Hugh Grant goes door-knocking with Lib Dems to help the fight to unseat Dominic Raab

Hugh Grant canvassing in Walton-on-Thames in the Esher & Walton constituency with Liberal Democrat candidate Monica Harding. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire. - Credit: PA

Actor Hugh Grant took to the streets with Lib Dem supporters campaigning to unseat Tory Brexiteer Dominic Raab.

Hugh Grant canvassing in Walton-on-Thames in the Esher & Walton constituency with Liberal Democrat candidate Monica Harding. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire. – Credit: PA

The Love Actually star went door to door in Walton on Thames with the party’s candidate Monica Harding, speaking to residents and urging them to vote tactically to defeat the Conservative incumbent.

Foreign secretary Raab has a majority of 23,298 in the Esher and Walton constituency, which voted to remain in the 2016 referendum.

Grant, an advocate of tactical voting to prevent a Conservative majority at the election, told a small rally on Saturday that it was not a “normal general election”.

He added: “We are not in a normal general election here, we are on the edge of a proper abyss in British history.

Mobile phone view of actor Hugh Grant canvassing in Walton-on-Thames in the Esher & Walton constituency with Liberal Democrat candidate Monica Harding. Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire. – Credit: PA

“This is very very frightening, the Conservative party has been captured by an extreme right-wing coup.”

The Notting Hill actor urged people to vote tactically to ensure the Conservatives did not win the election.

He told residents that a Tory victory would lead to the “catastrophe” of a no-deal Brexit.

Stopping at one home for a cup of tea and speaking to neighbours, Grant urged one woman who said she had always voted Labour not to vote with her heart.

He added: “We have the voting system we have, right now we can’t change it.

“That means if you vote with your heart your vote is gone, Dominic Raab gets in and all the catastrophe that follows from that.”

Grant has previously campaigned alongside Labour and independent candidates in other marginal seats.

The actor has previously revealed he would be voting for the Liberal Democrats in his own constituency because they are the nearest challengers to the Conservatives.