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Hugh Grant reveals what you didn't see in Boris Johnson's Love Actually rip-off

Just days before Great Britain goes to the polls in a crucial election, conservative leader Boris Johnson has sent social media into overdrive with a political ad spoofing a famous scene from the movie Love Actually.

But according to British actor Hugh Grant, one of the stars of the movie, there was one salient detail noticeably absent from Johnson’s recreation.

In the film, set during Christmas time, lovelorn character Mark (Andrew Lincoln) stands at the door of secret crush Juliet (Keira Knightley), professing his love in a series of cue cards while her new husband sits obliviously inside.

In the political ad, Johnson stands on the threshold of a voter's home with his own set of cards, promising that if she votes Conservative “by this time next year, we'll have Brexit done ... and we can move on”. The ad ends with an entreaty to “Vote Conservative actually”.

Hugh Grant, who ironically played a fictional Prime Minister in the 2003 romantic comedy, clearly didn’t appreciate the politically-motivated parody.

“I did notice that one of the cards from the original film that he didn’t hold up was the one where Andrew Lincoln held up a card saying, ‘Because at Christmas you tell the truth,’” he noted in a radio interview with the BBC.

“And I just wonder if the spin doctors in the Tory Party thought that was a card that wouldn’t look too great in Boris Johnson’s hands.”

Grant’s comments, likely elude to criticisms that pro-Brexit campaigners, Johnson included, ran a dishonest campaign as well as a recent scandal in which Boris Johnson was accused of lying to the queen and unlawfully suspending British parliament.

During the lead-up to the election, Hugh Grant has gone out on the campaign trail with non-Conservative candidates, urging electors to vote tactically to kick Johnson's party out of office when they go to the polls Thursday, local time.

The popular movie, about the love lives of assorted Londoners over the holiday season has played a surprisingly large role in the campaign, inspiring ads from both major parties with Labour candidate Rosena Allin-Khan accusing the conservatives of ripping off her earlier ad.

Photo of boy lying on hospital floor takes over election

Incumbent Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s message is simple. He says he will lead Britain out of the European Union by the scheduled January 31 deadline if he wins later this week.

However that pitch was overshadowed by criticism of his ham-fisted response to an image circulated heavily in Britain of a sick child sleeping on a hospital floor.

A photo of four-year-old Jack Williment-Barr sleeping on the floor of the Leeds General Infirmary as he awaited treatment because there were no free beds, grabbed national attention after appearing in a newspaper.

The opposition Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn painted the boy's plight as a symptom of Britain's ailing health system, which has suffered under years of Conservative government austerity measures.

A video of the prime minister briefly declining to look at a mobile phone photo of Jack on a journalist's phone - and then placing the phone in his pocket - has been viewed more than 1 million times.

The incident quickly became caught up in a storm of social media claims, counterclaims and conspiracies.

Several prominent journalists, including the political editors of the BBC and ITV, tweeted a claim by anonymous Conservative officials that a party worker had been punched by a protester while Britain's health secretary visited the hospital.

When footage emerged showing that no assault had taken place, they apologised - but a media storm was already raging.

Some social media users circulated claims that the photo of Jack, first published by the Yorkshire Evening Post, was staged. Editor James Mitchinson had to defend it, explaining how the newspaper had verified the story.

Labour found itself embarrassed, meanwhile, by the leak of a phone recording to the right-wing political website Guido Fawkes in which the party's health spokesman suggested that the party would lose the election because voters “can't stand” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is seen as radical and unlikable among many in the electorate.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson pictured during a campaign speech in Manchester. Source: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Manchester. Source: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Johnson accused by father of capitalising on son’s terror death

Another late hurdle for Johnson in what polls are predicting should be a clear path to victory for his party was allegations that he exploited a terrorist knife attack late last month for political gain.

Dave Merritt, whose son was killed in last month's London Bridge attack, said the way the tragedy had been exploited for political ends was “crass and insensitive”.

Merritt's 25-year-old son Jack was one of two people killed when a former convict attacked people at a prisoner rehabilitation event that Merritt was helping to run on November 29.

Dave Merritt told Sky News that “instead of seeing a tragedy, Johnson saw an opportunity.

“... They immediately said, 'Oh, this is Labour's fault - they allowed this to happen. They had this early release policy,' and so on.”

Victim Jack Merritt’s father accused Boris Johnson of trying to "score election points" over his son's death. Source: Sky News
Victim Jack Merritt’s father accused Boris Johnson of trying to "score election points" over his son's death. Source: Sky News

Labour, meanwhile, have been plagued by party in-fighting in recent months and a potentially unpalatable leader in the broader electorate.

If Labour wins, it wants to renegotiate Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal and put it to another public referendum, potentially giving the British people the chance to vote to remain in the European Union.

Conservatives tipped to reclaim power but hung parliament looms

All 650 seats in the House of Commons are up for grabs in the election, which is being held more than two years early in a bid to break the political impasse over Brexit.

Opinion polls give the Conservatives a lead over Labour, but all parties are nervous about the verdict of a volatile electorate that is weary after years of wrangling over Brexit.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during a visit to the Royal Scot Pub in Carlisle, while on the General Election campaign trail. Source: Joe Giddens/PA Wire
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn during a visit to the Royal Scot Pub in Carlisle, while on the General Election campaign trail. Source: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Johnson remains on course for a Conservative majority of 28 seats but the prime minister has lost ground in the past two weeks and a hung parliament could still be on the cards, according to UK polling company YouGov.

Having analysed 105,000 voter interviews between December 4 and 10, the pollsters predict the Tories would win 339 seats, giving the governing party a majority of 28.

The result is down on the 68-seat majority that the same YouGov MRP exercise predicted Johnson would end up with only two weeks ago.

YouGov also said the surprise element of tactical voting and the tightening in the polls meant a hung parliament could not be ruled out.

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