How’s the Sun going to affect the voting dynamics?

As we discussed on Thursday night there is a non-traditional candidate running in the Crewe and Nantwich by election who might just pick up enough votes to make a difference in the overall race. And this morning the Sun is going big this morning in its coverage of Gemma Garrett – the reigning Miss Great Britain who is standing as the “Beauties for Britain” candidate.

Her basic platform that “I want to improve the basic wages of our armed forces serving overseas and I also want to make childcare tax deductible to make life easier for working mums” is well thought out and sounds plausible. Speaking up for members of the armed forces and working mums are good populist lines.

The real worry for all the main parties – but particularly Labour – is that she will attract a number of voters who who were going to turn out but might move to her instead in a “plague on all your houses” move. The fact that she is quite articulate will only add to the trend.

The massive publicity is positioning Gemma as the protest vote contender and this is most likely to affect the party whose supporters are, according to the ICM poll, least motivated – Labour. If you are going to throw your vote away why not have a bit of fun while you are doing it?

You could see her following up Crewe with a run in Henley when she might attract former Boris Johnson voters.

Latest Crewe and Nantwich betting.

Mike Smithson