Could we see a CON-LD pincher movement on Labour?

Could we see a CON-LD pincher movement on Labour?

Harry Hayfield asks: Could it be 1997 in reverse? One of the striking things about Election 1997 was the pincher movement that Labour and the Liberal Democrats performed on the Conservatives as tactical voting happened on a scale never seen before (or as electors knew it “Vote for the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative!”). Today we saw a pincher movement by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in Westminster which made 55 Labour MP’s vote against the government…

Read More Read More

Has Nick Clegg at last found his voice?

Has Nick Clegg at last found his voice?

What are his party’s general election prospects? This will be a day for the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, to savour. For in all the time that he’s been leader this is the first occasion when he came out of PMQs as the clear winner. The anger and ferocity of his attack on Brown for Labour’s inflexible stance on the Ghurka issue hit home on all sides of the house and acted as a good trailer for this afternoon’s debate,…

Read More Read More

The PMQ thread

The PMQ thread

Continuation thread as the two leaders clash I’m not feeling very well today so here is a thread for this lunchtime’s PMQs. Hopefully I’ll be posting normally later. Mike Smithson

Could Gord lose his MP expenses gamble?

Could Gord lose his MP expenses gamble?

Mail Online How risky is putting his authority on the line? Given the backlash from Smeargate, the post-budget poll moves against Labour and the widespread ridicule over his YouTube video you would have thought that the last thing the Prime Minister should be doing at the moment is to put his authority on the line in a commons vote on MP expenses. Yet that was the message coming out of Number 10 last night in what the Guardian describes as…

Read More Read More

Projected Tory majority up 4 on PB’s Index

Projected Tory majority up 4 on PB’s Index

Punters continue to bet against Brown/Labour The latest version of the PB Index, which tries to extrapolate current betting prices into a general election outcome, has a projected Conservative majority four seats higher than when we last looked at this five days ago. The index is now pointing to an overall majority for the Tories of 62 seats – which is the highest it has ever been. The calculation is done by taking the seat ranges on the two spread…

Read More Read More

Poll: Labour loses half its 2005 voters

Poll: Labour loses half its 2005 voters

Can they be won back by the election? Tucked away in the detailed data of the latest ComRes poll is one scary statistic for Brown Central. A total of 240 of those surveyed said they had voted for the party that was then led by Tony Blair in 2005 – Yet over the weekend when the fieldwork was taking place only half of them, precisely 120, told the pollster that they planned to do so next time. This is the…

Read More Read More

Is this the man who could stop the Tory landslide?

Is this the man who could stop the Tory landslide?

What are we to make of Reid getting involved again? Last Wednesday on budget day a power Labour voice from the past was wheeled out to argue the government’s case in interview after interview. He was powerful, he was lucid and most of all he was persuasive in a way that not one of the current crop Labour front-benchers can manage. Although he might have a bit of back history and is planning to leave the commons at the election…

Read More Read More

Tories move up 5 with ComRes

Tories move up 5 with ComRes

CON 45(+5) LAB 26(-2) LD 17(-1) So another survey with no respite for Brown? Since last week’s budget the only pollster we’ve had voting intention numbers from has been YouGov – although we have had two surveys so it’s good that tonight another poll is published. The survey from ComRes for the Independent has shares very much in the same area. The comparisons are on the last ComRes poll at the end of March and an enormous amount has happened…

Read More Read More