Boris Johnson was booed and met by protesters in Andrew Neil masks as he launched his final election campaign push at a fish market Grimsby.
The Tory leader was given an early-morning tour of the market as the Tories launch their bid to woo voters to switch allegiances in northern Labour heartlands.
A couple of jovial shouts were hurled at the Prime Minister by market workers as Mr Johnson posed with fish and chatted to merchants this morning.
“Nice to see you, Jeremy,” said one, while another added: “Boo Boris.”
Another man could be heard saying: “He brings them out, eh? Phoney b**tards.”
Cheers were also heard as the Prime Minister posed for selfies at the market.
Fishing is a key industry in the town and its decline has played a key role in the town’s strong support for Brexit, reports Grimsby Live .
(Image: PA)
The Tory leader is in marginal Grimsby as the party focuses its efforts on key leave-voting regions around the UK in a bid to steal power in traditional Labour strongholds.
A YouGov MRP poll late last month predicted a Labour loss in Grimsby, which would end 74 years of Labour power in the town.
The prediction has made the town a key target for the right, as Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage also visited earlier in the campaign.
He made his pitch to voters by saying the departure from the EU could help Grimsby restore its legacy as a fishing powerhouse.
Grimsby was a key Leave stronghold in the 2016 Eu referendum.
North East Lincolnshire voted 69.9 per cent to leave the union.
(Image: PA)
Labour has represented Grimsby since the 1940s, but the town has taken centre stage in the election as both the Tories and Brexit Party target leave heartlands for gains.
Conservative candidate Lia Nici is in a bid to take the seat from Labour’s Melanie Onn, who has served Grimsby since 2015.
Protesters were pictured wearing masks of Andrew Neil outside the fish market as the Tory leader arrived this morning, after the PM chickened out of an interview.
Labour Cleethorpes councillor Gaynor Rogers tweeted a snap of the group wearing masks of the broadcaster and brandishing pictures of poultry.
The BBC rottweiler issued a searing on-air ’empty seat’ challenge to the PM after he refused to front for an interview last week- despite other party leaders taking part.
The PM also dodged an earlier debate held by Channel 4 held on the topic of the environment and climate change.
He was replaced in that debate by a melting ice sculpture.
Mr Johnson is on a whistle-stop tour of marginal seats around the country as polling day looms.
The Conservatives are concentrating their efforts in the leave-voting Midlands and will also take the fight to England’s south-west, where Mr Johnson will warn voters against the pro-EU Liberal Democrats .
(Image: PA)
At the market this morning, Premier Seafoods owner Nathan Godley said he appreciated the PM’s visit: “Having him here is all good fun, and he has been too.
“He’s very tactile, you can get up close and personal with him. We’ve had politicians in the past who have not been like that. He just likes to get stuck in.”
Mr Godley added: “We have a lot of visits, Grimsby is clearly important and the publicity is good for the town. If they are not holding babies they are holding fish!”
Garfish managing director Garey Cadey said: “We have had them all here and I hope he does us proud. He is the man in the driving seat at the moment and I don’t see that changing.
“I just want to get Brexit over with the same as everyone else. I export and we need to know where we are. We just want to get it over with, it has been three and a half years.”
