Conservative Morale Raised By Poll

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 18 September 1959, Page 11

Conservative Morale Raised By Poll

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, September 16. Conservative morale for the General Election on October 8 was raised today by a public opinion poll estimate that the Government has now established a 6 per cent, lead over Labour in 50 narrow-majority constituencies throughout Britain.

This compared with a 3 per eent. lead in a similar pool last month, and a 1.8 per cent, lead in the same constituencies at the 1955 General Election.

The poll, published by the Conservative “Daily Telegraph,” said the improvement in the Government's showing since August had been registered at the expense of both Labour and Liberal Parties. Labour’s prospective vote had fallen from 40 to 39 per cent., and Liberal’s from 10 to 8 per cent Many Government adherents consider the position in the marginal constituencies may be the biggest challenge to the Government’s bid for a third successive term of power.

The Liberal Party—which is putting forward 230 candidates, 75 per cent of them in Conservative constituencies —is expected to intervene between Conservative and Labour in many of the marginal contests. This vote splitting could, in some cases, decisively affect the result. As electors awaited the publication on Friday of Labour’s manifesto, the Prime Minister (Mr Macmillan), whose election statement on the theme “Prosperity and Peace” was published last week, announced plans for a personal “whistle stop” campaign starting next Tuesday. He will fire his first campaigning shots in the great northern city of Manchester, and will then travel south through the English Counties to Birmingham, and as far as Swansea, in Wales. After a break from September 25 to 28, he will travel to Scotland and then cover areas in northern and central England. A tour of parts of South London and Kent, and another of mid-east England, are also included in his plans.