Conservative efforts fail to impress voters

Apr 24 2010 by The Journal

CONSERVATIVE efforts to secure a vital North East seat have failed to win-over voters, according to a Journal poll.

Almost a third of voters in Tynemouth said they had not decided who to vote for despite party bosses focusing their attention on the seat.

A poll of 900 people in the constituency for The Journal showed about 20% of voters who said they had previously picked Labour would not be.

Some 19.9% of those polled claimed to have backed the Conservatives in 2005, but only 15.9% said they would definitely be repeating that decision.

The surprise results come just days after an optimistic Tory party chairman predicted a strong victory for Tynemouth candidate Wendy Morton.

Eric Pickles said this week that a failure to win in Tyneside would show the party had “made no progress at all”.

For the Liberal Democrats the seat remains largely unwinable.

The Clegg-factor has seen support more than double up to 13.8%, but the party appear to be still stuck in third place.

It is all still to play for with 29% of those polled saying they were yet to decide how to vote.

Alan Campbell, the Labour candidate bidding to defend the seat last night said he accepts that the ‘don’t know’ voters will decide the outcome.

“It depends upon those who have yet to make up their minds,” he said. “If you want a Labour MP and a Labour Government vote Labour. If you vote any other way or stay at home you risk the Tories getting back in.”

His Tory challenger remains quitely confident. The party has internal statistics which show a record number of pledges for Wendy Morton.