Lord Ashcroft’s Clacton poll shows UKIP 32% ahead
Clacton poll by @LordAshcroft has
UKIP 56% (+56%) Con 24% (-29%) Lab 16% (-9.1%) LD 2% (-10.9%) Others 2% (-75)
Changes since the 2010 GE
— The Screaming Eagles (@TSEofPB) September 2, 2014
Lord Ashcroft has published his poll on the Clacton by-election, which is to be held on the 9th of October, which is David Cameron’s birthday, like the survation poll, it shows Douglas Carswell comfortably winning for UKIP, the polling on him personally shows why he is course to become UKIP’s first elected MP and hold the seat at the General Election.
Is Carswell principled? Should he have waited until the GE? Has he been a good MP? Was he scared of losing as a Tory? pic.twitter.com/GCdAn1heJD
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) September 2, 2014
Finally, Clacton, how do you think you will vote in the general election next May? pic.twitter.com/8GiT5r6fYV
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) September 2, 2014
Mike mentioned earlier
Ashcroft follows ICM in reallocating DKs in accordance with 2010 vote. Only problem with Clacton is that UKIP deliberately didn’t stand against Carswell because it broadly approved of him. So part of his vote in 2010 can be said not to be CON but UKIP.
The figures to be looking out for are the pre-allocated ones.
Lord Ashcroft notes
In the Clacton poll, since it is not possible to guess what those who claimed to have voted UKIP in 2010 really did – whether they voted at all, and if so for which party – there were two options for dealing with them. One was to assume they did not vote at all, which seems a sweeping response and unlikely to be true. The other – which is what we have done – is to treat them as though they did vote, but for a party other than the Conservatives, Labour or the Liberal Democrats. As such, they appear in the tables in the Others column under ‘2010 Vote’.
As it happens, treating them the other way would have made only a marginal difference to the overall result – which is, with more than five weeks until polling day, a snapshot not a forecast.
UPDATE
Via @MSmithsonPB
Ukip lead in @LordAshcroft Clacton poll was 36% before reallocation of don't knows which favours Tories
— The Screaming Eagles (@TSEofPB) September 2, 2014
The best odds on UKIP winning Clacton is 1/8.