'It's not over till it's over!' Sunak seizes on England's win to insist there is still hope for Tories

1 July 2024, 11:05 | Updated: 1 July 2024, 11:16

Rishi Sunak seized on England scraping through the group stage of Euro 2024 with a wonder-goal in the 95th minute saying ‘it’s not over until it’s over’.

With 72 hours until election day, Mr Sunak posted a picture of himself celebrating after England’s 11th hour Euro victory last night that put the team into the knockout stage.

The PM issued a rallying cry in a last-ditch push despite opinion polls putting the Labour Party 20 percentage points ahead throughout the campaign.

On the weekend Mr Sunak said he thought he would still be PM on Friday: “Yes. I’m fighting very hard and I think people are waking up to the real danger of what a Labour government means,” he said.

Even more dire polling earlier in June had Rishi Sunak forecast to be the first sitting prime minister ever to lose their seat at a general election.

A poll by the Telegraph showed the Tories were on track to have just 53 seats, with around three-quarters of the Cabinet voted out.

The poll forecast Labour to have 516 seats and an estimated House of Commons majority of 382 – double that won by Sir Tony Blair in 1997.

As the election day drew closer, Mr Sunak issued warnings about Putin, made digs at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and meanwhile Home Secretary James Cleverly voiced alarm that Labour would try and rig the voting system to try to keep themselves in power.

Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Home Secretary James Cleverly | 01/07/24

Photo ID at elections was brought in under Rishi Sunak, a move that the UK elections watchdog said would be a ‘barrier’ and would make it harder for  ‘disabled people, unemployed people and some other groups’ to vote.

The PM's post comes as the Home Secretary claimed Labour plans to "change democracy" to make sure they are "permanently in government".

The Tories have changed their electoral strategy in recent weeks to warn about a Labour "supermajority", with some accusing the party of prematurely conceding defeat.

It comes as the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, prepares to warn in a speech today about what he calls the dangers of an "unchecked" Labour government, The Times reports.

Asked by Nick Ferrari if the Tories had conceded defeat, Mr Cleverly said: “We’re still fighting for every vote.

“But look, Nick, we see the opinion polls. It would be ridiculous for us to not warn about the implications of a Labour victory.”

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Mr Cleverly went on to say that a Labour victory is not an inevitability but issued a warning about Labour's plans to extend votes to 16-year-olds.

He continued: “We also recognise that the Labour Party have said publicly that they’re going to pack out the House of Lords, they’re going to give votes at 16, they’re probably going to give votes to foreign nationals, probably going to give votes to people in prison.

“They want to permanently change the way our democracy works and make sure they have a permanent Labour government.

“I have no doubt that if the voters of this country return a Labour government, the regret is going to set in really quickly.”

Labour have confirmed they have no plans to extend the vote to prisoners and there is no policy to extend votes to foreign nationals.

However, Sir Keir Starmer previously said on LBC that it "feels wrong" to not allow people who live and work in the UK to vote.