Farmer vote could be important
FARMERS HAVE an important role to play in this year’s election because of where they live.
About three-quarters of the UK’s most marginal constituencies in the country are based in areas which can be classed as relatively rural.
There are 98 UK constituencies where the sitting MP has a majority of fewer than 3500 and of these 76% are in rural areas.
FW estimates that there are at least 10 marginal constituencies in Scotland and Northern Ireland which can be classified as being rural.
Barney Holbeche, the NFU’s head of parliamentary affairs, said the union had also identified 65 seats in England and Wales which it had classed as being rural in nature.
Of the 65, it had also identified 22 seats which are held with a majority of fewer than 1000.
One organisation taking a keen interest in the future of rural marginal seats is Vote-OK, an independent campaigning group established in the wake of the Hunting Bill.
Vote-OK (www.vote-ok.co.uk) is encouraging its supporters to offer assistance to pro-hunting candidates in marginal constituencies, if they are standing against an MP who consistently voted for a ban on hunting.
The organisation is the brainchild of Charles Mann, one of the men behind the early Countryside Marches, and until recently in charge of the Countryside Alliance Action Office.