Caroline Lucas MEP

A poll of Britain's marginal constituencies carried out by YouGov predicts that Green Party leader, Caroline Lucas will take the Brighton Pavilion seat in the coming general election.
 
The poll predicts the Conservatives will form the next government with a majority of 70 seats. Last year's equivalent poll, however, predicted a Conservative majority of 146 - so the poll indicates a major drop in support for the Conservatives in marginal seats during the last year.
 
The Lib Dems could currently expect to win 55 seats. This is higher than last year's prediction of 44, but would still represent a major loss compared to the 63 seats the Lib Dems currently hold. This suggests the Lib Dems' popularity in marginal seats continues to fluctuate but is still low, and they could currently expect to lose one in eight of their seats in parliament.
 
Caroline Lucas's campaign director Paul Steedman said:
"A lot of people have been predicting a possible Green win in Brighton Pavilion - not least during the Labour conference here last week  - but this is the first major poll to unequivocally predict a win for Caroline, so obviously it's very encouraging.
 
"Of course there's a lot of work to do between now and then to put Caroline's victory beyond doubt, but Caroline is an exceptional candidate and the Greens have outpolled everyone else in Brighton and Hove in every election since 2005, so we're determined to pull out all the stops and clinch it."

Nancy Platts, the Labour candidate for Pavilion, said:
"The Greens predicted they would win the seat in 2005, but they finished third, behind the Tories.  Labour has a majority of over 5,000, notionally 6,500 with boundary changes, so I remain confident that Labour can hold Brighton Pavilion.
 
"People take a lot of factors into consideration when voting.  I live in Brighton and I want to be a good constituency MP representing the interests of Brighton, just like David Lepper who has been an excellent Labour MP for Brighton Pavilion for over 12 years.
 
"The next Government will be either Labour or Conservative and this will be the choice facing voters when the General Election is called."

Leader of the Lib Dem group on Brighton Council, Cllr Paul Elgood, said:
"The real story here is the Lib Dem post conference bounce knocking Labour into third place in the polls, which saw us up at 25 per cent for the first time in this Parliament.

"The other parties can't ignore the impact of the Lib Dems when faced with such a significant rise of support in the run up to the General Election. The public like our message of political change from Nick Clegg and economic sanity from Vince Cable."