Election 2019: SNP and Conservatives Scramble for Votes in Aberdeen South

Following the release of the final opinion polls before tomorrow's General Election, constituencies across Aberdeen and the North-East are showing some very close races between the Conservatives and SNP - just one percentage point separates the two parties in Gordon and Aberdeen South, and projections show both parties achieving 45% of the vote in Moray.

Conservatives' Candidate for Aberdeen South Douglas Lumsden out on the campaign trail

Using every last minute of the final day on the campaign trail, the SNP's Stephen Flynn and Conservatives' Douglas Lumsden are scrambling for any undecided or unsure voters across Aberdeen South, a seat which has changed hands between the two parties over the last two elections. For many candidates running, the last day has the most hurdles to jump, seen in the case of the Tory party today after fake news and misinformation research site First Draft reported that as much as 88% Facebook adverts posted by the party were 'misleading' compared to the figure of 0% reported for the Labour Party's Facebook ads.

This doesn't seem to worry Douglas Lumsden, Aberdeen City Council co-leader however: "It doesn’t concern me, I know that every message that I’ve been putting out has been true and has been reliable, we’ve been using Facebook and Twitter on a personal level as the local candidate and I know that everything I’ve been putting out has been completely reliable" he says, brushing off what can only be seen as some uncomfortable research findings to have published on the final day of campaigning.

Asked of his opinions on Boris' last few rocky days campaigning, he replies: "Boris has done well during the campaign and that a lot of people recently have been talking about how the new adverts have shown him in a different light.

"The key thing is not the leader, it’s not Boris, it’s about moving forward as a country".

As these last crucial hours draw to a close for the candidate, Lumsden is knocking doors, posting leaflets and preaching three key messages: stop Brexit, stop Sturgeon's referendum and stop Corbyn's windfall tax.

"All the people we’ve been speaking to and our data suggests there is no appetite for another independence referendum, we’re not seeing the vote for the SNP increase but I do think it’s going to be close tomorrow and that’s why we’re working as hard as possible, even in the final 24 hours. We’re trying to speak to as many voters as possible, we’ve still got some literature that we’re posting out as well so it’s going to be a busy day.

"A lot of people are concerned about independence and what that would mean to the city – people don’t want another divisive independence referendum and the chance is to send a clear message to Nicola Sturgeon that we don’t want to be dragged into more division within the city.

"Another key thing is that Labour want to introduce a windfall tax on oil companies, this is going to be very damaging to the North-East so it’s only ourselves that are definitely ruling this out and it could be the people that vote SNP that end up with a Labour government which would mean the windfall tax affecting the North-East and the oil industry up here" he says.

The Tory hopeful says that, if voted in tomorrow, his top priorities when the new parliament sits for the first time are to get the Brexit deal through the house of commons, improve job prospects across the city and "help oil companies move the energy transition to a greener economy". Standing in the way of these ambitions are the people of the Aberdeen South, who tomorrow will either give him his mandate and send him to Westminster, or hand the constituency back to the SNP and send him back to Aberdeen City Council.