PRIME Minister Boris Johnson visited Colchester to issue a rallying cry to Conservatives ahead of next week’s General Election.

Hundreds of party faithful welcomed him when he visited property marketing firm Think BDW, in Wyncolls Road, on the Severalls Industrial Estate.

He said: “We are the dynamite which will clear the backlog in Parliament.

“We have ten days to secure a majority which will get Parliament working.

“It is only with that majority we can deliver our transformative agenda.”

He was accompanied by former Witham MP Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is fighting to retain her seat.

Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly, who represented Braintree and is standing for election again, was also at the rally along with Colchester’s Conservative candidate Will Quince and party activists.

Mr Quince is seeking to win the seat for the third time, having won elections in 2015 and 2017.

Mr Cleverly told the excited audience: “If a Conservative majority government is elected on December 12, we will reintroduce the withdrawal agreement in December so we can leave the EU by the end of January.

“We want to get Brexit done so we can get on to make Britain the greatest place live, go to school and to run a business.”

Mr Johnson’s visit comes on the same day Labour is reported to have squeezed the Tories’ lead in several new polls, with Jeremy Corbyn’s party ranking its highest since the start of the campaign.

Some polls are showing the Conservatives lead has shrunk to as low as six per cent, which experts believe could lead to another hung parliament.

Colchester is being seen asa key battleground in the upcoming election and has been a designated target seat for the opposition.

At the start of the campaign the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems all felt they were in with a realistic chance of taking the seat and political experts predicted it was too close to call with any degree of certainty.

Labour’s Tina McKay has been boosted by her party’s climb in the national polls, as well as the move by some tactical voting sites to back her campaign.

According to tactical.vote, three out of five tactical voting sites now back Labour as the best bet to beat the Conservatives, with one backing Lib Dem Martin Goss and the other unaligned.

Campaign group Compass is recommending a vote for the Lib Dems. Earlier today Mr Johnson stood side by side with opponent Mr Corbyn and London Mayor Sadiq Khan at a memorial service for Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones, who were killed by a terrorist during an attack on London Bridge on Friday.

Convicted terrorist Usman Khan, 28, had been released from prison under licence after serving half of his sentence.

Following the attack Mr Johnson has set out a series of measures aimed at improving security and promised to review licence conditions placed on convicted terrorists released from jail.

  • The Colchester election candidates are: Mark Goacher (Green), Martin Goss (Lib Dem), Tina McKay and Will Quince