Before announcement of the election the political situation prevailing in the UK appeared to be quite favourable for Johnson, but with the D-day reaching closer Boris appears to have lost much of the ground to the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. This situation has been created by Boris who depended most on the USA President Donald Trump for his support. This was much to the dislike of the common Britishers.

The hostility of the people towards Trump could be gauged from the simple fact that during his recent visit to UK for attending the NATO meeting he did not say anything and what was most shocking was Boris tried to impress upon him not to open his mouth. The credit for creation of this situation primarily goes to Corbyn who exposed the attempts of Trump to dictate the Health Services of UK. The NHS is already in bad shape, the government has failed to strengthen the NHS. Patients are not getting adequate assistance.

In his brief time in office Johnson has behaved outrageously. He has lied to the Queen, lied about Brexit and runs scared of serious interrogation. He is a divisive figure with a record of deliberately offensive comments.

Boris faces major challenge from the youths. The Tories have underestimated young voters’ anger. That could be costly. ‘Young’ isn’t a demographic any more but a class with similar problems but unfortunately being treated with prejudice. There is a tendency to write young voters off as a joke constituency: erratic, unpredictable and not dependent. In sharp contrast Labour under Corbyn has been trying to win over this action. It could better its performance based on their support. Corbyn has been making sustained efforts to open up and have connect with them. Corbyn has in fact benefitted from his endeavour. It is these young voters who have pushed Corbyn as a challenger.

In Britain’s history of unpopular Conservative governments, a maximum of 10 per cent of people have ever managed to vote tactically. In fact utter confusion grips the political establishment of UK about the actual concept of young; what should be the age difference and cut off year.

A decade ago the only people who’d call a 39-year-old “young” were mortgage companies trying to mask the perversity of the market by pretending to think anyone other than the middle-aged could afford starter homes. More than nine million voters were registered in 2019. Of these four million are young. Even while various pollsters are happy to predict that they will break. They would vote tactically. Obviously the Labour share could be higher.

It is a baffling prejudice, that anyone under 40 is trivial. Britain’s young people are radicalised and registered. It will bite the Conservatives, anyway. There was a lot of debate surrounding 2017’s surge in young voting, including whether or not it actually happened. Initially some people did not take this upsurge seriously. Some attributed it to “youthquake”. Some reports based on the British Election Study claimed that there was no substantial rise in youth turnout – leading many to declare the “youthquake” a myth. But recent analysis indicates a large increase in turnout in 2017 among under-30s, suggests it was real after all. There is also much no one is sure how this year’s youth registration spike will affect the final result on 13 December.

Boris harping on Islamophobia has simply eaten into his popularity. His exploiting the London Bridge killing on communal line has gone against him. What has turned Boris suspicious in the eyes of British voter is his concealing the alleged Russian involvement in the election. The prospect of Russian interference in Britain’s election flared after Reddit a social media platform came out with the revelation that people from Russia leaked confidential British documents on Brexit trade talks.Reddit said it had banned 61 accounts suspected of violating policies against vote manipulation. Incidentally Labour is being challenged on how it obtained documents.

For Corbyn his best moment was his exposure of the danger to the NHS from Johnson’s US trade deal plans. This has appealed to the voters who fell overwhelmed with this exposure and approach of Corbyn. Labour’s manifesto seeks to remove the market from as many aspects of life as possible and wants to curtail the power of the mega-rich. It plans to build 100,000 council homes a year. It is offering free national social care, abolition of tuition fees, and pension payments for women who have been treated unfairly. Labour’s green policies are substantial and meaningful.

Labour seeks to undo the damage inflicted by Margaret Thatcher 40 years ago and to replace it with a more social democratic Britain. But success of his mission depends on the quantum of support and mandate he receives from the voters. (IPA Service)