The Liberal Democrats are the leading challengers to the Conservatives in the new Farnham Bordon constituency, contrary to another misleading claim from the local Labour Party in the Herald last week that they are best placed to beat the Conservatives when a General Election is called.

Three major national forecasts (Nowcast, Electoral Calculus and YouGov) all put the Lib Dems ahead of Labour in Farnham Bordon.  Two of the three put the Lib Dems as winners over the Conservatives – and the YouGov poll puts the LibDems at 37 per cent, over twice the 16 per cent for Labour.

We do not take these numbers or how people vote for granted, but this information is not in any way ‘dodgy… without real research’.

If we wake up after the election to find that the Conservatives have won Farnham Bordon with one-third of the vote, then it is likely to be because too many non-Conservative  voters, egged on by Farnham and Bordon Labour, have not voted for the Liberal Democrats.

The Liberal Democrats believe that Proportional Representation is necessary for Parliament to properly represent the people. South West Surrey Labour Party agree with us too: they voted to change the ‘first past the post’ system at the Labour Party Conference in 2022.

Unfortunately the Labour Party leadership and Keir Starmer ignored their calls and will no doubt continue to do so if YouGov’s forecast of Labour winning 385 seats (59 per cent of the total) from a 39.5 per cent vote share comes to pass. Whilst we have this skewed system it is imperative that voters think tactically about their votes and don’t become distracted by misleading claims.

Stewart Edge

Farnham Liberal Democrats

Beavers Road, Farnham