One by-product of the UKIP surge – smaller parties like National Health Action have been swamped

One by-product of the UKIP surge – smaller parties like National Health Action have been swamped

Above is from some polling carried out for Michael Ashcroft in March 2012 on the possible impact that a NHS party could have on the next election.

As can be seen the party chalked up 18% in the poll taking votes from LAB and the LDs and leaving the blues ahead. Those figures were quite remarkable and suggested that there was an appetite for a non-mainstream party to emerge. There was but not NHA.

The party ran a reasonably high-profile campaign in Eastleigh and were the odds-on favourite to come top of the “others”. They got a fair bit of coverage – yet on polling day could only chalk up 0.9% of the vote.

Their challenge is that in fiercely fought elections like Eastleigh NHA gets totally swamped. The non-mainstream alternative is now Ukip.

Mike Smithson

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