A Nottinghamshire MP says it is "pointless" trying to predict the next election as one forecaster currently says just one of the county's constituencies will be voting Conservative. Data compiled by the UK Polling Report website says at the next general election, the Conservative Party will lose all of its Nottinghamshire seats except Newark.
UK Polling Report is a website that pulls together surveys and polling news from across the country to make political predictions. It was founded in 2005 and describes itself as being "expressly non-partisan."
If the polling report's website is correct, it would mean the Conservatives losing seats such as Bassetlaw, which it won at the 2019 election for the first time in nearly 100 years. The website predicts all the seats lost would be won by Labour in a reversal of the 'Blue Wall' phenomenon in 2019 which saw historic Labour seats such as Ashfield turning to the Tories.
Read more: Couple 'determined' as they step in to save Nottinghamshire village's only pub
It would also mean the loss of a seat for Ben Bradley, whose 2017 victory in the historically Labour town of Mansfield foreshadowed events in many other areas of the country two years later. But Mr Bradley says that he is not paying attention to polls about the next election.
He said: "It could well be two years until the next election, so to be honest it's pretty pointless trying to predict where things will be. As the last six months has shown, things in politics can turn upside down in a matter of days, never mind two years.
"The Conservatives dropped to 17/18% in the polls in the Spring of 2019, before winning a huge majority in December, just six months later. So I'm not going to make predictions or assumptions for two years' time."
All of those MPs predicted to lose their seats were contacted for comment, but only Mr Bradley responded at the time of writing. Nottinghamshire is made up of eleven parliamentary constituencies, three of which are already represented by the Labour Party.
All of Nottinghamshire's Labour MPs represent parts of Nottingham but the UK Polling Report website says that the party would end up with 10 MPs in the county at the next election. The only Conservative MP remaining would be Robert Jenrick, the MP for Newark.
It would also mean that the Conservative Party would lose Rushcliffe, a seat held by the former Chancellor Ken Clarke and which the party has held at every election since 1970. The next general election is currently expected to take place in May 2024.
READ NEXT:
- New shop owner leaves well-paid corporate job to start pet store
- Nottingham charity worker arrived at shop to find intruders inside
- Woman's anger after moving into council bungalow that was almost 'derelict'
- The iconic fish tank that used to brighten up Nottingham's Victoria Centre
- Car overturns in crash that closed Nottinghamshire bypass
