Blair hit by Lib Dem poll surge

[oostevo]

"A massive Liberal Democrat surge last night took the seat of Leicester South and stopped only inches short of taking Labour's once rock solid seat of Birmingham Hodge Hill.

The party retained the seat with a majority of 460, but the swing to the Liberal Democrats was more than 27 %, rivalling the best byelection swings for Charles Kennedy's party, including Brent East last year.

The Liberal Democrats also triumphed in the Leicester South by-election, leapfrogging over the Tories from third to first place.

...


Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat byelection mastermind, pronounced: "This shows in real elections we are now overtaking the Conservatives, and in many many seats, we are now the true challengers to Labour.

"Tony Blair has now lost the trust of the British people. Our vote is going to go up sharply at the election." Privately, the Liberal Democrats think they can push their MP count from 54 to as many as 80.

The byelections, held in the week of the spending review and the highly critical Butler report, confirm Mr Blair has daunting battle ahead to re-establish trust before a general election widely expected next Spring. He will be relieved that the protest vote is not turning to the Conservatives.
"

[Moderator]

1. Locking - Duplicate

This is a duplicate, and your link doesn't work.

Here for other discussion: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x688971