The
once-dominant lead that British Prime Minister Theresa May had over her rivals
in the run-up to Thursday’s election may be the latest casualty of recent
terror attacks that
have unnerved British voters.
Polls show a
tightening race between May and her lead opponent, Labor Party leader Jeremy
Corbyn, one day ahead of a general election that will determine how the U.K.
negotiates its exit from the European Union and how it handles attacks from
radical Muslims, among other things.
The
60-year-old May, who took over as prime minister last year after David Cameron
stepped down following the Brexit referendum result, had what many saw as an
insurmountable lead over her political rivals, a lead that could actually widen
her current majority in the House of Commons.
Then
came the Manchester bombing on May 22
and the London Bridge van and stabbing
attacks on June 3. The Manchester attack left at least 22 dead and some 119
injured, while at least 8 were killed and more than 50 injured in the assault
at London Bridge.
Corbyn
quickly jumped on the opportunity to remind voters of what May did when she was
Cameron’s home secretary, or top law officer: She oversaw cuts to the police
department of some 20,000 local officers. Suddenly the 68-year-old socialist
appeared within striking distance of No. 10 Downing St.
One recent
poll shows May with a relatively small 6 percent lead over Corbyn -- though
British political observers warn the polls are often wrong about outcomes.
"The
opinion polls are tightening but the opinion polls in Britain are a bit
unreliable," said Mark Garnett, a politics professor at Lancaster
University.
"How
people intend to vote is very different from how they will actually vote,"
Garnett told Fox News Wednesday. "Corbyn immediately went on the offensive
and said this is largely due to the fact that police numbers have been curbed.
May was home secretary in charge of the police before she became prime
minister. The whole narrative [of the campaign] has suddenly become cuts to the
police."
Corbyn,
widely written off at the start of the campaign, has drawn thousands of people
to upbeat rallies and energized young voters with his plans to boost public
spending after years of Conservative austerity.
"They
underestimated us, didn't they?" Corbyn told supporters in Glasgow on
Wednesday. "They underestimated the good sense of ordinary people,
ordinary people all over Britain."
An election
that had appeared to be a referendum on May’s ability to negotiate a good
Brexit deal had become a referendum on her ability to keep Britons safe. She
may yet win, but prospects of her building or even retaining her majority in
Parliament have dimmed dramatically.
"People
have been questioning whether Theresa May symbolizes stable and strong
leadership," said Michael Geary, professor of European studies at
Maastricht Universit in the Netherlands.
"Jeremy
Corbyn over the last few days has been rising in a kind of Bernie Sanders way
amongst the young and those on the left," Geary told Fox News.
Polls will
be open Thursday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., with all 650 seats in the House of
Commons up for grabs.
The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
Fox news
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