Labour voters don't like the rain. Urban myth or political science?

Britain has been battered by storms in the second week of June, ahead of Thursday's knife-edge 2017 General Election.

The Met Office issued wet weather warnings for Tuesday and Wednesday while predicting that election day will be "unsettled". This, of course, could change.

So, how could storms and gales affect the outcome of the vote, which will in turn affect Britain's approach to its Brexit divorce proceedings with the EU.

"The answer to your question is: it won't," says Anthony Wells, Research Director of the political team at pollsters YouGov.

"It's almost one of those urban myths of elections that rain makes Labour voters stay at home while Tory voters troop out and vote, but there isn't actually any evidence for it at all," he adds.

Wells acknowledges the "common sense" assumption that people would rather stay home and watch Eastenders than vote when it is raining hard outside, but he says there is very little data to back up this view.

"When political scientists have tried to test it, it's normally from elections where it's rained in one part of the country and there's scattered showers in another," he says. "And they've generally found that it makes no significant difference at all."

"In the US, they did find a slight difference, but it was for about every half an inch of snow, turnout fell by 1%."

"It needs to be pretty damn extreme whether for it to make any noticeable difference to turnout and when it does it's about a percentage point so it's not going to change the election," he says.

The pollster acknowledges the pervasiveness of the fear (or hope, depending on where your loyalties lie) that the weather could swing an election.

"It's one of those things that never ever dies," he says. "I expect I'll be having this conversation several times if past elections are any guide."

YouGov's polls have arguably produced more headlines than any other firm's in the run up to the 2017 general election. Their latest survey of voting intentions puts the Tories on 42%, four points ahead of Labour.