The Labour Party launched its final advert of the election campaign in Strood today, telling voters: “Don’t wake up to five more years of the Tories.”

Labour’s deputy national campaign co-ordinator and parliamentary candidate for Lewisham West and East Dulwich*, Ellie Reeves, joined local candidates, Lauren Edwards and Naushabah Khan, and supporters as the ad appeared beside the A2.

Her visit follows that of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer at the beginning of the election campaign in May.

Ms Reeves said Labour had a lot to offer the country following 14 years of “mismanagement” from the Tories, but change would only happen if the public voted for it on July 4.

Speaking to supporters she said: “I know you have all been working tirelessly to get Naushabah [Khan] and Lauren [Edwards] elected - two great candidates.

“You have such a brilliant campaign team here in Medway, we saw it at the local elections last year.

“The change is coming after 14 years of mismanagement by the Tories, but change will only happen if you vote for it.”

She also told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the party was not complacent about the challenge facing them to get elected and what might await if they form the next government.

She said: “I'm not sure about speculation around sizes and majorities, there are still several days to go before polling day and the outcome of the election has not already been decided.

“We know there are thousands of undecided voters here in Kent and up and down the country but there will be challenges if we're privileged enough to form the next government.

“We've made clear it’s likely we would inherit an economic mess from the Tories who have mismanaged the economy but we've set out our first steps, the things that we want to do as a down payment on change, and we've got a plan for for growth and for rebuilding the country after 14 years frankly of conservative chaos.”

She also reiterated the party's pledges for 40,000 more NHS appointments and procedures per week, an additional 6,500 new teachers, and 13,000 police officers on the streets.

She continued: “It’s an ambitious programme ahead of us there’s a huge amount that will need to be done but Keir Starmer if he is privileged enough to become the next Prime Minister will hit the ground running and get on with this.”

On the party’s promise of 1.5 million homes by the end of the next parliament, she said a pragmatic approach was needed towards development, as some “greenbelt sites” aren't actually all that green.

She said: “The reality is the green belt has already been built on without much kind of coherence or strategy, but if you look you've actually got things like abandoned petrol stations or disused car parks that are designated green belt.

“So it’s actually taking a sort of pragmatic and sensible approach to development, so brownfield site first but where you've got areas of the green belt that are things like disused car parks then it might be sensible to think about developing on those.

“We've got an ambitious program to build 1.5 million more houses in the first parliament, the homes we desperately need in this country, so it's about striking that right balance.”

The ad shows for approximately 10 seconds every 10 minutes beside of the A2 in Strood, but is shown elsewhere nationally.

*The full list of candidates for Rochester and Strood is:

Peter Burch, Heritage Party; Graham Colley, Liberal Democrats; Daniel Dabin, Reform UK; Lauren Edwards, Labour Party; John Innes, Workers Party of Great Britain; Cat Jamieson, Green Party; Kelly Tolhurst, Conservative Party.

The full list of candidates for Gillingham and Rainham is:

Kate Belmonte, Green Party; Stuart Bourne, Liberal Democrats; Rehman Chishti, Conservative Party; Peter Cook, Independent; Naushabah Khan, Labour Party; Roger Peacock, Christian Peoples Alliance; Rizvi Rawoof, Reform UK; Peter Wheeler, Social Democratic Party.

The full list of candidates for Lewisham West and East Dulwich is:

Callum Fowler, Green Party; Katherine Hortense, Christian Peoples Alliance; Josh Matthews, Liberal Democrats; Marian Newton, Reform UK; Ellie Reeves, Labour Party; Gwenton Sloley, Workers Party of Britain; Christine Wallace, Conservative Party.