Campaign tone starts to sour in Pudsey

Jamie Hanley is on his knees looking for votes. He's also looking for a plastic toy in a sandpit. Welcome to Pudsey, where every vote is so vital that the candidates spent a recent afternoon talking to mothers at a toddler group, while their offspring played around them.

"This is just like being at home," grins Mr Hanley, who has a toddler of his own. He has played up his family background as a father of two born and raised in the West Yorkshire constituency, with a love of Leeds United, the Rhinos rugby league team and Tetley's bitter.

Stuart Andrew, the incumbent Conservative, grew up in Wales but has lived in the constituency for 15 years and served as a councillor.

Polls suggest a dead heat and there are signs the campaign tone is souring. Mr Hanley on Friday reported on Twitter sightings of a man in a motorcycle helmet removing Labour placards and replacing them with Conservative ones. Mr Andrew says Labour has "bussed in" activists.

Mr Andrew has given residents a six-point pledge. One is to protect the greenbelt, while others focus on job creation, with unemployment halving since 2010, and defend the cuts.

"Every Labour government has cost us a fortune. We have to get our house in order. It's just like my mum having to stretch the family budget," he told the Financial Times in his crowded office in Horsforth.

Sandra Knowles, a pensioner, shopping in Farsley, says her husband agrees. "He has always voted Labour but he has changed. He says we'll be worse off and he doesn't like Ed Miliband."

Mr Hanley has received campaign donations from Lord Oakeshott, the former Liberal Democrat peer, and says the NHS and squeezed wages are the biggest issues for voters. He said the result was tight. "The third parties are being squeezed," he said.

Ryk Downes, the Lib Dem candidate, laments Lord Oakeshott's move and says people do not understand how his party had restrained the Tories in government. "We still have councillors here and a loyal support," he said.

Gemma Connolly, a teacher, said: "My husband is a higher-rate taxpayer so we will be better off with the Conservatives."

Mr Andrew says the Scottish National party - the main weapon in the Conservative campaign - rarely comes up on the doorstep. "I did have one old lady say, 'I want to stop that Scottish woman'," he said.

Back at the toddler group in Guiseley, a shortage of school places in Leeds is the biggest issue. The council wants to allow thousands more homes to be built in the area.

Julie Byrne, 36, a local government worker, said she was from a Tory-supporting family but had decided to back Labour. "I thought it was a job for life but there is not much security now," she said.

Karen Horwood, a university lecturer who organised the event, said she would vote Labour to fight rising inequality. "Do you care about yourself or do you care about everybody?"

Caroline Worsley is torn. A mother of two, she cannot imagine going back to nursing because of the mounting stress. So she has set up a physiotherapy business she can fit around her children, nudging her towards the Conservatives.

"I voted Green last time. It is so close here and it is so important. I just don't know which way to go."

© The Financial Times Limited 2015. All rights reserved.
FT and Financial Times are trademarks of the Financial Times Ltd.
Not to be redistributed, copied or modified in any way.
Euro2day.gr is solely responsible for providing this translation and the Financial Times Limited does not accept any liability for the accuracy or quality of the translation