Boris on for a hat-trick of wins in Labour Red Wall heartlands today as ‘vaccine boost’ helps Tories to 10 point lead
BORIS Johnson is set for a hat-trick of wins in the Red Wall areas that were once Labour strongholds as the Tories enjoy a 10 point poll lead.
The Tories are set to win the Hartlepool by-election – the first time they will have held the seat – and are also on track to two key mayoral races in the West Midlands and Tees Valley.
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A win for the Conservatives in Hartlepool would be the first time the seat has not been held by Labour since the it came into being 38 years ago, as polls also show the PM enjoying a vaccine bounce.
“Super Thursday” will see will see millions of voters go to the polls for the first time in two years – after they were postponed due to Covid.
Internal polling reportedly shows that just 40 per cent of previous Labour voters in Hartlepool are going to vote for it tomorrow.
One recent survey shows the Tories are set to smash another brick in the former Red Wall with a massive 17-point victory.
The Prime Minister, who was campaigning in Stourbridge in the West Midlands looked to calm talk of the Tories snatching Hartlepool
He said it would be a “very tough fight” in a seat that “hasn’t been Conservative since its inception”.
“It’s a very tough set of elections. I think when we stood last time for many of these council seats we were at a particularly high watermark, and we’ll be fighting for absolutely every vote.”
Other surveys show West Midlands and Tees Valley mayors Andy Street and Ben Houchen are on course to hold their seats for the Tories.
A YouGov poll for The Times in the run-up to the elections put Conservatives nationally on 43 per cent and Labour on 33 per cent.
It also revealed nearly nine in ten voters believed the government had handled the vaccine rollout well
The study – conducted on Tuesday and Wednesday – found 51 per cent of those who thought Boris Johnson deserves the credit for that.
The poll found Johnson was more popular than Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, with 40 per cent of people having a favourable view of the prime minister, against 31 per cent for the Labour leader.
Sir Keir was asked on a campaign visit to Pontefract in west Yorkshire whether he might have to rethink his leadership approach if the results are poor.
“Well, look, I took over the Labour Party after the worst general election result since 1935,” he said.
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“We’ve got to rebuild into the next general election – that is the task in hand.”
Ballots will be cast in every part of Britain, with elections for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and London Assembly, also taking place.
More than 5,000 council seats in England will also be contested, along with 13 mayoralties and 39 police and crime commissioner positions.