It’s been a great few weeks in North Shropshire, albeit a bit on the chilly side with some bad storms. Hundreds of supporters have turned out to support Helen Morgan in her campaign to storm a “true blue” bastion. This huge effort has turned the tide and the bookies are giving the Lib Dems better odds than the Tories.
There are just three days campaigning to go, plus polling day. We’ll be publishing the result on LDV just as soon as it is announced in the early hours of Friday morning. And through the day and weekend, we will be publishing commentary on the result.
We are clear favourites with the bookies even though the Tories are trying to fight back with a belated push. If you can get to North Shropshire or pick up the phone, please pitch in to help Helen Morgan win on Thursday. Day-to-day details are on the campaign Facebook page.
Volunteer to take part. Donate to the campaign.
Below, we publish a video highlighting just a selection of the images from the campaign.
Yesterday, the Guardian reported:
A memo to staff from the Liberal Democrat high command on Friday revealed that according to responses it had reviewed from voters who intend to cast a ballot on Thursday, the Tories – who enjoyed a 23,000 majority at the last election – now have a lead of just one point. The Lib Dem projection puts the Tories on 40%, the Lib Dems on 39% and Labour on 12%, with Reform UK and the Greens on 4% each.
* Andy Boddington is a Lib Dem councillor in Shropshire. He blogs at andybodders.co.uk. He is Thursday editor of Lib Dem Voice.
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6 Comments
Interesting times indeed. Latest electoral calculus prediction suggests we would have a minority Labour government relying on SNP backing to gain a majority, on current opinion polling…and with possibly 3 years until the next election. Plenty time, perhaps, for the Liberal Democrats to gain the 40 odd seats they would need to replace the SNP as the third largest party…
I have just come back from 2 days in N. Shropshire. My plea to LDV readers is to drop everything and go. The Tory vote is shredding and the tactical vote message is getting through, despite the local Labour Party’s somewhat pathetic attempt to pretend they are in 2nd place. We need people to knock on doors to push the waving voters over to us. To win a seat that has been Tory all but 2 years since 1832 is a big ask but it can be done if enough people go there.
I checked and in 1904 Liberal Alan Heywood Bright was elected for Oswestry in a by-election following the elevation of the Conservative MP to the Peerage. He lost it in 1906, even though the Liberals won a landslide general election victory. So there is a precedent, but let’s try to hold it this time!
I’m not sure we should be quite so confident if our polling is putting us one percent behind, it might be a small amount but at this late stage we’d ideally want to have already pulled ahead and be able to focus on turning people out.
Still absolutely winnable but it’s going to take a massive push (or maybe a couple more scandals)
Mick Taylor:
Oswestry’s Liberal MP Alan Bright, if for two years, was a local resident fighting against a Tory sitting on London County Council, Bright complained about local Tories treating the constituency as theirs (with the corresponding neglect).
That was 1904, some things never seem to change!
And yes we need everyone there this week if we are to succeed.
Does that mean Ed Davey is inflatable ?