ELECTION 2010: Labour support holding up, Tories believe

Published: 30 April, 2010

THE VIEW from the Tory camp in Islington South is that the Labour vote is still strong.
Conservative candidates door-knocking in St Mary’s and St Peter’s wards say the Nick Clegg effect has not done the local Lib Dems as much good as they would like to think.
Islington Conservatives leader Richard Bunting said: “The Labour vote seems to be holding up.”
At the last general election, Islington South was a close-fought battle between Labour’s Emily Thornberry and Lib Dem Bridget Fox, who lost by 484 votes. Both are standing again. The Tories trailed by more than 6,000 votes.
But Mr Bunting warned: “From our canvassing it’s not a two-horse race. It’s more complex than that and I’m not sure of the impact the Greens will have.”
The Conservatives are contesting every ward in the council elections but are desperate to secure a foothold in St Mary’s and St Peter’s.
Their candidates in­clude 19-year-old Victoria Lim, who is standing in St Mary’s ward, Horseshoe Inn landlady Pauline Tucker (Clerk­enwell), Camden Passage antiques dealer Yvette Pathare and Holloway prison warder Frances Wright, who are both contesting St Peter’s ward.
Mr Bunting said his party had been damaged by leaflets quoting a former Tory prospective candidate urging people to vote Lib Dem. He said: “It has had an effect on us because some people who were Conservative were thinking of voting Lib Dem and we’ve had to convince them to come back.”
The Tories received a boost this week when actress Brooke Kinsella, sister of teenager Ben, who was murdered in Islington in 2008, backed the party’s crime policies. Under a Conservative government, Ms Kinsella would sit on a panel deciding how to distribute grants to voluntary groups.
But her parents, Debbie and George, have thrown their backing behind the Lib Dems.
Mrs Kinsella said: “Rather than just talking tough, the Liberal Democrats really have been on residents’ side in fighting crime and making us all feel safer.”