well, i'm joined now by the former conservative environment secretary george eustice to discuss the final. the last five minutes of this general election campaign. george, thanks for joining us. my goodness me. is this not the most peculiar election we've ever seen ? the election we've ever seen? the results could be the most dramatic in this country's parliamentary history. and yet the campaign has seen , frankly, the campaign has seen, frankly, quite so dull. >> yes, i think always people by this stage are sick of election campaigns. whichever one it is, you can look at newspaper coverage of the 1997 election. and even though in retrospect people talk about that as some sort of exciting time at the time, people said it was dull and boring and nobody was addressing the issues. so you can always say that about elections, but i think for this one, it's been particularly difficult for the conservative party because , you know, they've party because, you know, they've gone into it on the ropes, 20 points behind in the polls, having already spent two years trying to sort of change those fortu

we've got ex—tory mp george eustice and political consultant suzanne evans.go . britain, here we go. well, when i come back, it's nigel farage time . he's done the nigel farage time. he's done the big interview with us today. so are we playing you some clips of that. and i'm also going to be talking about the nhs and particularly looking forward to that, because i was having a chat with my audience in the break and we've got some strong views. so i'll see you after the . news. >> very good evening to you. it's just coming up to 10:02. the top story tonight, the prime minister has said during his final big campaigning event that he is still in the general election fight . rishi sunak election fight. rishi sunak insisted it's not over until the final whistle blows, adding the election is not a foregone conclusion. >> it is our job. it is our duty >> it is ourjob. it is our duty to make sure that britain does not sleepwalk into this and that's what i need. your help with, because yes, many people may want to say the result of this election is a foregone conclusi

conservative cabinet minister or former conservative cabinet minister george eustice and former labourstephen pound in a very natty suit. i see you've been doing your election dress shopping, stephen, because you're going to be with us. both of you on election night are we? absolutely, yes you are, i think so. i think we're all going to be together in perfect harmony as the chips fall. yeah. let's talk about the postal votes thing. first of all, because the ceo of the electoral commission there is sort of playing it down and saying only a few thousand are affected. but if this was happening in your constituency at the time when you were running as mps, you'd be worried about it, wouldn't you? >> oh, you would, i mean, because and there will be dozens and dozens of seats in this election where every vote counts. and more important than that, you know, people, you know, they want to exercise their right to vote. it's actually, people feel very, very angry if they've got a right to vote. and the vote doesn't turn up. so, so no, it is quite serious. and i don't i don't really understand ho

whereas, of course, george eustice, rishi sunak's left with nothing. yeah. very well.thing in these sorts of situations is to persuade a defeated leader that they should carry on until a new leader is selected. and i remember having this discussion with michael howard when we persuaded him to carry on until september. and it was it was not easy because if you're a defeated leader, you actually don't want to hang around in that role. you do want to move on. so it's a it's a big decision that rishi's got. as to how quickly. now the conservatives moved to a leadership campaign, there will be some who would say, let's not rush it, let's leave it till the conference and do what we did in 2005. you know, michael howard managed to pull off where david cameron came through and there will be others conference. >> george, that's a long time. >> george, that's a long time. >> it is. but it could be wrong. >> it is. but it could be wrong. >> it is. but it could be wrong. >> it could be that long. when you think about the length of time they'll be out of office, because no party ha

now we have a former conservative mp, george eustice , and the gb news senior eustice, and the gb newsel nelson. good morning to you both. >> now, george, you decided not to stand. >> and that turned out to be a wise decision your seat went to. >> it's gone to labour and camborne and redruth. my seat. it's always been a weathervane seatit it's always been a weathervane seat it went labour in the 97 landslide. we just won it in 2010 and you know it does tend to change hands when you get a big change in the tide. and my word, we certainly seen that tonight. >> johnny mercer, your constituency neighbour down in that part of the world. also one of the big scalps of the night. and when you look through the list, grant shapps defence secretary penny morden, who was obviously a hopeful to be leader , obviously a hopeful to be leader, mark harper, we've just heard in the last few moments transport secretary, he's out, you know, how does that make you feel about the direction of travel? this morning? >> well, look, it's a devastating result for the conservative party. there's no doubt about tha