Advertisement

Final Hours Of Campaigning Ahead Of Election

:: Follow the election results live on skynews.com, our mobile apps and on Sky News TV from 10pm on Thursday.

Britain's party leaders have made a last-ditch appeal for votes on the final day of campaigning ahead of the General Election.

The leaders continued their whistle-stop tours of key seats across the country, combining positive messages with warnings about the consequences of their opponents taking power.

The main parties are locked in a tight race ahead of Thursday's vote, with opinion polls suggesting the final flurry of campaigning has not led to a decisive breakthrough for either the Conservatives or Labour.

Three separate surveys have the parties tied.

:: Full Coverage Of General Election 2015

:: Deal Or No Deal: Party Pact Options Explained

David Cameron has appealed for more time to build a better Britain on the eve of an election he insists will "define a generation".

Rounding off a frantic 36-hour tour which took in stops in Bristol, Brecon & Radnorshire, Cannock Chase, Chester, Lancaster and Carlisle, he told activists he was not a "demented accountant" obsessed with getting rid of the deficit, but someone who wants to make life better for hard-working people.

He said: "It comes down to a choice of leadership.

"Whether you want me to continue leading our country and taking it forward, or whether you want Ed Miliband to go back to the start and waste all the work of the last five years.

"Do you want the people who are fixing the economy, or the people who wrecked our economy?"

In an interview with Sky News earlier, the Prime Minister spoke about the possibility of a renewed coalition with the Liberal Democrats if the Tories fail to win a majority.

He said he wants to carry on pushing for a majority Tory government, but added he will "always do the right thing by the country" when asked if he was ready to consider a second coalition.

Mr Cameron appeared to concede that there is only one party he would not have any conversations with in the case of a hung parliament - the SNP.

:: Party Leader Profiles: The Box Set

:: Party Manifestos At A Glance

Finishing his campaign at a rally in Leeds, Labour leader Ed Miliband said the country could not afford five more years of the Conservatives in government.

He accused Mr Cameron of hiding the truth about deep spending cuts that posed a "real and present danger" to family budgets and urged the electorate to end "five years of unfairness, five years of failure".

Mr Miliband insisted earlier in the day he is "not countenancing defeat" and warned another coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats posed a "huge risk" to working families.

He said: "My focus is on winning a majority, my focus is on the British people and the huge choice they make."

The only way to get Mr Cameron out of Downing Street was by voting Labour, Mr Miliband insisted.

Meanwhile, Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman has said she would "not engage in post-match speculation" ahead of the vote.

Ms Harman told Sky News Labour was not involved in discussions with other parties about possible post-election pacts.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, who completed the second half of a 1,000-mile campaign tour from Land's End to John O'Groats, said voters faced "the biggest political decision of their lives", and stated his belief that his party would be the election's "surprise story".

He told Sky News: "I really believe in what the Liberal Democrats are trying to do, which is to keep our country stable, to make sure the next government is decent, that we govern for the whole of the United Kingdom, that we don't see it pulled apart.

"I really, really worry that there is going to be this lurch to the right with the Conservatives, lurching off and imposing ideological cuts on our public services, dancing to the tune of UKIP.

"Or a lurch to the left as Ed Miliband and Ed Balls borrow pots of money, dancing to the tune of Alex Salmond.

"We are now the guarantors of stability and I think that's what people want from our country."

UKIP leader Nigel Farage made an eleventh-hour push for votes in Thanet South where he gave as good as he got in an exchange with a heckler.

Mr Farage also criticised the negativity of the election campaign, claiming it made the case for a change in the voting system.

He later said support for his party was "rock solid", and predicted UKIP would outperform the opinion polls.

Speaking in Scotland, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said: "All politicians have got a duty on Friday morning to respect the outcome.

"And if the voters across the UK decide not to give Labour of the Tories a majority then that means they want parties to work together.

"If there's an anti-Tory majority on Friday morning we should work together to get the Tories out."