Campaign round-up: Two days to go

It’s two days until voters go to the polls – here’s a quick look at how the elections are shaping up across the country.

Quote of the Day

“Only a Tory Government with as warped a sense of priorities as this one could issue a statement lauding the roll-out [of Universal Credit] on the same day an independent expert report from the Resolution Foundation shows Tory cuts will completely undermine work incentives in the programme.” – Owen Smith, on the warped priorities of the Conservative Government.

Forecasts

Jeremy Corbyn has said Labour will not lose any council seats, and is instead looking to make gains. By contrast a handful of academics have suggested Labour will lose between 150 and 200 seats.

An Evening Standard/Opinium poll has put Sadiq Khan at 35 per cent of first preference votes, a nine-point lead on Conservative Zac Goldsmith. When second preferences are taken into account, Khan is at 57 per cent and Goldsmith 43.

Message of the Day

“Growing up in a mining constituency I saw at first hand the devastation wrought on proud communities by the end of the pits and I’ll put every arm of government at the service of making sure that doesn’t happen again.” – Carwyn Jones, in his piece “Together for Steel” in the HuffPost today.

Meme of the Day

Zac Goldsmith failed – again – to come across as a normal bloke by drawing a dodgy football parallel on LBC radio. He is lagging in the polls but said “I’m hoping to do a bit of a Leicester City, zoom in from behind and win.”

Actually, Leicester have been top of the Premier League since January, as most of twitter has now pointed out.
Opposition watch

The Bristol Post has a run-down on the two horse race between Labour candidate Marvin Rees and Bristol First incumbent George Ferguson – Rees lost by a small margin in 2012 and could be hit by low turnout this time round.

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood has said a “good result” for her party would be to win a majority. When they are way behind Labour in the polls, this is a lesson in how not to manage expectations.

https://twitter.com/huw_price/status/727404360632811520