Urban vote: who is winning the battle for the cities?

Date: 26/04/2010

Roger Mortimore Ipsos MORI

Tony Travers London School of Economics

Jim Hancock Northern Columnist for the Municipal Journal & former BBC NW Political Editor

& Dermot Finch Centre for Cities 

The battle to win over the UK's cities is not yet decided. So what might the vote look like across our cities? Will Labour hold onto its urban bases of core support? Do Northern cities trust the Tories to help them into economic recovery? Will the Lib Dems build on their strong support at council level? What are the hot issues which will swing urban voters between now and May 6?

We launched our analysis, based on polling by Ipsos MORI, of voting intentions in a selection of England's cities on 26 April. Claire Maugham (Deputy Chief Executive, Centre for Cities) presented the main findings - her presentation is available to download

Roger Mortimore then gave the broader context of this piece of research by looking at how the political parties have fared in major cities, buoyant cities and struggling cities from 1992 right up to the most recent polls.

The general election will fall on the same day as local elections in major urban areas - Tony Travers discussed the impact this could have on the outcome and the importance of local politics in building up a power base behind constituency MPs. 

And Jim Hancock gave the view from the North West on what he thinks the key issues are in this election campaign:

Read the full report at www.centreforcities.org/urbanvote