The party leaders are engaged in frenzied last-ditch campaigning with just hours to go until the General Election.

An eve-of-election poll showed the Conservatives stretching their lead to a clear eight points, but suggested they are still short of the support they would need to claim an outright majority in the House of Commons.

The Opinium survey put David Cameron's party on 35 per cent (up two points on a similar poll published in the paper on Monday), with Labour down one point on 27 per cent and the Liberal Democrats down one on 26 per cent.

If repeated on Thursday, the figures would give Tories around 284 seats in the new Parliament - 42 short of a majority. Labour would take 257 seats, with the Liberal Democrats holding the balance of power on 80.

David Cameron issued an impassioned appeal to voters to propel him into Downing Street, urging them to imagine a "better, stronger country" under the Conservatives.

Gordon Brown hammered home his message that only Labour could guarantee the economic recovery, declaring: "This is not a Conservative moment". Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg urged his supporters to hold firm in the face of pressure from the two larger parties.