UK Politicians Chase Undecided Voters  12/11 06:25

   LONDON (AP) -- British political leaders rose early Wednesday to pursue 
undecided voters on the eve of Britain's election, zigzagging the country in 
hopes that one last push will get the wavering to the polls.

   Though polls have consistently shown Prime Minister Boris Johnson's 
Conservative Party in the lead, the size of the margin is seen as narrowing 
before Thursday's contest. All of the parties are nervous about the verdict of 
a volatile electorate weary after years of wrangling over Brexit --- and likely 
to dump traditional party ties.

   All 650 seats  in the House of Commons seats are up for grabs in the 
election, which is being held more than two years early in a bid to break the 
political impasse over Brexit.

   Johnson has tried to focus minds on the potential of an uncertain result and 
a divided Parliament, which would endanger his plan to lead the U.K. out of the 
European Union on Jan. 31. He started his day by helping load milk and orange 
juice bottles onto a delivery vehicle in West Yorkshire. 

   "This could not be more critical, it could not be tighter --- I just say to 
everybody the risk is very real that we could tomorrow be going into another 
hung parliament,'' he said. "That's more drift, more dither, more delay, more 
paralysis for this country." 

   Meanwhile, the main opposition Labour Party said the narrowing in the polls 
showed that momentum was moving in their direction. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn 
campaigned in Scotland and urged people to elect a government that will "give 
real hope." 

   "In this city of Glasgow, which has some of the poorest people in this 
country, which has wards which contain the lowest life expectancy all across 
this country, they need an end to austerity,'' Corbyn said. "They need a U.K. 
government that will invest all across the country."


(KR)