GINA MILLER: Don’t bother with tactical voting in Southport, Tories are on course to win

Veteran Southport journalist Martin Hovden writes: Pro-Remain businesswoman Gina Miller has launched a tactical voting website to stop the Pro-Brexit Conservative Party winning a majority – but is telling Southport residents not to bother voting tactically as the resort is a “safe” Tory seat.

And she predicts Liberal Democrat John Wright will beat Labour’s Liz Savage to second place.

Launching the Remain United site, Mrs Miller said she wants to stop Prime Minister Boris Johnson winning a majority so he can’t have his Brexit Bill approved in the House of Commons.

She explained: “Utilising modern, expert polling techniques and specifically commissioned research, this 100% data-driven site aims to assist voters wishing to vote tactically to make informed decisions and to do so to best effect.”

This is what her website – which has the motto Keep Calm and Vote Smart – says about Southport: “No tactical voting recommendation as it is considered a safe Conservative seat, with the Liberal Democrats likely in second place.”

This is Remain United’s predicted vote share in Southport:

CONSERVATIVES 47%

LIB DEMS 28%

LABOUR 24%

The prediction includes yesterdays’ announcement that Brexit Party candidate Darcy Iveson-Berkeley is not standing in Southport and is urging residents to support Tory Damien Moore. And UKIP has also decided not to stand in Southport, and is urging their supporters to vote Tory.

Mrs Miller said there are 51 seats in the UK where she is advising people to vote tactically – none are in Merseyside or West Lancashire, so we’re on course for No Change in any of our local seats on election night, Thursday 12 December.

These are the 2017 results in Southport:

CONSERVATIVE 18,541 (38.66%)

LABOUR 15,627 (32.59%)

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT 12,661 (26.40%)

UKIP 1,127 (2.35%)

HEALTH WARNING: Several tactical voting apps have been launched in recent weeks – with different predictions for the election result.

Last week I immediately apologised after mistakenly saying Gina Miller had launched the tactical.vote app. I’m happy to confirm that she is founder of the Remain United website, mentioned in today’s story.