Tories confident of victory

The Conservatives are predicted to win the by-election

Thursday, 22, May 2008 12:00

The Conservative party say they are feeling "quietly confident" as the counting continues in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Speaking to politics.co.uk earlier tonight, a Tory party spokesman said: "Yeah, we think we did a good job of getting our vote out, it depends on how good a job other parties did in getting their vote out. We're hoping we can squeeze past."

Pushed on whether that meant the party was not expecting a comfortable victory, the spokesman replied: "It's so difficult to say. The counting is going on now. We'll get more data in an hour or so. Im quietly confident but cautious, because we've never gained a by-election in my lifetime."

Commenting on Hazel Blears' contrite response to objections about Labour's controversial campaign leaflets portraying the Conservative candidate as an upper class toff, the spokesman said the campaign had been authorised by the top people in the party.

"Labour's campaign has been particularly negative and personal," he said.

"But we understand that order came right from the very top. So they're not able to just disassociate themselves from it now."

Conservative sources say the turnout in Nantwich - the more affluent and Tory-leaning area of the constituency - was significantly higher than that of Crewe, whose residents are more likely to vote Labour.