The Conservatives are on course to be wiped off the Merseyside map at the next General Election, according to a new poll.
Merseyside is known as a Labour stronghold, but since 2017 the Conservatives have held one Parliamentary seat in Southport. Tory MP Damien Moore retained his Southport seat in 2019.
But with the Conservatives plummeting in the opinion polls under new Prime Minister Liz Truss, it looks like Labour are in good shape to take the seat for the first time in history and make it a clean sweep of all Parliamentary seats in the region.
READ MORE: DWP Cost of Living payment dates from now to Christmas
A new poll by Survation on behalf of campaign group 38 Degrees gives the Labour Party a 55% current share of the vote in Southport, with the Conservatives on 31% and the Liberal Democrats - who held the seat between 1997 and 2017 - way back on just 8%.
If Keir Starmer is to become the next Prime Minister then taking a marginal seat from the Tories like Southport will be seen as an absolute must. He will be keen to retain and even grow such a polling lead in Southport in the lead up to the next General Election.
The polling from 38 Degrees also offers a powerful insight into the fears faced by many on Merseyside by the current cost of living and the chaos that has followed the government's shock budget announcements.
In Liverpool Walton, the country's most deprived constituency, 50% of people are scared that they could lose their homes in the next year. This is the highest of any constituency in the country.
A huge 80% of people in the Liverpool Walton also say they’re worried they won’t be able to pay their energy bills within 12 months, while 56% fear they won’t be able to pay their mortgage.
The polling also found that 44% of people in Knowsley, and over 40% of people in the constituencies of Liverpool Wavertree, Liverpool Walton and Liverpool West Derby fear having to turn to a foodbank.
Over in Birkenhead, an area of Wirral that has high levels of deprivation, 73% of people fear they won’t be able to pay their mortgage or rent and in Liverpool Riverside 43% are scared they won’t be able to remortgage their home or get a new mortgage.
The research was conducted using a statistical technique called multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP) - which was used by Survation to predict the results of the 2019 election with a 94.3% accuracy rate. It is the first such poll to be published since Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was forced into a screeching u-turn over his hugely controversial plans to cut the top rate of tax.
Matthew McGregor, CEO at 38 Degrees, said: “The cost of living crisis is rapidly turning into a cost of living catastrophe, which these figures show families across Merseyside risk being amongst the most hard hit in the whole country.
“Throughout Merseyside many people will be terrified about what the year ahead looks like - and it’s no surprise. Many households are already turning to foodbanks to feed their children, are unable to pay their bills and or even facing homelessness - and these are all very real fears for many more. Liz Truss says her £43bn in unfunded tax cuts will ‘grow the pie', but ordinary people already have less food to put on their tables, and it’s going to get even worse.
"The fact that half of households in one Liverpool constituency fear homelessness in the next year shows the scale of the economic turmoil ordinary families are now facing. Unless the disastrous mini-budget is ripped up and with a proper plan to rescue struggling families and our ailing public services, the only growth Liz Truss will see is in the number of voters who want her out of No10."
READ MORE:
Man dies after fall from third floor window at flats
