BBC Trending

Labour supporters swamped Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites during the 2017 general election.

The online surge was widely seen - if mostly in hindsight - as an indicator that many polls were wrong and that Labour were running the Conservatives much closer than expected. And so it came to pass.

So what's different this time?

BBC Trending has been looking back at how the election campaign has played out online.

Speaking of what to watch out for, here's the BBC's Adam Fleming giving you a run-down - it might help those of you looking to schedule strategic naps or alarm calls on results night...

Sarah Smith
Scotland Editor

Image source, Getty Images

At the last election, the Conservatives held 13 seats in Scotland, and Boris Johnson is going to have to hold on to a few of them if he wants to stay in Downing Street.

Five weeks ago, people were predicting a Conservative wipe-out in Scotland, but now things are actually looking a bit more optimistic for them. But this isn't because of this message about "getting Brexit done" that they repeat ad nauseam in the rest of the country.

It's because they focused their campaign around saying a vote for the Tories is the only way to stop another Scottish independence referendum - and that seems to have galvanised a lot of unionist voters who are maybe not traditional Tories but don't want another independence referendum.

We're also going to be keeping a close eye on how many seats the SNP take. They've got more than half the seats in Scotland now - 35 out of 59.

They want to put on more because they want to use that to say "look, people voted for us to demonstrate that they want another Scottish independence referendum, as well as the fact they want to stop Brexit".

And of course, we're going to be watching very carefully to see if they can hit that magic 50 seats, because that means Ruth Davidson is going to have to swim naked in Loch Ness. (The SNP held 56 seats in the 2015 election so it's not impossible!)

But the SNP are in the business of managing expectations in these closing days. They know that as we get closer to polling day, voters have to focus on the fact that either Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn are going to be prime minister. It simply cannot be Nicola Sturgeon and that does tend to mean people go Labour or Tory at the end of the day, and it just tightens a bit towards the end.

As for Boris Johnson's campaign in Scotland, he's been twice. He came to the Tory campaign launch and paid one very quick fleeting visit up to the north east of Scotland and met no voters up there.

He's decided not to come here in the last week because they think having Ruth Davidson and their interim leader Jackson Carlaw out on the campaign trail is much better than having Boris Johnson actually appear.

Boris Johnson's next stop is a Christmas cracker factory - political reporters fear more Brexit metaphors are inevitable...

George Torr, one of the BBC's Local Democracry reporters, is out with Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party in Doncaster today.

He meets Keith Odes, a Conservative Party member who's voting tactically for the Brexit Party in an attempt to damage Labour in his area.

That's something Mr Farage insisted would happen and was a good reason for not standing down his candidates in Labour-held areas.

We've seen many efforts from the parties to be creative on social media during this campaign. Now it's the turn of Conservative candidate Greg Hands, who tries to demonstrate to voters that he has a certain je ne sais quoi...

All the parties are doing events and appearances today - their last chance to sell their message to voters.

Former Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, the party's candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said earlier that events during the election campaign had shown that the climate emergency was "accelerating".

She said the campaign started with the flooding in South Yorkshire and it's ending with news that Greenland's ice sheet is melting seven-times faster than in the 1990s.

In a tweet,, external she says: "We need climate action now for us, our children and our planet. If not now, when?"

Co-leaders Jonathan Bartley and Sian Berry have also been championing the same message this morning, as you can see below.

Image source, Getty Images

And speaking of losers, how will we know who's won and lost? Here's a simple guide on how to read election results as they come in.

Image source, Getty Images

Stepping back from today's cut and thrust for a moment... A total of 650 MPs will be elected to Westminster.

But what about the candidates who don't win their seat?

Watch our film to find out.

And here is the aforementioned Labour leader making the aforementioned stump speech in Middlesbrough.

He tells the crowd it's the 82nd constituency he's visited during the campaign, adding - "and not one bit of it done with a helicopter".

And he declares: "I've not come here to deliver milk or to hide in a fridge. I've come here with a message of hope for this country."

All of the above digs are at the prime minister - for his mode of travel and his activities this morning.

Mr Corbyn says what the country has had for the last nine years is cuts to public services, frozen public sector wages and lost jobs.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn is now addressing a rally in Middlesbrough. He'll be setting out what he sees as really thick policy red lines between him and Boris Johnson - talking about abolishing tuition fees and universal credit, for example.

But he's got another big task in north-east England. This area voted solidly to leave the European Union and some Labour insiders are telling me they expect a net loss of seats here on Thursday night.

So the big task is to try to persuade those traditional Labour voters to stick with him.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Back to Politics Live and Labour chairman Ian Lavery says Brexit is an issue his party has had to deal with on the doorstep.

He says: "It has been tough in many constituencies, Brexit has been issue, but when we knock on doors, the real issue has been the NHS and money in people's pockets."

Mr Lavery, who favours leaving the EU with a deal, has been touring seats in the so-called "red wall" - the stretch of traditionally Labour territory in the north of England and Midlands which voted to leave the EU in 2016.

He's also been standing alongside Jeremy Corbyn this morning in Middlesbrough.

BBC News Channel

Image source, Getty Images

As we've just mentioned, attempts by an ITV reporter to interview Boris Johnson this morning saw the prime minister walk away from the journalist - and into a very large fridge.

#fridgegate is currently trending on Twitter - and our digital elections reporter Joe Tidy says the video of the exchange has had more than 600,000 views across Facebook and Twitter.

He says people are latching onto that clip because generally the campaign has been quite stage managed.

Looking at the parties’ social media campaigns as a whole, our reporter says Labour have performed much better in terms of video views than every other party.

He says: “If you want your video to go viral, this campaign has told us ‘give it to Jeremy Corbyn’.”

On Facebook alone, he says Mr Corbyn’s videos have had 68 million views, compared with 13 million for Boris Johnson.

We just heard from her colleague Stewart Hosie, and now here's SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, urging people in Scotland to back her party, as supporting others "risks helping the Tories".

That might be an opportune moment to flag this piece too - about the potential for tactical voting in Scotland.

BBC Politics Live
BBC2's lunchtime political programme

Over on Politics Live, SNP candidate and trade spokesperson Stewart Hosie defends his party's election strategy, in particular against accusations that the push for another independence referendum might be turning off unionist voters. That's something our Scotland editor Sarah Smith has suggested there's evidence for.

"We've had a number of focuses in this election, locking the Tories out of power, beating them in every Scottish seat they hold, where we are the only credible challenger," he says.

"People know at this election, you're not voting for Scottish independence, but you might be voting to choose a second referendum, that's an entirely different thing.

"The SNP are ahead in the polls, we've led in the polls throughout this campaign, all the forecasts say we're going to make gains."

Mr Hosie also defends the party's record in government in Scotland after attacks from the interim Scottish Conservative leader in last night's BBC Scottish leaders debate.

"Our record in education, particularly with a 90%+ positive outcome for school leavers, is good. He mentioned health, we've got more consultants per head, more spending per head, more nurses per head.

"The SNP have a record to be proud of."

Read more on the SNP manifesto and some of the claims the party's leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has made during their campaign.

There's a distinct end-of-term feel to the campaigning today. In Middlesbrough Labour's shadow transport secretary Andy McDonald has just sung to the crowds waiting for the arrival of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He went for a variation of the seasonal tune "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

Campaign appearances are carefully choreographed, but sometimes someone throws a curveball and there was quite a kerfuffle this morning for Boris Johnson's team.

Good Morning Britain hosts Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid have been complaining for days about the Tory leader's failure to give them an interview so this morning a reporter from the ITV programme took matters into his own hands.

The prime minister was loading crates of milk and juice bottles onto a delivery vehicle in Leeds when he was approached by Jonathan Swain, who was reporting live.

Mr Johnson's head of press, Rob Oxley, responded angrily to the request with an expletive. You can watch the exchange below - although we've edited out the actual swearing.

The reporter asked for an interview again, to which Mr Johnson said "I'll be with you in a second" and then walked into a fridge with staff - a move that resulted in some journalists on social media, external accusing the PM of hiding in the fridge to avoid scrutiny.

According to the Daily Mirror's Dan Bloom, Tory sources insist the aide wasn't swearing at the reporter - it was more a general expression of frustration.

Image source, Lloyds of London

And another perspective on the whole question of where business stands now.

Lloyd's of London boss John Neal reckons the City should not be scared of a Labour government despite the party's plans to tax business and high earners more and nationalise multiple industries.

John Neal, who took over as boss of the 331-year-old City institution last year, told Financial News, external: “I’m not scared about it, different governments bring different challenges, different opportunities.

“There’s an awful lot of insurance opportunity that could arise from a number of the policies they’re presenting… If there’s nationalisation, fares and wages rise and if there’s investment in infrastructure, all of that requires a form of insurance - which for us as a business is a good thing.

"So I don’t think we’d feel intimidated by a Labour government.”

This is an interesting contrast with how Phone4U billionaire John Caudwell feels - as you can see from this head-to-head with Labour's John McDonnell.

BBC Radio 5 Live

On the subject of business then, one of the biggest voices is lobby group the Confedaration of British Industry. It declined to endorse the Conservative Party, which traditionally pitches itself as the party of business.

This fact was put to Conservative minister Nadhim Zahawi on The Emma Barnett Show earlier.

"I don’t believe we have lost the support of big business," he said. "I was in charge of ringing all sectors of the economy... they had teams looking at the [Brexit] deal that Boris brought back, and they unanimously said ‘Nadhim, please tell your colleagues that this is a good deal.’"

Pressed by Emma Barnett on why the organisation had not supported the party, he said: "Well, the CBI represents businesses… it’s a representative organisation and a lot of their businesses support Boris Johnson’s deal."

Let's just focus on the world of business and the economy for a few posts. They perhaps haven't featured as prominently in the election campaign as we might expect for issues so critical to us all.

But then, there are so many critical issues - public services, Brexit - and really, they're all linked.

Anyway, watch the video above to find out what our economics editor thinks of the policies on offer.

And bear in mind that he says the country's economic model will be changing significantly regardless of whether it's Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson in No 10.