WITH less than a week to go until the general and council elections, the hopeful candidates are making every remaining day count – but canvassing to get the public’s vote is no easy task. NEIL VOWLES and CAITLIN WEBB report from the campaign trail...

CANDIDATES for both parliamentary and local elections are hitting the streets for up to ten hours a day in their last push for glory...

They are having to put in the hard miles and prepare for the occasional unflattering comparison to Hitler.

And with more floating voters than ever, knocking on those extra few doors every day might just make the difference.

Canvassers have been pounding the streets and collecting data since last summer but that has stepped up since the official start of the election campaign at the end of March.

Up to 60 volunteers step out each day in support of their party candidate – praying the dark clouds stay away for another day.

Graham Cox, Conservative candidate for Hove, said he had been door knocking up to ten hours a day and lost three quarters of a stone from all the exercise.

He has even taken to wearing a baseball cap to protect his scalp from sunburn.

He said he carefully coordinates which streets he targets and at what time of the day so he is most likely to reach retired residents and those who are of working age.

Emotions also run high during elections and candidates of all parties have to endure the odd insult.

Mr Cox has had to scrub offensive words from his campaign office window and has seen his posters defaced.

He said: “I have developed a thick skin. One resident told me they would rather vote for Hitler than vote for me.

“We can’t change some people’s minds but there are a big number of those who are undecided.”

His Labour rival for Hove, Peter Kyle, claims he has now spoken to the majority of the constituency’s 70,000-plus residents.

His campaign team of 50 volunteers carry out a leaflet drop from 7.30am every day and finish at about 8pm.

They have been carrying out this routine seven days a week since Christmas.

Mr Kyle carried a pedometer for his selection campaign in 2013 and calculated he walked 429 miles in three months. For the parliamentary battle, he has been eating 4,500 calories a day so as not to lose weight – although he has still shed nearly nine pounds.

He said: “It’s been the biggest listening exercise ever outside of a census.

“I don’t have an ounce of expectation from my volunteers who give up a lie-in with their partners, shopping, watching the football for the campaign – I am incredibly grateful.

“The biggest surprise has been how fun it has been. I am genuinely enjoying it – being around people is fun.” With no current councillors in Brighton and Hove, and facing a battle to be the city’s third, fourth or even fifth party, you may think it could feel like a futile gesture for The Liberal Democrats.

Chris Bowers, the party’s candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said: “Although I am very much fighting this campaign to win it, I have to recognise that there is a good chance that we won’t.

“So basically we are putting leaflets out in a few target areas; we are looking to canvas in areas where if people decide not to vote for me they might vote for the Liberal Democrat council candidates.”

Ukip party members told The Argus their candidates had faced intimidation at hustings events and sabotage on the campaign front from anti-fascist protesters. Nigel Carter, the party’s Brighton Pavilion candidate, suggested his party might be a victim of other parties’ campaigning.

He said: “If I wanted to know where our opponents were canvassing, I could turn up and pretend to be a journalist and then get a whole load of information that would help us focus our canvassing where our opponents are so we can undo the damage they’ve done.

“It’s a difficult question to ask in the middle of a boxing match, which way you are going to punch next?”

Conservative candidate for Brighton Kemptown Simon Kirby, who said he walked 300 miles in April, said there were more undecided voters in this election than in 2010.

He said: “It’s been an enjoyable campaign. So far I’ve not been bitten by any dogs or tripped down any steps. “No one makes you do the job. I chose this and it’s a very special thing to be an MP. It’s a very useful thing for all parties to find out the opinions of 90,000 people.”

Duncan Davies, a Green student from Nottingham University, was raised in a family of Labour Party members but came to Brighton as part of the Young Greens’ National Action Day.

The 22-year-old said: “We are campaigning around the country and I chose to come to Brighton. It is very important that we save Caroline Lucas’s seat.”

Dave Hill, MP candidate for Hove from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, has also taken to campaigning in unorthodox ways, inlcuding an old-fashioned ploy of driving through George Street in a van talking through a PA system.

He said: “We are fighting for the public services, fighting for a party to represent the working class, fighting against austerity.”

 

READ THE ARGUS FOR THE BEST ELECTION COVERAGE

THE ARGUS will have the most exhaustive, informative and exciting reporting on the battle for the South Coast.

We intend to give our newspaper readers and online users up to the minute news and views as the General Election hots up. The coverage will include: l Detailed analysis of all 16 constituencies in our area. The runners and riders and the big issues on the doorsteps.

• Political expert Professor Ivor Gaber, from the University of Sussex, will be on hand for in-depth analysis.

• We will also have reporters at every count on the big night, filing up-to-the-minute news and, of course, the all-important results. The Argus will be the only place for the definitive story of what happened and why.