Garage_Doors
Originally the Swankers
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/12865993.Ukip_claims_to_have_up_to_40__support/?ref=mr
UKIP politicians are predicting a four-way split for a key Brighton seat and claiming they will be in the race for a sensational parliamentary victory.
Brighton Pavilion candidate Nigel Carter says Ukip can win 10,000 votes in Brighton Pavilion alone, claiming his party’s own polling is showing up to 40% support in certain areas.
Opposition candidates have poured water on the claims, describing them as “deluded” and “untrue”.
It would be a remarkable surge for Ukip to come close to their ambitions having gained less than 1,000 votes in 2010 compared to the more than 16,000 votes that swept Green candidate Caroline Lucas into parliament.
In one of the tightest races anywhere in the country in 2010, Ms Lucas beat Labour’s Nancy Platts by just 1,252 votes with Conservative candidate Charlotte Vere also gaining more than 12,000 votes.
The latest published polling data from Lord Ashcroft dating from December put Caroline Lucas on course to retain her seat with 38% of the vote followed by Labour candidate Purna Sen on 28%, Conservative candidate Clarence Mitchell on 21% and Ukip on a lowly 8%.
Mr Carter has spelled out a bullish message of optimism from his party, confident of winning seats in Sussex for the first time ever and capitalising on what they say are the failings of their more-established rivals.
He said: “I can see all the other parties’ support going down.
“People don’t like the Conservatives hectoring tone and I think Caroline, who was on 16,000 last time, will go down because of the Green council’s performance where they have been naive.
“Our private polls last year had seen us go up from 1% to 10% and that was before we won the European elections.
“I think we have a real chance of up to 10,000 votes and then there is going to be a tie between four candidates, its’ going to be real neck and neck.”
Clarence Mitchell, Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Ukip are as deluded as they are unrealistic.
“They will not be polling anything like that.
“This seat is a classic three-way party marginal and a vote for Ukip is a wasted vote.
“The Conservatives are the only party capable of giving Brighton Pavilion voters the chance to decide on our future relationship in Europe with a guaranteed referendum on EU membership by 2017.
“Ukip has hardly been mentioned on the doorstep, I have never seen one single Ukip flier, canvasser or deliverer.
“Last time round they polled something like 1.8% and if they increase that, they will have done well.”
The countdown to this year’s knife-edge election is underway and The Argus will be keeping you at the cutting edge in the run down to May 7.
Sussex seats will play a key role in deciding the future make-up of the national government and we will be following every twist and turn in what is set to be an exciting final five weeks of campaigning.
In Brighton and Hove, we have three constituencies that were all decided by less than 2,000 votes each last time round and could be even tighter this year.
Elsewhere in the county there are MPs fighting for their political lives to hold on to seats they won in 2010.
Even in the county’s safer seats, we will see a changing of the guard with long-standing Horsham MP Francis Maude and former Government ministers Charles Hendry and Greg Barker stepping down.
Fresh blood should invigorate these campaigns and new MPs will be keen to show their worth.
The big parties are ploughing their resources into marginal Sussex seats knowing every constituency counts in the battle for Number 10, and candidates in winnable Sussex seats will receive support from party big hitters.
We have already had the chancellor tossing pizzas this week and a minister stepping up to the cricket strip but prepare for many more.
A home secretary down at the beach, a coalition minister in Coalition nightclub or a Labour bigwig on the pier – anything is possible.
The rise of the outsider parties such as the Green Party and Ukip will be the unknown factor when we head to the polls – can they turn their self-styled surges into parliamentary gains?
And how resilient can the Liberal Democrats prove when all around them are predicting their voters will leave in droves.
All these questions and more might not even be answered by May 7 and the country could be waking up to uncertainty One thing is for certain, with so much at stake – there is certainly no cause for apathy.
UKIP politicians are predicting a four-way split for a key Brighton seat and claiming they will be in the race for a sensational parliamentary victory.
Brighton Pavilion candidate Nigel Carter says Ukip can win 10,000 votes in Brighton Pavilion alone, claiming his party’s own polling is showing up to 40% support in certain areas.
Opposition candidates have poured water on the claims, describing them as “deluded” and “untrue”.
It would be a remarkable surge for Ukip to come close to their ambitions having gained less than 1,000 votes in 2010 compared to the more than 16,000 votes that swept Green candidate Caroline Lucas into parliament.
In one of the tightest races anywhere in the country in 2010, Ms Lucas beat Labour’s Nancy Platts by just 1,252 votes with Conservative candidate Charlotte Vere also gaining more than 12,000 votes.
The latest published polling data from Lord Ashcroft dating from December put Caroline Lucas on course to retain her seat with 38% of the vote followed by Labour candidate Purna Sen on 28%, Conservative candidate Clarence Mitchell on 21% and Ukip on a lowly 8%.
Mr Carter has spelled out a bullish message of optimism from his party, confident of winning seats in Sussex for the first time ever and capitalising on what they say are the failings of their more-established rivals.
He said: “I can see all the other parties’ support going down.
“People don’t like the Conservatives hectoring tone and I think Caroline, who was on 16,000 last time, will go down because of the Green council’s performance where they have been naive.
“Our private polls last year had seen us go up from 1% to 10% and that was before we won the European elections.
“I think we have a real chance of up to 10,000 votes and then there is going to be a tie between four candidates, its’ going to be real neck and neck.”
Clarence Mitchell, Conservative candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Ukip are as deluded as they are unrealistic.
“They will not be polling anything like that.
“This seat is a classic three-way party marginal and a vote for Ukip is a wasted vote.
“The Conservatives are the only party capable of giving Brighton Pavilion voters the chance to decide on our future relationship in Europe with a guaranteed referendum on EU membership by 2017.
“Ukip has hardly been mentioned on the doorstep, I have never seen one single Ukip flier, canvasser or deliverer.
“Last time round they polled something like 1.8% and if they increase that, they will have done well.”
The countdown to this year’s knife-edge election is underway and The Argus will be keeping you at the cutting edge in the run down to May 7.
Sussex seats will play a key role in deciding the future make-up of the national government and we will be following every twist and turn in what is set to be an exciting final five weeks of campaigning.
In Brighton and Hove, we have three constituencies that were all decided by less than 2,000 votes each last time round and could be even tighter this year.
Elsewhere in the county there are MPs fighting for their political lives to hold on to seats they won in 2010.
Even in the county’s safer seats, we will see a changing of the guard with long-standing Horsham MP Francis Maude and former Government ministers Charles Hendry and Greg Barker stepping down.
Fresh blood should invigorate these campaigns and new MPs will be keen to show their worth.
The big parties are ploughing their resources into marginal Sussex seats knowing every constituency counts in the battle for Number 10, and candidates in winnable Sussex seats will receive support from party big hitters.
We have already had the chancellor tossing pizzas this week and a minister stepping up to the cricket strip but prepare for many more.
A home secretary down at the beach, a coalition minister in Coalition nightclub or a Labour bigwig on the pier – anything is possible.
The rise of the outsider parties such as the Green Party and Ukip will be the unknown factor when we head to the polls – can they turn their self-styled surges into parliamentary gains?
And how resilient can the Liberal Democrats prove when all around them are predicting their voters will leave in droves.
All these questions and more might not even be answered by May 7 and the country could be waking up to uncertainty One thing is for certain, with so much at stake – there is certainly no cause for apathy.
