Tories' sniper-like focus on Yorkshire seats and Labour attempts to draw on past 'betrayal' as battle for Number 10 enters crucial final days

The Conservative Party has launched an all-out final assault on Yorkshire as the battle to gain seats in the North in next week’s General Election enters its crucial final stage.

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With just days until the country goes to the polls - and many still undecided on how they will vote - Yorkshire seats are seen as critical in Boris Johnson’s bid to return to Downing Street.

Some of the Government’s most senior Cabinet ministers - including Sajid Javid, Michael Gove, and Priti Patel - have been deployed for daily visits to the region before polling day, as the party believes it needs to win just nine more seats nationally to grasp an overall majority.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative leader Boris Johnson. Photo: PALabour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative leader Boris Johnson. Photo: PA
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Conservative leader Boris Johnson. Photo: PA
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And the party is targeting Scunthorpe, Rother Valley, Bradford South, Halifax, and Don Valley as five that will get them over the line and keep Jeremy Corbyn out of Number 10.

Each seat requires between 1,500 and 3,500 people to change their mind for Mr Johnson to have an extra vote in Parliament that will help him get Brexit done.

However Tory campaign insiders told The Yorkshire Post they were worried voters supporting the Brexit Party will accidentally let Labour cling on by splitting the vote of people who want Brexit to be delivered – denying Boris Johnson the majority he needs and making Mr Corbyn Prime Minister, propped up by Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP.

The Brexit Party’s Nigel Farage vowed earlier in the campaign to only stand in Labour-held seats in an apparent bid to aide the Conservatives, but it is now feared this could also damage Mr Johnson’s share of the votes.

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A Conservative Party source told The Yorkshire Post: “The brutal truth is that if you vote for the Brexit Party in these seats you’ll get the opposite of what you want.

“That’s because these seats are key to our plan to get a majority. And if we don’t get that majority, Labour will waste next year holding a second referendum, and change the rules so two million EU nationals can vote in it.

“But that’s hard to get across to people because, quite understandably, many mistakenly think a vote for the Brexit Party is helpful to the Brexit cause.

“So we’re throwing everything at getting the message through in the final few days – that only a Conservative majority Government will get Brexit done.”

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Meanwhile the Labour Party has stepped up its efforts on holding on to the seats it has in Yorkshire, while also organising high profile visits to seats it wants to gain.

Mr Corbyn spent a large proportion of last weekend in Yorkshire and further high profile visits to key northern areas are expected in the coming week.

Ian Lavery, Labour Party Chairman, moved to remind Yorkshire voters of what he dubbed a “betrayal” of the North by the Conservatives, ahead of the final days of the campaign.

Mr Lavery, a former minework desperate to hold on to traditional Labour heartlands which the Tories have been targeting, said: “During the miners strike I saw first-hand the police brutality and economic hardship of Thatcher’s war against the working class.

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“The North remembers. We will never forgive or forget the cruelty of Thatcher’s Tories.

“Boris Johnson wants to finish the job that Thatcher started with his sell-out Brexit deal, privatising the NHS, and by starving our communities of the funding we need.

“Labour will reverse Thatcher’s toxic legacy by ending regional inequality with massive investment in the North.”

It comes as the Labour Party released two campaign videos on the theme The North Remembers, highlighting what they see as Mrs Thatcher’s legacy.