Terror, Trump, tightening polls and an election youth-quake: the UK gears up for an historic showdown

As the UK's December 12 general election draws closer, it looks like Prime Minister Boris Johnson will get his Christmas wish of winning a majority in the House of Commons so he can finally pass his Brexit legislation.

Five days out from polling day, 9News takes a look at the latest figures and key moments from a bitter, but colourful campaign.

The Polls

At this point, Johnson has every reason to be feeling festive. The Conservatives have maintained a healthy lead in the polls since day one.  

"As things currently stand, the Conservatives are heading for a comfortable 68 seat majority," Chris Curtis from British data analytics company YouGov told 9News.

Both of the major parties have increased their vote share at the expense of smaller parties, but the overall lead has remained fairly consistent.

But Labour is still hoping they can close the gap and force a hung parliament when votes are counted in the early hours of Friday morning.

The Conservatives will be looking for 326 out of 650 seats in the House of Commons in order to form government, and anything less will be seen as a disaster for the ruling party.

The BrexElection

The campaign began with one over-riding focus and question to voters: who could be best trusted to finally sort out the Brexit mess?

The Prime Minister has spent five weeks hammering home his catch-phrase "get Brexit done", while the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faffed and stalled for several weeks, before finally outlining a plan to strike "a new deal" with EU leaders within three months of taking office, then put the issue to a second referendum within six months.

The country is basically split in two: voters who wish to remain in the European Union and those who want to leave.

"The Leave voters united behind the Conservatives, while the Remainers have divided between loads of different parties," Curtis explains.

But when 9News hit the streets of London to ask voters their thoughts on the campaign, Brexit was certainly not the biggest issue on people's minds.

"There was an assumption this would be the Brexit election but the reality is there's a lot of fatigue with the topic here," said Max, a 25-year-old student who intends to vote Labour.

Another Londoner, Meg, told 9News: "We're more worried about climate change, we're worried about inequality and austerity."

Trump and the NHS

Healthcare has also been at the centre of debate, with Corbyn accusing the Conservatives of planning to offer up Britain's Nation Health Service in a post-Brexit free-trade deal with the US.

Johnson has repeatedly denied any such plan, and a visit from US President Donald Trump a week out from election day quashed Labour's key attack line once and for all.

"I don't even know where that rumour started," Trump told reporters in London when asked about the NHS.

"We have absolutely nothing to do with it, we wouldn't want to if you handed it to us on a silver platter."

Trump was warned against meddling in the campaign during his flying visit to attend NATO, but couldn't help endorsing the Prime Minister

"I think Boris is very capable and I think he'll do a good job," the US President said.

Terror on the campaign trail

Two weeks before polling day, London was struck by terror. The attack on London Bridge left two people dead and three injured, pushing parole laws into the campaign spotlight and triggering a review of sentencing laws for convicted terrorists.

The opposition pointed the finger at the government for failing to prevent the attack, which bore close similarities to the 2017 terror attack on the same iconic bridge.

The government in turn blamed a law introduced under a previous Labour government for the fact that the attacker, convicted terrorist Usman Khan, was automatically released from prison after serving less than half of his 16 year sentence.

Meantime, the family of one of the victims, 25-year-old Jack Merritt, slammed Johnson for politicising the deaths. It was an emotionally charged weekend, with vigils for the victims, and heated political debate.

But political expert Professor Tony Travers from the London School of Economics and Political Science doesn't believe the issue will change the course of the election.

"It's certainly become part of the campaign, but in the bigger scheme of things I doubt if the issue of prisoners out on parole will really shift the dial in any significant way," Professor Travers told 9News.

Election youth-quake

A surge in new voters has sparked talk of a so-called election "youthquake." Since the election was called, 3.85 million Britons have registered to vote, and more than two-thirds of them are aged under 35.

With younger voters usually more inclined to vote Labour, the record sign-up could be good news for Corbyn.

"He understands the issues really prevalent in our generation," 23-year-old Meg told 9News.

"More and more young people are finding we're graduating into huge amounts of debt or can't access higher education."

Hung Parliament?

The worst case scenario for the Conservatives is that the polls shift in the final days of the campaign, and Johnson doesn't win enough seats to form a majority government.

Parliament would remain in deadlock, and as we saw during Theresa May's time as leader, it's impossible to move forward with Brexit if there is no consensus for any one path of action in the House of Commons.

Without the support needed to pass the legislation to see the UK leave the EU, Brexit would remain in limbo. And it could even mean going back to the polls.

"If the election doesn't produce a clear result, it's hard to see given the state of the Brexit debate, how a government could avoid thinking about holding another general election early next year," said Professor Travers.