Lib Dems: Brent East ‘a photo finish’
Analysts are forecasting a major political upset in Thursday’s Brent East by-election.
It is predicted that disgruntled ‘floating” voters may switch political loyalties to express their disillusionment with the Blair administration.
So much so that underdogs the Lib Dems and their candidate Sarah Teather could be set for victory.
Labour is defending a majority of 13,047. The Conservatives took 5,278 votes at the last election. The Lib Dems have relatively small support in the constituency, with 3,065.
29-year old Ms Teather said, bombastically, that a 27 per cent swing to the Lib Dems was conceivable.
‘It’s a two-horse race [between Labour and the Lib Dems].
‘The momentum is with us. There’s a genuine feeling of anger. People feel they have been misled and mistreated and maybe they have been lied to. The Hutton Inquiry has been mentioned on the doorstep but it has formed a backdrop about trust in the government which people are experiencing themselves in terms of delivery.”
Home Secretary David Blunkett during a visit to Brent East said that Labour was ‘neck and neck’ with the Lib Dems.
The by-election was caused by the early death of Paul Daisley.
The turnout is expected to be even lower than in the general election, at around 30 per cent.
And Lib Dems leader Charles Kennedy has predicted a ‘photo finish.’
‘We don’t usually agree with the home secretary but we do agree with his remarks that it’s a close run thing between us and the Labour Party. We can win; it’s within our grasp,’ he said.
But he was optimistic nevertheless. ‘At the end of the day, the kind of seat it is, it’s very difficult, just practically in campaigning terms, to make contact with voters.’
