Middlesbrough rally Mr Corbyn refused to speak about the numbers in the YouGov MRP poll.

He said: “I never ever comment on opinion polls the only poll that matters is the one tomorrow.”

Asked if he should resign if Labour fails to get a majority he replied: “I think you should concentrate on the election and the fact that Labour is going to win the election.”

The Labour leader had told activists that he had run a positive campaign slamming the abuse he and the party had received.

He said: “We now have had 51 days of this campaign and 51 days of unbelievable levels of abuse hurled at leading figures of the Labour Party, unbelievable levels of character assassinations going on against our party and our movement and I simply say this, if you wish to inhabit the gutter, that’s absolutely fine by me but I will not be joining you there."

Asked why he believed that he was still on course to enter Number 10, he replied: “We’ve had six weeks in which we’ve been campaigning all over the country six weeks in which we’ve been under relentless media assault against my party nevertheless our message has got through a message that we will protect the NHS we won’t do secret deals with the United States”.

He also promised a government you can trust to tell the truth on Brexit .

Mr Corbyn said: “There’s a choice tomorrow either we continue with austerity and the horrible levels of poverty and security that many people face or you have a government that is serious about investing in the future."