Tweet of the Day
The Telegraph’s Political Sketch Writer, Michael Deacon (@MichaelPDeacon) tweets from a UKIP press conference on St George’s Day: "UKIP are holding a press conference about St George's Day. To celebrate, they've kindly given me a special gift"
Picture of the Day
Connecters Charles Pitt and Melanie Pope’s selfie with Boris Johnson featured in The Telegraph yesterday. Full article online here.
PPC Watch: Naz Shah
Connect looks at the Labour candidate in Bradford West, looking to retake the seat from George Galloway…
Naz Shah is the Labour candidate in Bradford West and will be leading the party’s fight to take back the seat they lost so spectacularly to George Galloway in March 2012. In his typically immodest style, Galloway described his victory as the ‘Bradford Spring’ as he stunned Westminster by turning a 2010 Labour majority of 5,763 into a 10,140 vote majority for Respect. Naz Shah therefore has an uphill struggle to win back the seat for Labour.
While she is unlikely to be able to match Galloway’s charisma and populist touch, her own background should help her stand out and cut through to Bradford’s electorate. She is currently chair of a mental health charity and has spoken movingly about her troubled childhood, including her forced marriage at age 15 and her long campaign to win her mother’s release from prison after she was found guilty of poisoning her abusive husband. If she does make it to Westminster she will bring a unique set of experiences to Parliament but her battle to get there will be hard fought.
Poll of the Day
ComRes/ ITV News poll: UKIP third across key Conservative held target seats
ComRes have polled ten Conservative-held UKIP target seats, finding that the Tories are 7.3% down on their vote share since 2010. UKIP’s vote share is up 15.4% since 2010, but they are still well behind in third place. Voters in these marginals prefer Cameron to Miliband as PM by 54% to 32%.
The Liberal Democrat vote collapse has bolstered both the Conservative and Labour votes, and has hindered UKIP. 25% of 2010 Liberal Democrat voters say they will now vote Labour, and 21% say they will now vote Conservative. Only 8% of 2010 Liberal Democrat voters now say that they will vote UKIP.
Voters in these seats express a strong preference for David Cameron (54%) as Prime Minister over Ed Miliband (32%). Just one in five voters in these seats (18%) say that Nigel Farage would make a good Prime Minister, including half (53%) of UKIP voters.
| Party | 2015 ComRes battleground poll | 2010 result in battleground seats | Change since GE2010 |
| Conservative | 39% | 46.3% | -7.3 |
| Labour | 28% | 26.3% | +1.7 |
| UKIP | 21% | 5.6% | +15.4 |
| Lib Dem | 5% | 15.2% | -10.2 |
| Green | 4% | 0.4% | +3.6 |
| Other | 3% | 3.8% | -0.8 |
Connect Communications 2015 General Election Winners and Losers Sweepstake
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