Polls show Liberal Democrats can win South Suffolk

11.23.50am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Apr 2005

South Suffolk is highlighted in gold as one of the Liberal Democrats' winnable seats

A new independent opinion poll has shown that Liberal Democrat candidate Kathy Pollard can win the South Suffolk seat.

The poll, which was conducted by independent pollsters ICM last week, asked: "If you thought that the Liberal Democrats could win in your constituency would you vote for them, not change your vote, or switch to another party?" Analysis of the results showed that the % of the votes would be as follows:

Liberal Democrat 39

Labour 31

Conservative 26

The result, according to a computer analysis by the Liberal Democrats, could mean victory for Kathy Pollard in South Suffolk. Mrs Pollard said, "This agrees with our canvass returns which have shown a massive amount of support coming across from both former Labour and former Conservative supporters."

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy; "This goes to show when people think the Liberal Democrats can win, the Liberal Democrats do win. In South Suffolk that would mean victory for Kathy Pollard. The Liberal Democrats are the real alternative in this election, and this poll shows that if everybody in South Suffolk who supports the Liberal Democrats' positive plans for Britain voted for us we could win here."

Baroness Williams, a former Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords said, "It is already clear that Labour is out of the race in South Suffolk. The Iraq war, and general disillusionment with Labour's shift to the right, means that we are now poised to make a major gain. I would strongly urge former Labour voters and those who are undecided to vote for Kathy Pollard if they want to see change for the better in South Suffolk."