Voters finally go to polls in seat hit by candidate death

VOTERS in North Yorkshire will finally cast their ballot today as polling takes place in the final seat of the General Election.

Acting Labour leader Harriet Harman was on the campaign trail in Thirsk and Malton yesterday, where polling was delayed by the death of one of the candidates during the main General Election campaign.

Conservative Anne McIntosh – a shadow Minister before the election when she was MP for the now-disappeared seat of Vale of York – is hot favourite for the new seat, which is the first test of political opinion since the coalition Government was formed.

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Tory Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat leader, have both stayed away from the campaign despite insisting their parties would campaign as usual.

Yesterday Ms Harman described the coalition Government as a "cut and paste job" as she backed Labour candidate Jonathan Roberts, and told the Yorkshire Post the party was picking up support from Tory and Lib Dem voters disillusioned by the coalition.

She said: "A lot of Lib Dems are thinking again and some of the Tories are thinking again because they think the Tories have thrown away some of their policies."

Ms Harman added: "I think it is very much a novel arrangement and I think the people who are wondering what they are going to come up with, first and foremost, are the people on their own backbenches who are absolutely perplexed by the whole arrangement. Particularly because there doesn't seem to be that much in common in the Conservative manifesto, which they just got elected on, compared to the Lib Dem manifesto, which they just got elected on."

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But Ms McIntosh insisted the response to the coalition was positive, and said the poll was an opportunity for voters to show anger at "13 years of Labour neglect" on rural issues. The Labour government did not understand their needs, she said.

Lib Dem candidate Howard Keal said the party's MPs would prove to be a "moderating and constraining" influence on the Conservatives.

The Conservatives enjoy a large notional majority in the seat, with Labour needing a swing of more than 14 per cent to oust them and the Lib Dems requiring a 16 per cent-plus switch.

Toby Horton is standing for Ukip after the party's previous candidate John Boakes died suddenly.