Tories kick off election campaign

Tories kick off election campaign

Duncan Smith is credited with organising the party at local level

The Conservatives are set to contest more seats in the coming 1 May local elections than either of the other two main parties.

The Tories are running 8,708 candidates - that is 83.6% of the total 10,418 seats up for grabs, according to local government spokesman Eric Pickles.

He described this as a record level for the Tories which meant they would be fighting around 2,000 more seats than either Labour or the Lib Dems.

Is the quality of Tory candidates really so poor

Ed Davey
Lib Dem spokesman

Sources at Conservative Central Office believe the party may have won around 200 councils seats without a single vote being cast.

Party officials, as well as leading polling experts, believe the Tories are set to win a record number of uncontested council seats this year.

Most of the contested seats are likely to be in Tory hands already.

At Fenland District Council in Cambridgeshire, the party is almost guaranteed to keep control.

It is contesting all 40 seats, Labour 14 and the Liberal Democrats just three.

Fenland's deputy returning officer, Norman Eighteen, says he has never known anything like it in his 30 years with the council.

Quantity not quality?

Deputy leader of the Commons Ben Bradshaw on Thursday told MPs that all parties sometimes found it difficult to attract candidates in some areas.

And Lib Dem local government spokesman Ed Davey contrasted the Tories' 8,000 plus candidates to their officials saying they expected to gain only 30 seats.

He said: "Is the quality of Tory candidates really so poor?"

Mr Davey asked how many of the Conservative candidates were long-standing party members and how many had been attracted by recent advertisements for candidates.

'Best ever'

On Wednesday, Mr Pickles said: "It is clear that fewer and fewer Labour Party members are prepared to stand up and defend the policies of this government.

"Latest indications suggest that Labour will fight about 65% of the 10,418 seats up for election in England.

"This is more than 1,500 fewer seats than they fought four years ago, when most of these seats were last up for election, and less than the Conservative Party managed in 1995 at our local government nadir.

"By contrast, Conservative candidates will contest 8,708, or 83.6%, of the seats.

"This is our best ever performance for these seats and shows how Iain Duncan Smith's strengthening of the party organisation is yielding dividends."

Green Party

Mr Pickles acknowledged his party faced a tough fight on the ground although he added that it was "heartening" that so many people were prepared to run.

Mr Pickles added that the number of candidates being fielded by the Lib Dems gave the lie to their claim to be the "effective opposition".

When the same seats were up for election four years ago, Labour candidates stood in 77.9% of them and Tories in 77.7%, Mr Pickles added.

As well as the mainstream parties there will be a number of smaller parties and independents running in the May poll.

The Green Party is hoping to field more candidates than ever before with a spokesman suggesting there would be 1,079 running.

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is putting up 380 candidates.

The far-right British National Party claims to be fielding 219 candidates for English council wards.

And a spokesman for the Socialist Alliance said his party would be running in around 150 council wards.