JUDY WOODRUFF: Britain goes to the polls tomorrow in what's billed as the most important general
election since the end of World War II, and Brexit is at the heart of the election.
Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson needs a clear majority in Parliament to force
through a deal, which will enable Britain to leave the European Union at the end of
next month.
But, as special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports, doubts about Johnson's character
and that of his main opponent, Jeremy Corbyn, are troubling British voters.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Never one to shy away from an eye-catching stunt, Boris Johnson rammed
home his core pledge.
He's appealing for a parliamentary majority to honor the 2016 referendum on European membership,
which narrowly favored leaving the E.U.
Against expectations, in the fall, Johnson reached a deal with the European Union.
It's designed to avoid a chaotic Brexit, but he fears the election tomorrow may not yield
the numbers needed to push the agreement through.
BORIS JOHNSON, British Prime Minister: We have just got to get Brexit done.
And, you know, you're asking me to contemplate something pretty appalling, in my view.
I don't see any alternative but a working majority to deliver it.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Johnson's chief opponent, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, is promising the
most radical socialist program for generations.
Corbyn insists Johnson can't get Brexit done.
JEREMY CORBYN, Leader, Labor Party: That claim is a fraud on the British people.
His sellout deal will be just the beginning of years of drawn-out, bogged-down negotiations
and broken promises.
MALCOLM BRABANT: If Johnson is to succeed, his party must win districts like Canterbury,
southeast of London.
For nearly 200 years, this was a Conservative stronghold.
But in the referendum, the district voted to remain in the E.U. and, at the last election
two years ago, the fortress fell to the Labor Party.
Attorney Anna Firth is fighting to wrestle back control of Canterbury.
ANNA FIRTH, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate: What most people, the vast majority, are saying
to me on the doorstep is, whether they voted leave or remain, they just want us to move
on.
They want the gridlock to be finished, they want the agony to be finished, they want some
resolution.
MALCOLM BRABANT: The incumbent is Labor's Rosie Duffield, who believes Brexit would
be disastrous.
ROSIE DUFFIELD, British Parliament Member: We're right next to Europe.
We're closer to Europe than we are some English cities.
And we're dependent on our relationship with Europe, for our tourist trade, for the university,
for our research programs, all kinds of things.
And it's really important for me to keep fighting for that.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Duffield is benefiting from the breakdown of traditional tribal allegiances.
Lifelong Conservative Joe Egerton has switched sides.
He complains the party no longer represents a more benevolent, tolerant conservatism.
JOE EGERTON, Former Conservative Campaigner: The Conservative Party today has become the
Brexit party.
It is not the party I joined.
It is a strongly anti-European party.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Opinion polls have consistently given Boris Johnson's Conservatives a significant
lead.
But Johnson is not being complacent.
In the last few days, Johnson has been fishing for votes in traditional Labor Party constituencies
that are now in play because they favor Brexit.
He's promising to upgrade public services to win over people who would never normally
vote Conservative.
BORIS JOHNSON: We have a vision of a United Kingdom.
Jeremy Corbyn would divide our kingdom.
And I can tell you this: We can do all of this as one-nation Conservatives, whilst not
putting up your taxes.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Jeremy Corbyn's key emotional weapon is Britain's free National Health Service.
Its stresses were emphasized this week with a story about a 4-year-old boy being treated
on a hospital floor.
Despite repeated denials, Corbyn has accused the Conservatives of plotting to sell off
the Health Service to American big pharma companies.
JEREMY CORBYN: Boris Johnson really wants a no-deal Brexit straight into the arms of
Donald Trump and a trade deal with them.
And it's very clear to me that trade deal with the United States, that trade deal would
put all of our public services at risk.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Political analysts like Jo Phillips believe this is the most crucial
election since World War II.
JO PHILLIPS, Political Analyst: I think trust is the biggest single issue in this election,
above and beyond Brexit.
It's one of the most divisive and better elections, I think, that we have ever seen in this country.
MALCOLM BRABANT: In a series of campaign videos, Labor is tugging at the heartstrings.
WOMAN: There's so much poverty and suffering.
And our society's crumbling.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Labor is planning to re-nationalize Britain's railways, along with utilities like
water and power.
It's promising to bridge the gap between prosperous and poor by extracting more tax from society's
upper echelons.
But the Institute for Fiscal Studies has dismissed the Christmas gifts of both Labor and Conservative
as not credible.
JO PHILLIPS: Jeremy Corbyn comes across as a rather avuncular, pleasant, elderly gentleman
you could trust with your life.
JEREMY CORBYN: "Jeremy Corbyn isn't some kind of kindly magic grandpa.
Quite the opposite in fact."
Wow.
JO PHILLIPS: Unfortunately, I think we know that the people who are pulling his puppet
strings are extremely hard-left militants.
Boris Johnson is a showman.
That's why he's attractive to very many people.
He's got a good turn of phrase.
He's very jolly.
He's very rambunctious.
He doesn't want to be held to account.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Unlike every other political leader, Johnson refused to submit to a grilling
from one of British television's toughest interviewers.
Johnson's bid for a majority is threatened by Britain's former Attorney General Dominic
Grieve.
He was among 21 Conservative lawmakers purged from the party for rebelling over Brexit.
At his riverside constituency, Grieve is relying on voters like this academic, who was unwilling
to give his surname.
ANGUS, Voter: You only have to go back through Mr. Johnson's, how shall I put it, very colorful
career, and you will find that I'd sooner trust Al Capone.
DOMINIC GRIEVE, British Parliamentary Candidate: I'm afraid I find him completely untrustworthy.
He has a long and very detailed record of telling outright lies whenever it suits him.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Jeremy Corbyn is also distrusted.
He's been accused of sympathizing with terrorist groups such as the IRA and Hamas.
Britain's chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has condemned Corbyn as unfit for high office.
The Labor Party is being investigated by Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission over
allegations of institutional anti-Semitism.
One complainant from the Jewish Labor movement reportedly listed 22 examples of abuse at
a party meeting, where he was called a child killer, Zio scum and a Tory Jew.
In Johnson's district West of London, one voice encapsulated the national air of fatigue.
LYNNE O'LEARY, Voter: I just feel that it's probably one of the worst times ever in British
politics.
And we're at a situation where everybody just seems to be fighting for themselves, instead
of sort of working collectively to do the best thing for the country.
MALCOLM BRABANT: Britain's voters are undoubtedly punch-drunk from politics and three-and-a-half
years of waiting for Brexit.
The big question is whether, despite his flaws, they will back Johnson sufficiently to deliver
a knockout blow.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Southern England.