Eastleigh voters ‘less likely to run from Ukip canvassers’

 
Casting vote: Lib-Dem candidate Mike Thornton arrives at his polling station in Eastleigh with wife Petra
Ross Lydall @RossLydall28 February 2013
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Voters in Eastleigh today admitted the result was too close to call as they headed for the polls to vote in the by-election.

About half of those who spoke to the Evening Standard at the Eastleigh Masonic Centre polling station said they thought voters would abandon the Lib-Dems — with all agreeing that Ukip stood a chance of a shock victory.

But many of the 70 voters who braved the cold in the first two hours of voting believed that Nick Clegg’s party still had victory in its sights because of strong local support.

Musician Lachlan Horne and nurse matron wife Allison, both 45, said they intended to return to Labour after years of tactical voting for the Lib-Dems to keep out the Tories.

Mr Horne said he wanted to punish the Lib-Dems for aligning with the Tories and for backing student tuition fees. The couple expected the Lib-Dems to win but said a Ukip victory was not impossible. “I wouldn’t be surprised,” Mr Horne said. “At the end of the day, modern politics is about spinning a line.”

Jo Brown, 37, a software engineer, said she would abandon the Lib-Dems “because of the Coalition”. She said: “I have always been a Labour voter but I have been happy to vote tactically for the Lib-Dems here, but that has changed.”

Sally Thorne said she was going to abandon the Lib-Dems because the economy was “in such dire straits”. Her children needed jobs and her husband had to move to Salisbury to find work.

She intended to back Ukip and said others were doing the same. “I have seen people going up to Ukip instead of avoiding them, whereas you see the other politicians and people run,” she said.

Janet Blackwood, on her way to work at Cash Converters, said she would chose the Lib-Dems. “I’m voting for the party that has done the best for Eastleigh,” she said.

This was done despite her distaste for disgraced former MP Chris Huhne. “He deigned to shake my hand once and the look on his face was ‘You should be honoured’,” Ms Blackwood said. But she added: “It’s going to be very close between the Lib-Dems and Ukip. They have been more active than any other party, but not in your face.”

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