Election fever grips West as gloves are off in voting war

wdnews@bepp.co.uk

The gloves were off in the final days of election campaigning with increasing acrimony over the voting referendum dominating the agenda.

Senior political figures were on the campaign trail across the West, including Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Shadow Work and Pensions Minister Liam Byrne.

But the growing split between coalition Government partners the Tories and Liberal Democrats over the referendum was threatening to overshadow the local elections on the same day.

Seats are up for grabs in 279 English local authorities on May 5, including 33 in the South West with a total of 3,212,357 voters.

They include Bath & North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Cotswold, East Dorset, Forest of Dean, Mendip, North Devon, North Dorset, North Somerset, Poole, Sedgemoor, South Gloucestershire, South Somerset, Taunton Deane, Tewkesbury, West Dorset and West Somerset, where all the councillors are up for re-election.

Meanwhile a third of seats are being contested in Bristol, Gloucester, Purbeck, Stroud, Swindon and Weymouth & Portland.

Yesterday Lib Dem leader Mr Clegg was in Bristol to meet members of the creative, new media and technology industries at the Watershed in Bristol.

He was then visiting Cirencester for a question and answer session with members of the public at Cirencester College’s Fosse Way Campus.

Mr Byrne was visiting Swindon to campaign with Labour candidates and activists ahead of the election.

Respected academic Tony Travers, town hall expert at the London School of Economics, said yesterday if the Lib Dems lose councillors next week, the party will face problems at the next General Election.

He told The Times newspaper councillors were the “building blocks” to power – and without them activists become demoralised.

“The most obvious risk to any party, and for the Liberal Democrats in particular, is failing to keep the activist base alive by keeping or gaining council seats,” Mr Travers said.

“Failing to do this will make it much more difficult to fight the next General Election.”

He added: “Having councillors gives the party a focus. People go to meetings. They take responsibility and have a job to do. It means the local party has a reason to exist – there is no question about their value in winning Parliamentary seats.”

However, the war of words between the Tories and Lib Dems over scrapping then traditional first-past-the-post system of electing MPs became increasingly bitter.