Jo Swinson welcomes General Election campaign kick-off

11.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 5th Apr 2005

Jo Swinson needs just 2,601 more votes to beat Tony Blair's man.

East Dunbartonshire Liberal Democrat candidate Jo Swinson has welcomed Tony Blair's announcement today for a 5 May General Election.

Jo said, "People in East Dunbartonshire are fed up with Labour taking them for granted. They know the Liberal Democrats work hard locally, and more and more people are telling me they'll be voting Lib Dem this time.

"With the Telegraph yesterday reporting a 5% swing from Labour to the Lib Dems, I am confident that here in East Dunbartonshire we will give Tony Blair a run for his money.

"Local people have a simple choice in this election: a vote for the Liberal Democrats and our commitment to quality local public services, fairer tax and keeping our promises or discredited New Labour and it's spin and neglect. A vote for the Tories or SNP won't change a thing in this constituency."

The Daily Telegraph reported a YouGov poll this Monday (4 April) in which in Scotland Labour were down 8% from 2001, the Lib Dems up 3%, the Tories up 2% and the SNP up 1%. Based on the BBC's notional results, the Liberal Democrats would win East Dunbartonshire comfortably with that swing.