West Midlands race neck and neck, says top polling expert

LABOUR is in “deep trouble” in the West Midlands mayor election, Britain’s most respected polling expert has said.

Professor John Curtice said the West Midlands mayoralty was a 50/50 battle between Labour and the Conservatives – even though Labour should be favourites to win, based on previous elections in the region.

And he predicted that losing in the West Midlands would be “embarrassing and difficult” for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Voters in Birmingham, Solihull, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell, Wolverhampton, Coventry and Solihull go to the polls on May 4 to elect the first ever West Midlands mayor.

Labour candidate Siôn Simon, an MEP, and Conservative Andy Street, former managing director of John Lewis, are seen as the frontrunners.

In a presentation in central London, Prof Curtice said that a four per cent national swing in favour of the Tories since the 2015 general election meant that the West Midlands race was likely to be neck and neck.

And he said the region “is probably the result where Jeremy Corbyn has most to worry about,” website Politics Home reports.

Prof Curtice, profesor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, added: “If they were to fail to pick up the West Midlands that probably would be somewhat embarrassing and difficult for Jeremy Corbyn.”

After the presentation,the professor added: “If the Labour party polls are at all correct they are in deep political trouble.

“Labour losing the West Midlands in a sense would simply be a confirmation of the story that the national opinion polls – and to a fair degree local government by-elections and indeed parliamentary by-elections – have been telling us, which is that this is an opposition that is losing ground rather than gaining ground.”