Labour's MPs 'could lose seats'

The website predicts Redditch MP Jacqui Smith could lose her seat

Home Secretary and Redditch MP Jacqui Smith could be among high-profile Labour casualties if a general election was called now, analysts predict.

Analysis website Electoral Calculus, which bases its predictions on national opinion polls, said Labour could lose half of its MPs in the West Midlands.

The statistics showed the party would also suffer defeats in heartlands such as Birmingham, Walsall and Coventry.

A Labour Party spokesman said it did not comment on polls.

Analysts have said they believed the recent economic downturn was contributing to voters' disillusionment with the government.

According to the website, four of Birmingham's Labour-held constituencies - Edgbaston, Hall Green, Northfield and Selly Oak - would become Conservative gains.

It also shows that Coventry North West and Coventry South would switch from Labour to Conservative, while Walsall North and Walsall South would also be taken over by the Tories.

'Tough economic times'

The website's predictions for Ms Smith's constituency of Redditch show the Tories could win it with a majority of 17.54%.

Across the whole of Coventry and Warwickshire, the West Midlands area, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Gloucestershire it shows half of Labour's seats could be lost.

Professor Mick Temple, of Staffordshire University, said it would be tough for the party to keep the seats it had won in the 2005 election.

He said: "The problem for Labour in the West Midlands is they hold more seats than anybody else but those seats are incredibly marginal.

"The Conservatives have been tipped to take 24 seats from Labour on current poll ratings."

The party will begin its annual conference in Manchester this weekend.

A West Midlands Labour spokesman said: "We don't comment on polls, but what we are concentrating on is helping people through these tough economic times in a fair way."

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Professor Mick Temple spoke about Labour's position in the West Midlands