Desperate Tory candidates are styling themselves as “local Conservatives” in a huge snub to Boris Johnson.
Would-be councillors fearing a ballot box mauling as angry voters traipse to the polls are begging electors not to “punish” them for Partygate bashes.
Tory leaflets delivered in Hartlepool say: “This Thursday, please don’t punish local Conservatives for the mistakes made in Westminster.
"We are local, and proud of where we live."
Candidates in some regions, including the Esher and Walton constituency in Surrey where Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab is the MP, are listed as “local Conservative” - even on ballot papers.
Mr Johnson’s picture is seldom used in election campaign literature - and in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffs, Conservative leaflets tell voters: “This election is about local issues, not national issues.”
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “It speaks volumes that Boris Johnson’s own Conservative candidates are ashamed to be associated with him and trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes.
“With no answers to the cost of living crisis, Tory candidates are trying to hide from their own Government’s record."
Mr Johnson insisted he would lead his party to the next election despite mounting concerns among Tory MPs that he has been damaged by a string of scandals.
On the campaign trail today, Mr Johnson said that he was "absolutely confident that we have the right agenda for the country".
"I have a big mandate to deliver," he told reporters at Southampton Airport.
Asked if he would still be there at the next election, due to be held in 2024 at the latest, Mr Johnson said: "Of course. And I'm also very confident we will succeed at the next election."
Keir Starmer said the contest was a "step on the road" the next election for Labour and said the party was focused on helping people with the cost of living crisis.
He accused the Tories of "mudslinging" over repeated questions about footage of him drinking a beer with colleagues at a campaign event in April 2021.
He told reporters: "What this mudslinging tells me is that the Conservatives have no answer to the central issue, which is the cost-of-living crisis. If they had an answer to that question, they would give it.
"If they spent as much time and energy and focus on that issue, they would be doing a service to millions of people across the country who can't pay their bills.
"The Government doesn't seem to get this, they are so out of touch and out of ideas, and, frankly, now out of excuses."
Mr Starmer said he had not been contacted by police about the event in Durham last years.
The party leaders were visiting key electoral battlegrounds on the last day of campaigning before polling day.
The polls will close at 10pm on Thursday, with results starting to come through in the early hours of the morning.
Voters will elect 200 councils across Britain, including more than 4,300 council seats in England, and all of the councils in Scotland and Wales.
The last time most of these councils were up for election was in 2018, which came after Theresa May lost her Commons majority in the 2017 snap election.
Seven mayoral races are taking place and electors in Northern Ireland will choose their representatives at Stormont.
