Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Poll putting Labour ahead is rubbished by the other parties
Brazier slams left-wing activists
An opinion poll published this week claims the race to become Canterbury and Whitstable’s next MP is closer than it has ever been.
On Monday Yougov gave Rosie Duffield a two point-lead over Conservative Sir Julian Brazier as she bids to become the constituency’s first ever Labour MP in today’s general election.
But the poll has been rubbished by opponents who claim it lacks “statistical credibility” and is based on “flawed rhetoric”.
Ms Duffield is seeking to overturn the near-10,000 majority Sir Julian polled at the last election in 2015 and saw her campaign galvanised by the visit of Labour heavyweight Emily Thornberry to Canterbury on Friday.
Ms Duffield says she is taken aback by the polling data and the support her Rosie4mp campaign is receiving publicly.
“Winning this election is actually looking doable,” she told the Gazette.
“What’s really good is that people are coming over from other parties. We have Lib Dems saying that they will switch their vote to me, which is really good.
“And now they’re talking about it being neck and neck between Labour and the Conservatives. That is amazing. So on this election day I would say that if you don’t like what this Conservative government is doing then lend me your vote. A vote for Labour is a vote for change.”
On Monday Yougov showed Labour on 43% in Canterbury and Whitsatble and the Conservatives on 41%. The Lib Dems were estimated at 14% and the Green Party just 2%.
The research firm described the constituency race as a “toss-up”, but bookmaker Paddy Power is offering odds on a Sir Julian victory of 1/80. Labour and the Lib Dems are at 25/1 while the Greens Sir Julian Brazier has laid into left-wing activists who barracked him at a political debate – accusing them of being “grounded in a sick mindset”.
Two weeks ago the Conservative, who is bidding for an eighth election victory in Canterbury and Whitstable today, faced sustained heckling at the Canterbury Christ Church University hustings.
He believes it came from a section of the audience which had turned up deliberately to barrack opponents.
Sir Julian said: “What has happened is that some on the left have abandoned the principle that debate involves the exchange and testing of ideas and instead are resorting to simply trying to howl down the voices of anyone they are 250/1.
Sir Julian says polling data has been wrong in the past and insists many Conservative voters are quiet about their politics.
He said: “In every election I’ve fought, I’ve refused to make a prediction about the result, but I am getting a lot of support on the doorstep including from people who have never before voted Conservative. In the last two elections, the Conservatives have received more votes than the disagree with. This unhealthy climate is grounded in a sick mindset in which anyone with a different political view is wicked.
“So, in their world view, opposition to uncontrolled immigration makes someone a racist. Seeking to control runaway public spending and borrowing stems, they believe, from wanting to destroy public services.”
The Christ Church hustings saw the Conservative deputy chairman Neil Baker ejected after he twice loudly interrupted Labour’s candidate Rosie Duffield during her opening statement.
Although Sir Julian was also jeered while he spoke, no one else was asked to leave the Old Sessions House lecture theatre in Longport. polls suggested.
“I have had election posters ripped down and vandalised. These sort of tactics of intimidation don’t work and do not play well in the public mind.
“A lot of quiet people are certain about the way they vote, but don’t want the hassle that comes with publicly saying that they are Conservatives.”
Lib Dem candidate James Flanagan urged voters not to be taken in by the Yougov poll and says