Major national newspaper campaign calls for East Dunbartonshire to vote Lib Dem to "dump Blair"

2.07.41pm GMT Fri 18th Mar 2005

A major national newspaper campaign organised by peace campaigners is calling on voters in East Dunbartonshire to vote Liberal Democrat.

The StrategicVoter website is urging East Dunbartonshire residents to "vote with a kiss" by backing Jo Swinson.

The organisers behind websites DumpBlair (www.dumpblair.co.uk) and StrategicVoter (www.strategicvoter.org.uk) have taken out a full page advert in the Independent, to tie in with Saturday's anti-war demonstration in London. They intend to take adverts out in other newspapers in the run up to the General Election.

In a special page dedicated to the hotly contested East Dunbartonshire constituency, StrategicVoter urges voters to "Vote for the best-placed candidate from an anti-war party, which in this seat means LibDem." The Liberal Democrats need just a 3.1% swing from Labour to win the constituency.

Another anti-Iraq war website, the satirically titled BackingBlair (www.backingblair.co.uk) is similarly urging East Dunbartonshire to vote Lib Dem.

Liberal Democrat candidate for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson said: "Labour has badly underestimated the anger people feel towards Tony Blair for misleading the people about our reasons for going to war with Iraq. Talking to local voters on the doorsteps these past two weeks, it is clear that Tony Blair's panic visit to the constituency to back his candidate backfired badly.

"The clear message from these national campaigns is that in East Dunbartonshire, if you want to dump Blair, vote Liberal Democrat."

According to the BBC, the notional 2001 result in the new East Dunbartonshire constituency was: Labour 13,792; Lib Dem 11,191; Tory 9,290; SNP 6,099; SSP 1,006.

Related Links:

Strategic Voter website

Backing Blair website