Poor Labour. Not only do they face losing the Norwich North by-election, but their candidate Chris Ostrowski has gone down with suspected swine flu. (Genuine sympathies to him for a speedy recovery).
Today’s Eastern Daily Press assesses the currrent state of play HERE, including this snippet:
Private Lib Dem canvassing suggests that the party is lying second to the Tories, on 24pc. But other party canvassers report that the Greens are performing strongly in traditional Labour areas.
(Actually I’m not sure there’s necessarily a discrepancy between those two reports).
Vince is, as ever, ready with a quote:
We know [Labour’s] support is crumbling and it’s coming to our advantage, but we won’t know until Thursday just how deep that is. I think there are still doubts about the Tories, particularly in terms of economic policy, it’s a very different mood from the 1990s when people were expecting a change of government and were genuinely enthusiastic about the alternative.”
PS: you can catch up with coverage of Norwich North from a Lib Dem perspective over at Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger blog, which has run excellent running commentary throughout the campaign.
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Andrew Sparrow, reporting for the Guardian, says that turnout was 45%, and quotes a Labour source as saying “We’re in a race for second place with the Lib Dems”:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/jul/24/byelections-norwich-north-byelection
But in a later comment he adds that the Lib Dems are “already trying to put a brave face on coming third”.
Caroline Lucas must be praying that her candidate doesn’t do that well. Remember her coup in Brighton Pavilion against the local candidate – she doesn’t like to be upstaged.
And Sparrow is quoting the Greens as saying only that they have “a chance” of exceeding their previous by-election best (7.4% in Haltemprice and Howden).